Do you list every book you've read in Goodreads or other sites?

[John F]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Yeah, everything's a degree. And I don't understand people who do something by several more degrees than I do. Which, basically, is almost all other humans.

I attribute it to different strokes for different folks. It may not be my cup of tea, but I can (usually) understand.

[j.p.s]

MR does not try to control which posts I read, and as far as I know, does not sell information about me to others.

[graycyn]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Hmm. I don't think people who use social media (any social media, at that, not only book sites) or like goals and challenges are somehow less proper readers than I am ; it's just that their thinking is so alien to me I'll never understand it. I absolutely detest social media, in-depth book discussions, goals and challenges, but if it's something someone else loves, more power to them. It's no skin off my nose, and I don't think I'm better than them.

This.

It was a friend who got me to track on Goodreads for a year. She enjoyed her tracking, I detested it.

Just differences in what we each wanted out of our reading. She tried to turn me on to audiobooks. She loved them, I didn't. She could absorb the content by listening while doing other things like chores, I could not.

I'm not sorry I gave audiobooks a try, I did enjoy hearing a book read. Now, I sometimes do a chapter or two of a familiar book as an audiobook at night before falling asleep. That's a pleasure. But trying to devour a new book as audiobook is not fun for me.

I don't see tracking, book clubs, social discussion of books, reading goals, or challenges as bad or in any way inferior means of enjoying reading, I simply see them as activities that I personally am not into.

Like TV. Some of my husband's family was visiting and one asked me what TV shows I liked. And I responded that I rarely watched TV now. And there was this big silence, then, "What do you do instead?"
"I read."

Another BIG silence.

"You seriously mean you don't watch TV?"
"Well, I watched the Olympics opening ceremony and some of the competitions."
"But that was a few months ago!"
"Well, I don't watch much TV."

Dang, they made me feel like I was some kind of weird abnormal ALIEN for not watching TV!

I don't feel I'm better than they are for reading instead of watching TV, it's just what floats my boat. Sometimes I wish I did know what shows are popular, and undoubtedly, I'm missing out on some good shows here and there. But my eyes tire easier from watching TV than they do from reading.

When it comes to tracking, I rather admire those who are organized and can keep track of their reading. As Sirtel said, "More power to them." But I just have never been able to develop the habit.

[Sirtel]

↑ ↑ ↑

Ditto for audiobooks and TV.

That I personally don't understand or cannot relate to other folks' preferences doesn't mean I consider myself better than them (as someone put it, "a rose in a sea of shit" ). Nope. I do sometimes have a feeling I'm on the wrong planet, though.

[maddz]

I'm trying to get into audiobooks, but I can't concentrate on plot if I'm doing something else. I can play music while working, that's not a problem, but not an audiobook; I've tried. I won't play them while driving either - concentrating on the road is necessary. The other issue I've run into is accents; I find it really jarring to have an obvious US accent when reading a very British novel.

Re book clubs and social reading, I don't like that much either. It's too reminiscent of school when you had to read a specific book, rather than I fancy a bit of SFF or a historical mystery or whatever. I sort of track my reading by reviews, but they are very much a case of did I enjoy this book, did something irritate me and so on.

As with others, I watch very little TV; usually I'll catch the TV news or a late afternoon game show when visiting Paul's mother, but I don't actually sit down and watch anything except the occasional DVD. The last time we had the TV on at our house was for watching Dr Who earlier this year. I'll read or play a computer game instead.

[graycyn]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

↑ ↑ ↑

Ditto for audiobooks and TV.

That I personally don't understand or cannot relate to other folks' preferences doesn't mean I consider myself better than them (as someone put it, "a rose in a sea of shit" ). Nope. I do sometimes have a feeling I'm on the wrong planet, though.

I too, often have that feeling!

[SeaBookGuy]

Cozy mysteries are a guilty pleasure, so I rarely record those read. Anything else gets some sort of "review" at Goodreads, as much for me later to realize I've read it as for potential readers.

