8 Reasons Why You Definitely Should Be Using Goodreads

8 Reasons Why You Definitely Should Be Using Goodreads

Goodreads is one of my favorite social media sites (and YES, it is completely and totally a social media!). I love using it to connect with other book lovers from around the world and share what we’re reading. If you’re not using Goodreads, I highly recommend that you try it! Here’s why:

1) You can connect with fellow book lovers

It’s like Twitter- for books! Well. Kind of. You get to flail about books with people who share your interests, and it’s just so. much. fun.

2) You can keep track of your reading progress

One of my favorite things about the site is its Reading Challenge. At the beginning of the year, you can set the number of books you want to read, and Goodreads will keep track of it for you. It’ll even (sometimes not-so) helpfully let you know how you’re doing- aka, how far you are behind, as is often the case. Thanks, Goodreads!

But besides the challenge, it keeps track of all the books you mark as read, which is super useful.

3) It brings visitors to your blog

At the end of your review, you can link back to your blog, saying, “for more reviews like this, check out my blog at [blah]!” This will bring more traffic to your blog, which is ALWAYS a good thing.

4) You can find new books to read

So many books on my TBR are from Goodreads browsing- which is both a curse, and a blessing. I’ve discovered so many new books because of it! Some have even become favorites of mine, all thanks to Goodreads.

5) You can look back on books you read years ago

I love seeing my shelf of books read in 2014 and looking at what I read and what I rated them. You can bet that if I read that same book now, my rating would DEFINITELY change, but it’s really interesting to look at!

6) You can (try to) keep your overwhelming TBR pile under control

Goodreads has this great feature where you can add books to your “to-read” shelf, and then further separate it into categories that help you- “priority”, “fantasy”, “ARC”, “owned”, etc. Its so helpful for keeping track of books you want to read, or like I mentioned above, books you want to buy!

7) Because of Goodreads, you don’t have to post every review to your blog

I hate having all my posts be reviews. HATE IT. You may have noticed that this blog does not have that many reviews. Well. That’s why. With Goodreads, I can write my reviews on there, and you can still SEE my thoughts on a book without me cluttering my blog with my least favorite posts to write!

8) You can look at reviews of people you trust before buying a book 

Honestly, I almost NEVER buy a book without checking Goodreads first. If most of my friends have hated it? Nope. Not going to waste my time with that. 

Sure, it COULD become a new favorite of mine…but more likely, it would have been a complete waste of time. And money. 

Do you use Goodreads? Do you like it? How does it help you? Are any of the reasons I listed WHY you love it? If you have a Goodreads, you can add me here! Let’s be friends!

Thanks for reading!

Ava