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Goodreads

I use good reads, mainly to read reviews on books after I read them, sometimes before, if I am thinking about reading one.

P.s.

i like amazon the best for reviews
 
I know many people here use Goodreads to track what they have read and to find new books to add to their TBR lists. Many people also like the large number of book lists you can browse through there. I have been using it for a couple years now and love it, but my biggest complaint was there was no useful recommendations feature. Preferably something that would create its recommendations based on the ratings you gave books you read within specific categories. Well, last month they released just such a recommendations engine.

I have been playing around with it and it seems much more accurate than other ones I have used. But to make it work well you do need to be rating the books you read and make use of your book shelves. You can just use your default “Read” book shelf and it will create your recommendations from all the books you ever read. But I find it more useful to break my shelves up into things like “Urban Fantasy” “Apocalyptic” “Memoirs” and such. It then creates a separate list of recommendations based on each of your book shelves. From the experimenting I have done it won’t recommend books based on ones you have read that you only gave one or two stars to.

It isn’t perfect, but it is pretty useful.
 
I've tried it also and it seems to work very well, cause many of the books it's recomending me are books that I want to read...
 
It also appears to be smart enough to not flood your recommendations with several books from the same series. In the Fantasy recommendations it only lists the first book of each series that it is recommending (assuming I haven't read anything yet from that series). So in my Humor recommendations it isn't flooded with all of the Discworld books. It "knows" I am already familiar with the series since I have already read 4 of them. At least that is what appears to be the case from the recommendations it is giving me. YMMV.
 
Yes, I had noticed that too. And I also noted that it doesn't recommend more than one book from each author per shelf.
 
I am also using it, and have built a pretty massive to-read list from it.

It's too complicated for me to break my books into individual shelves. I just have 3 shelves: read, currently-reading, and to-read
 
That all sounds fabulous, and an excellent reason for me to get back onto Goodreads.

PS: I just discovered that its sneaky tentacles have already found their way into our house and led to book purchases. :eek:
 
Lincoln Rhyme said:
Jesus, do any of you guys believe in library's :banghead6mx:?
Click to expand...

Libraries are great but have their limitations. When I go to a library or a bookstore I just end up blindly browsing, which is fun and can lead to finding great books. But the likelihood of me finding books I will enjoy using something like this is higher.

Though for me, specifically, libraries just aren’t an option. I move around from country to country (usually third world countries) and libraries and decent book stores are not available. I got tired of waiting a month for the books I ordered to make it to me through the diplomatic pouch so I switched to the Kindle and haven’t looked back.
 
^Oh, I see

My library has an online service, where I can browse the whole county's shelves, without stepping a foot in their door. I also place my holds online, and it takes my library 2-3 days to get my books in.
 
Lincoln Rhyme said:
Jesus, do any of you guys believe in library's :banghead6mx:?
Click to expand...

:D Belief, yes. Practicality, no.

The local libraries 98% of the time don't have the books I want to read, and if they do, I've already bought/read said book.

Plus, narrow minded institutions that they are, libraries want the book back. /I know, I know, other patrons/ Once I've read a book I like I want it on my shelf to possibly reread, or at least the ability to refer to it should I so desire to do so. Then there is the R factor. Good insulation. The money saved on heating and cooling bills certainly must pay for some portion of books purchased.....
 
Lincoln Rhyme said:
^Oh, I see

My library has an online service, where I can browse the whole county's shelves, without stepping a foot in their door. I also place my holds online, and it takes my library 2-3 days to get my books in.
Click to expand...

My small town library is part of a state-wide ILL system. I can access the database on my computer and find out in moments if the item I want is available in Kansas. I can also send a link for an item on worldcat.org to my ILL person and ask if they will try to get something that's out of state. I've learned to specify US only...we learned the hard way that we can get items from outside the US. Shipping was twice as much as the cost of buying the book on AmazonUK. I just love how this expands the walls of my little library. They don't HAVE to try to stock everything, yet I can still go in and browse the shelves and find goodies to bring home.
 
Hi Guys,

I have been updating my Goodreads page recently and remembered this thread (I posted in 2009 about lack of recommendations!) and was hoping to add some friends. I have added the people that listed their pages earlier in this thread - hope no one minds. :confused:

Here is my page: Lex (eldog) - Brisbane, Australia (410 books)
 
^Added you back. Anyone from the board is free to add me on Goodreads (just go back a page to find my profile).
 
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