AMA: Feelings About Goodreads, Writing Books, and Other People Turning 30
Hello,
I’m digging back into the question box1 (if you have something longer or more private feel free to reply to this email. I love meaty q’s). In front of the paywall I’m talking about Goodreads vs. Storygraph and then further down I’m answering questions about:
How I’m getting through the final stretch of book 2 (ed note: lol @ “final stretch”)
Advice for someone turning 30
I had a lot to say, so let’s dive right in:
Q: Do we like Goodreads? Should we switch to Storygraph, etc. or just accept its limits.
First of all, I can’t answer for “we” I can only answer for me. But feel free to chime into the comments because I have a feeling this topic is divisive.
My secret toxic trait is that as a reader I actually love Goodreads. I find comfort in its ugly brown UI and janky app. I love seeing what people from various eras of my life are reading—the girls from my 2012 book club, the random high school friends from that time I must have synced Goodreads with Facebook, the smattering of Bad on Paper listeners I creep on. There’s nothing addictive or slick about Goodreads, which in our current age of social media is oddly refreshing.
Frankly, I’m also far too entrenched in the platform to switch. I’ve been a Goodreads user since July 2011 when I added The Devil Wears Prada, To The Lighthouse, and Twilight among my first 5-star reads (I stand by those ratings). Across all my shelves, I have 1,091 books (815 of which I’ve read and rated). I’ve tested exporting my history to Storygraph, but it uploads wonky and selectively without dates attached. Plus, when I’ve tried syncing my social profiles, the IRL friends whose ratings and recommendations I enjoy following aren’t there.
But if I was just starting to track my reading history today, I’d probably pick Storygraph. In case you didn’t realize, Amazon bought Goodreads in 2013 for a rumored $150M. Since then, there have been no major functionality upgrades, whereas Storygraph is much slicker and feels like it was built with reading geeks (non-derogatory) in mind. You can rate books using quarter stars, mark a book as DNF, and preview content warnings. And the stats they give you about your own reading trends are much more robust.
All that said, I’m actually thinking of stepping away from either platform altogether and switching into full lurker mode heading into 2025. I have complicated feelings about publicly rating books since becoming an author myself and have stopped giving star ratings below 5-stars. So, I mostly just mark books as “read.” I’d be absolutely shattered if I saw an author I loved gave my book a 3-star rating, never mind lower. I vastly prefer reviewing and recommending books here or on the podcast where I can give more nuance and context than a star rating.
Q: What's motivating you to get through the last stages of book #2? Could be emotional or, like, buying yourself the treat you promised you'd get for its release.
Sad but true: I’m nowhere near the final stages of book #2. It’s probably more accurate to say I’m smack dab in the middle of this process at 20 months in.