Everything I love about Goodreads

One of my Reading Resolutions for 2013 is to use Goodreads to track my books, maintain a to-read list and connect with others for reading.  I used Goodreads years ago, but switched to Shelfari when I wanted to have a widget on my blog to show what I have been reading.  Over this time, Goodreads came up with that widget I was missing and a lot of other really cool features that make it the best place for book nerds to go!

When I first started my account I was a bit overwhelmed. I didn't want to lose the books I had tracked in Shelfari. I was able to import my list, but 7 of them didn't transfer and I couldn't figure out which ones they were so I got over it and moved on. Then I was amazed by how many different shelves people create in their accounts and had to make a decision.  Am I book nerdish enough to create a shelf for each genre? The Book Whisperer would (and does) so she can easily refer back to it to help students find books, but it's not ultimately my role each day as principal to do so.  I decided to stick with the 3 main shelves you are given--read, currently reading, and to-read. I added 2 additional shelves: Professional ed books and Books I read with my sons.  We'll see in 2013 if I change my mind and decide to add other shelves...you can do that whenever you want!

When it comes to reading I am notorious for having several books going at one time. Ok, not at one moment in time, but you know what I mean...a book at my home desk, a book at my office desk, a book on my kindle, then quickly purchase a book from amazon that someone tweeted out for a book study.  Whenever I see a book title recommended by someone I respect greatly on twitter I go out and get it immediately and start reading. It's time to get control of myself and utilize the to-read function on Goodreads.  I love how you can continue to add titles and then easily change the order they appear in.  

A few other features I've already been enjoying about Goodreads...

*You can enter your goal # of books to read for 2013 and will keep track of your progress as you update your books read.  I've added this as a widget on the right side of my blog.  Here's what it looks like:

*When I am logged in I see the updates of any of my Goodreads friends. This lets me see whatever they have just added to their bookshelves or To-Read lists.  I've already found myself adding books to my To-Read list thanks to my friends.  Here's a small screenshot of what this looks like:

*I am just beginning to explore the Groups and Discussions feature.  In discussions you can see what others have written on books and you can add to the discussion.  You can also join a group that looks similar to any other type of message board that people subscribe to.  I was invited to join the following group:

The only issue I have encountered with Goodreads is that when I first set up my account, I used the option to start an account using my Twitter account. Makes sense, since I planned to tweet about it anyways, right?  Unfortunately, Goodreads hasn't fully figured this feature out yet, because I can't update all of my profile or change my password. When I try, I get this message:

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It won't take my Twitter password  and it only gives an option to confirm with Facebook...even though they let me use Twitter to start my account! Very confusing. You can also not login to the iPad app using Goodreads if you started your account through Twitter. I'm hoping it gets fixed soon, but I'm still using it now just going through the browser. 

If you're wondering, "how on Earth do you have time for this?"  I spent an hour or two (off and on) exploring Goodreads on New Year's Eve to find all this stuff. Now each day I just check in before bed to update my current reading progress and if I have time, see what other people's updates are. 

There are so many great features to Goodreads that I'm still learning about. Please let me know if you have something to share and help me out!