Goodreads for Avid Readers

As a small child, I could hardly wait to learn how to read. Everybody in my family loved reading, and still does. It’s a shame that I don’t have enough time for reading (or for writing, which I also love) any more.

Other writers pointed out Goodreads.com to me.

Think of it as a cross between Facebook and Amazon’s customer reviews. Joining is free. People link up with Friends in Goodreads, much like they do in Facebook, post messages for their Friends to see and read messages posted by their Friends.

But the emphasis is on reading. Goodreads is an online reading club where you can tell other readers what you are reading and what you think of it, and where you can discover other good books by seeing what other readers think of the books they have found.

When I lived in the States, it was easy for us to circulate a good book among each other through the mail. Trans-Atlantic postage makes that impractical now. Thanks to Goodreads, my family and friends can still clue each other in about… well, good reads. It’s refreshing to see a venue like this that isn’t simply part of an online store.