Goodreads.com by Goodreads.com

The Biggest Book Club in the World!

Easy to join, Goodreads is an online book group that has, according to it’s website, over 90 million members from around the world.

Ever struggled to remember if you’ve read a particular book or not? Can’t remember the title of the book with the main character who had a lisp and went to war and fell in love? Reading as much as I do for my job it’s easy for me to forget what I’ve read! Maybe it’s my age too, but whatever the reason, my Goodreads account has been a brilliant tool for helping to remember the title of a book I sometimes only remember by plot.

Collectively members have added 2.6 billion book titles, not just fiction or in English, and contributed over 90 million book reviews. Many authors belong and give online interviews, answer questions and give snippets of new work.

Another useful feature is being able to create a list of books you want to read, great for those book recommendations from friends or reviews.

But, what I use most with Goodreads are the book lists readers create and the ability to see similar books to a title I am interested in. This is especially good for Childrens and Young Adult fiction which often don’t feature well in other tools like Who Else Writes Like? There are also Readers Advisory groups you can join to keep up with new works from either authors or genres you like and their ‘Best Of’ lists are well worth working through. You can even set yourself a reading challenge each year.

You may not be able to go to meet up with your regular book club at the moment, but you can join in with the largest one in the world! Check it out!

Ed: Try our tutorial on Goodreads in Dunedin Public Libraries' Niche Academy.