‚Top picks for you‘ by Goodreads

Submitted by Lizardine t3_10kt8p7 in books

So I started using Goodreads, because browsing for new books has become too time-consuming.

I rated 40+ books I read in the past and expexted some real good book recommendations.

However, it only gives me Prince Harry‘s autobiography and a list of Colleen Hoover books. Thanks, but no thanks.

So what is this app really for? Tracking my reading? Seems kinda pointless imo

Edit: Thanks for your replies! I just deleted my account.

I do not want to track my reading or join reading challenges. Not every part of my life has to be tracked and optimized. Reading is my joy and safe space and I want to keep it like that.

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GrudaAplam t1_j5srfph wrote

I take no notice of Goodreads recommendations. I use it for recording my thoughts on the books I have read.

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jefrye t1_j5sp439 wrote

>So what is this app really for?

Different people use it for different things. I've posted before on some of the lesser-known features Goodreads has and how I use the site.

I get most of my recommendations from BookTube, podcasts, and r/suggestmeabook.

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mintbrownie t1_j5vlkcs wrote

Your post is AMAZING!! I came here to say something you covered beautifully...

”Stalk” like-minded readers for recommendations. In a similar vein, if you find a user with similar taste—especially if they have a “favorite books” shelf that’s similar to yours—their profile can be a great source for book recommendations. It’s worth reading some of their reviews, though, to see if they like books for the same reason you do (eg, if I love Daphne du Maurier’s “Rebecca” because of the prose and another reader loves the same book in spite of her descriptive writing style, we might not be a great fit).

That's 100% what I do - particularly for a specific genre. There's someone I found and follow where I pick up all my hick-lit and the like suggestions. She reads several books a week and I know her well enough to know which books are for me. Rarely a miss. Sometimes beyond amazing!

When I see a review that totally clicks with me - I'll start by doing a book comparison with the review writer. That's a pretty straight forward way to see if you have enough in common and which type of books you have in commom.

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Negative-Net-9455 t1_j5t6ouc wrote

It's owned by Amazon so it's essentially a marketing tool to collect, store and sell your data and push whatever the publishers have paid them to promote that month.

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Lizardine OP t1_j5t9cpq wrote

I did not realize that it is owned by Amazon. Thanks for the insight!

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lyonaria t1_j5syugi wrote

What everyone else said. I track the books I've read, use the Book Challenge, see what other people are reading (I've gotten some interesting books that way). But I didn't even realise it could give you suggestions. Haha. Good Reads is owned by Amazon, so it's not surprising you may be getting certain suggestions.

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farseer4 t1_j5ssvig wrote

I use it for keeping track of the books I have and the ones I read, and also my opinions about them.

The recommendations by the site are useless to me, and the opinions of other readers are more hit than miss. Often the most voted ones are full of emoticons and memes, or do not say anything useful about the book but are upvoted because the reviewer is popular or something. A lot of reviewers have not even read the book, and are mad at the writer because of some Twitter controversy or things like that.

Lists are also extremely useless, same as the newsletter.

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SkyOfFallingWater t1_j5t7yjk wrote

You could try The Storygraph. While it can also be used for tracking and challenges, it has really good recommendations in my opinion. If you want them to be based on the books you read, you need to join the plus plan, but there are other ways of discovering new books as well:

Firstly you can fill out your preferences (genre, mood, some keywords, etc.) and you'll get a list of books based on that.

Secondly you can simply pick one of the books you enjoyed and click on "Browse similar books". Often the recommendations are quite good and the platform doesn't only show the popular one's (I've had books recommended with no more than eight ratings).

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Loves-Coconut t1_j616jl6 wrote

I just joined Storygraph and it's so much better than Goodreads

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boxer_dogs_dance t1_j5te0u5 wrote

I have been like a kid in a candy store since discovering reddit book suggestion sites because I can learn what other readers love to read. These include r/historical fiction, r/romancebooks, r/horrorlit, r/fantasy, r/printsf, r/audiobooks.

I also check the staff picks shelf at my local bookstore. Best of the year articles from reputable newspapers. Lists of award winners.

I only use Goodreads to store my I might like to read this book list, because it is convenient to have the linked summary right there when I choose my next book.

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Missy_Pixels t1_j5stwgh wrote

I use it to keep track of what books I've read and save books I think look interesting that I might want to read. Not much else really but I do find their shelf feature useful for organizing books in my to-read list.

I've mostly found their recommendation algorithm to be pretty useless. Though I have heard Storygraph is better on that front.

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InvisibleSpaceVamp t1_j5t1iyj wrote

The recommendations seem to be based on what's currently popular with the people who have the same books you have on their shelves ... not the best way to discover hidden gens.

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PandaReal_1234 t1_j5vws61 wrote

I never use the recommendations module.

Things GoodReads is good for:

  1. Tracking reading progress
  2. Researching books to read and reading others reviews
  3. Reviewing books you read
  4. GIVEAWAYS, GIVEAWAYS, GIVEAWAYS
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Loves-Coconut t1_j616el4 wrote

Goodreads can be helpful, but often the algorithm is just pushing the biggest authors. I'm an author and I am not a fan of Goodreads at all.

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