GoodReads is site for readers and authors alike.  It is a place to share books you are reading, books you’ve read and books that you want to read.  Your home page on GoodReads is equivalent to your Facebook news feed, in a way.  But instead of random status updates, you are seeing only updates on reading progress, reviews and new books to be discovered.  You’ll find out which books seem to be “hot”, who added a certain book to their to-read list and who just finished another book.  Then you get to read what they think.  You can also compare books that you have read to books that your GoodReads friend has read.  There are a bunch of little book-related features like this.  And once you start on it, it becomes really hard to step away from the site.  Especially for book lovers.

I can recall being a little obsessed with MySpace when it first erupted into mainstream usage.  And then I remember moving onto Facebook.  I still use Facebook.  But I don’t obsess over it like I do with GoodReads.

I will sit for hours (seriously) and pore over my to-read list and examine the lists of others.  I do not know why I find this site so powerfully addictive but I do know that it has broadened my reading landscape in a wonderful way.  I’m finding and reading books that I probably never would have known about, and it is through my GoodReads’ friends updates.  And I get to interact with other people who love books just as much as I do.

Seriously – try to talk to someone you barely know in the real world about a book you recently read, one that you are super excited about.  Perhaps your hair stylist or a coworker.  You’ll get a whole bunch of “uh-huhs” as their eyes glaze over, and while you ramble on about the high points of the main character or the details comprising a new world, they are silently plotting ways to run away from you.  Not so in the world of GoodReads.  Your avid love for the written word will finally be appreciated.  That’s why I love it.

As an author, reading is my favorite pastime.  You might think that an author’s favorite pastime should be writing.  And maybe you’re right.  Maybe it should be writing.  But not for me.  I would spend all day reading, if I could.  I don’t know what that says about me as author, but I don’t really care either.  I love to read and I will never apologize for it.

On that note, GoodReads is great for authors too.  Not only do I get to feed my to-read list, I can also interact with people who have read my book or plan to.  They can contact me and I have been able to set up giveaways through GoodReads which has created a lot of stir about the book, simply because the giveaways tend to create a month-long viral buzz.  It is a wonderful feature!

They give you a GoodReads Author Profile:  R.S. Carter on GoodReads

And each book has its own page:  Days of Love and Blood on GoodReads

Still, I prefer using GoodReads to find more books to read rather than promote my own.  It feeds my addiction.  It is where I can connect with other like-minded book addicts and it is where I feel normal.

Are you a GoodReads addict?