Book Paradise! (goodreads.com)

Member Name: ps8sjk

Product:	goodreads.com
Date:	12/04/09 (181 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: very easy to use

Disadvantages: None

This is a fantastic site for bookworms. It is essentially like an online book group and is a place to store your own information, lists and reviews about books so it is also like an online book journal that you can share with others.

I have used the site for a few months now and find it is very easy to navigate your way through and is always quick. It's free to sign up and use and you don't get any annoying adverts pop up either.

To start with this is a good place to list all your books. It is great for those, like me, who have hundreds of books and could do with a system for categorising them and getting yourself organised. I did start to do this but it is a mammoth task and one I just add to every now and then. You can organise your virtual bookshelves however you want to but I have sections for books I have read, my wishlist books and books I own that I haven't yet got round to reading - my To Be Read section. I also try to update the books I am currently reading whenever I can. When you add books, if you want to you can add a quick rating out of 5. If you have more time you can add some notes for yourself or even a long review. This is a great way of storing all your thoughts without having to keep an actual journal.

For me, the best thing about this site is that you can add your friends to it so that you can all share your booklists with each other. This is easy to do - there is a search facility for all of your hotmail contacts and it will tell you if they are already members or you can invite other bookworms to join up. It can be very interesting having a sneak peek through other people's bookshelves - something I am always finding myself doing in real life! You can also compare your bookshelves to theirs - this can be fascinating; it calculates how many books you have in common and even tells you how similar your ratings are. You can also see side-by-side what you have both rated books you have read. Searching through other people's lists and reading their reviews can also be a great way to add to your wish list and you send recommendations to friends if you read anything you know they would like. There is also a page where you can read any current updates from your friends to see if anything new has been added.

Once you have found your way around these parts of the site, I would then recommend you to explore the group section. You can join any group you want to and there are thousands of groups to chose from! Luckily there is an easy search engine you can use to find something in particular, such as a genre of book or an author you like. There are also general book groups, groups which set you particular challenges or specific books to read and then discuss. For instance I am member of 4 groups and although not particularly active in them I do read the reviews and recommendations left on the forums when I feel like I need new ideas to read. The group called 'constant reader' is my favourite. As well as general chat they read one classic and one modern book each month to discuss. I think groups like this are great for people who want to be able to discuss books but don't want to join an actual book group - for whatever reason! You can be as active as you want, although as I tend to read just what I feel like, I find it hard to be as structured as keeping to a schedule but if they ever read a book I have already then I can join in!

There are many other sections in this website as well, It is best to spend an hour or so just looking through the different sections and finding things that interest you. I have found that I enjoy the explore books section - there are always many different lists to browse through such as 'most read books', 'best books of 2008', 'best historical fiction' etc. You can vote in these polls yourself and they are constantly updated. There is also a place to search for favourite quotes about reading, a trivia quiz that is ongoing as people can submit questions to it and there are often competitions to enter as well.

Overall, this is an excellent site for anyone who has an obsession for books or for someone who is looking for ideas of other authors to try.

Summary: A great way to find more information on books