[DNSB]

I was looking at Goodreads—yes, I am a glutton for punishment—and once again was surprised by the number of books that are not out nor are available for ARC readers yet have multiple reviews. In one case, the third book in a series that the author abandoned close to a decade ago when sales of the second book were disappointing and they abandoned the outline for the third book and yet we have multiple reviews of the book.

Then I made the mistake of looking at the page for The Wind of Winter (A Song of Ice and Fire volume 6). The attached image pretty much says it all. 395 people are currently reading and it has 8007 5 star reviews and 3589 4 star reviews.

[Quoth]

Article on Storygraph.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/20...the-storygraph

Personally I think info about books is one thing, but I think people using a public website (Goodreads, storygraph, bookworm etc) to list what they personally have read is mad. This is an opinion.

[salamanderjuice]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I was looking at Goodreads—yes, I am a glutton for punishment—and once again was surprised by the number of books that are not out nor are available for ARC readers yet have multiple reviews. In one case, the third book in a series that the author abandoned close to a decade ago when sales of the second book were disappointing and they abandoned the outline for the third book and yet we have multiple reviews of the book.

Then I made the mistake of looking at the page for The Wind of Winter (A Song of Ice and Fire volume 6). The attached image pretty much says it all. 395 people are currently reading and it has 8007 5 star reviews and 3589 4 star reviews.

I remember back in the old days filesharing tools and sites would have "early" versions of the next Harry Potter books before release. What they really were some person's random fan fiction of what they thought the next book would be. They definitely weren't 4 or 5 star books though...

I'm not really interested in sites like Goodreads. Don't really get it. I generally remember if I've read something before and I'm not interested in writing reviews or tracking what I've read.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I was looking at Goodreads—yes, I am a glutton for punishment—and once again was surprised by the number of books that are not out nor are available for ARC readers yet have multiple reviews. In one case, the third book in a series that the author abandoned close to a decade ago when sales of the second book were disappointing and they abandoned the outline for the third book and yet we have multiple reviews of the book.

Then I made the mistake of looking at the page for The Wind of Winter (A Song of Ice and Fire volume 6). The attached image pretty much says it all. 395 people are currently reading and it has 8007 5 star reviews and 3589 4 star reviews.

This is why I find Goodreads staff to be worthless. They allow this type of garbage to happen.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by salamanderjuice

I'm not really interested in sites like Goodreads. Don't really get it. I generally remember if I've read something before and I'm not interested in writing reviews or tracking what I've read.

And Calibre is easier than Excel, though looks a bit like a spreadsheet. It can track Kobo status. Or you can do it manually, add notes and easily back it up. Accessible without Internet.

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by Quoth

And Calibre is easier than Excel, though looks a bit like a spreadsheet. It can track Kobo status. Or you can do it manually, add notes and easily back it up. Accessible without Internet.

Yes, but it's an issue when you're at a place when you don't have access to calibre...

[salamanderjuice]

Originally Posted by Quoth

And Calibre is easier than Excel, though looks a bit like a spreadsheet. It can track Kobo status. Or you can do it manually, add notes and easily back it up. Accessible without Internet.

Yeah, I'm aware. That's still too much effort for me even.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

Yes, but it's an issue when you're at a place when you don't have access to calibre...

Runs on a £160 11" Intel ChromeBook* 20G allocated to Linux allows over 60 programs, inc Calibre, LO, Audacity, the GIMP, grysnc, Chromium, Firefox. A 512G SD card formatted ext4 in the slot for all user files. Curiously the ext4 works with the ChromeOS and Android Apps too, though Google omits that from the list of supported formats. I use grsync to update from / to other computers on the LAN (Linux or SMB2 compatible Windows).

Also probably on an ARM one as Calibre is fine on the Raspberry Pi4 too, but that's not so portable and is more expensive by the time you add case, keyboard, display, battery packs etc.

[* A currently supported 2023 model is supported to 2031 and has out of Beta simple Crostini Linux install built in, a minimal Debian 12, though ChromeOS is now Gentoo Linux]