How I Use Goodreads
More than ten years ago (in March of 2007, to be exact), I signed up for a Goodreads account.
And I’ve been faithfully tracking my books there ever since. 
I track every book longer than a picture book that I read either on my own or aloud to my girls (we read such an incredible amount of picture books that it would drown me to try to track them all on Goodreads).
I like being able to go back and remember what I read in a year, what I really loved and how many books I read per year.
I also categorize them by genre and as read-alouds, book club books, audiobooks, or advance copies.
I write the SHORTEST reviews in the world – usually just 5-10 words – and it’s just to act as a little reminder to me how I felt about the book. My real writing is here on Everyday Reading; I don’t have the time to be writing long reviews there.
I’m also truly terrible at marking books as to-read (when I get asked what my system is for keeping track of the books I want to read, my embarrassing answer is “I have no system”) but occasionally remember to mark something there.
I get asked all the time if you guys are allowed to follow me on Goodreads and the answer is absolutely yes!
My Goodreads profile is here and I’d love to have you follow along.
My main caveat is that I am 100% anti-social on Goodreads.
I have all the community interaction I could ever want here on my blog and on Instagram and I don’t have the bandwidth to interact on that platform too.
Goodreads is solely for tracking purposes for me, so you’ll see what books I’m currently reading, how I’ve rated the books I’ve read over the past 13 years, and what I’ve read in various genres and categories, but that’s about it.
Do you use Goodreads? I’d love to hear if you do and how you use it!
If you liked this post about Goodreads, you might like these posts too:
- How to create an Did Not Finish category in Goodreads
- A great alternative to Goodreads for kids and families
- 5 simple ways to keep track of your library books and avoid fines
Photos by Heather Mildenstein
My husband and I started really using goodreads for digital bookmarking when our oldest took a liking to pulling bookmarks from books and now we use it all the time. Track all the books all the time. I also have shelves for the books that either I have read aloud to my kids or that we both have read independently. It’s at least a small snapshot of what they have read.
That’s exactly how I use Goodreads too…and I love seeing people with reading taste similar to mine ( like yours) when I’m looking to see if I should read a book. It doesn’t always influence me but I like to see opinions there. Also, love tracking my yearly goals there.
Your profile is so organized! I’ve been (slowly) tagging the books I’ve read into the year I read them so that I can remember them in the future. I also used to spend a lot of time writing long reviews there, but now I just share a few words like you do.
You don’t rate the books you read? Or can I not see your ratings?
I usually do – I’m not sure why they wouldn’t be showing up for you!
Check out Readerly it’s perfect for those that only want to do short reviews. It’s like a child between bookstagram and Twitter, really enjoying it. It’s currently in beta but I love it’s layout.
Currently invite only, but email me I’ve got invites available.
I love Goodreads. I have 2368 books read on it. I’ve tried to include all the books that I remember that I’ve read. I’ve always read a lot so I’m sure that I’ve missed a lot. I am a retired Teacher Librarian and miss having so many books around. I look forward to seeing what you’re reading. I’m also reading Sacred Struggle. I was so sorry to hear that she had passed.