Online Book Communities

There are many online book communities on today’s internet. Two of the most popular ones are goodreads.com and LibraryThing.com.  

I signed up with goodreads.com first. Using the search function, I loaded 126 of my most recently read books, 26 books that I would like to read, and 1 book that I am currently reading. Goodreads.com has four default “bookshelves” upon which you can place your books: “All”, “Read”, “Currently Reading”, and “Want to Read”. In addition to those four default bookshelves, goodreads.com also gives the option to add additional bookshelves to be named by the user.

Below is a screenshot of my goodreads.com profile page.


Below is a screenshot of my goodreads.com home page. In the upper left area, you can see the book that I was currently reading, Purple Cane Road by James Lee Burke. On the left, below my Currently Reading list, it shows the Reading Challenge in which I have enrolled. Below that are my “WANT TO READ” books. Most of these books are part of a series that I want to finish, or books by authors that I am particularly fond of.   


Below is a screenshot of my “My Books” page. Notice the “Bookshelves” on the left.

 

            After I finished with the goodreads.com website, I went to LibraryThing.com website. I had previously joined this webpage in January of 2022 when I was doing research for library science courses. The first thing I did upon getting to the LibraryThing.com website was to transfer some of my books from goodreads.com into my account in LibraryThing.com. Then I added some more books using the LibraryThing.com search function. After that I designated into which collections to place all of my books. LibraryThing.com calls their “bookshelves” collections. It has six default collections (“Your library”, “Wishlist”, “Currently reading”, “To read”, “Read but unowned”, and “Favorites”) and gives the option to add additional collections. 

Here is a screenshot of my LibraryThing.com home page. 

            Here is a screenshot of my LibraryThing.com Profile page.


            Here is a screenshot of my LibraryThing.com Charts and Graphs page. This is an interesting page. It breaks down the books in the collection into data points and provides infographics for them. The following are screenshots of what is offered under Charts and Graphs.







    Here is a screenshot of some of the books in my collection.


            LibraryThing.com offers an easy way to add books to your collection. 

Here is a screenshot of the “Add books” page.


            Both goodreads.com and LibraryThing.com are excellent online book communities. The question as to which of them is better for school-age students is not a simple one to answer. They both offer many attractive options to book-reading communities. One thing to consider is that goodreads.com is a subsidiary of Amazon. Being a subsidiary of Amazon is not a bad thing in and of itself; however, being attached to arguably one of the most massive, overreaching, and powerful companies in the history of the world should be enough to give anyone pause.

            LibraryThing.com, by comparison, is a relatively small and unassuming company that seeks to provide a service to the book-reading public. After consideration, I would have to choose LibraryThing.com to be the first online book community to introduce to school-age students. That being said, after my students are familiar with the workings of LibraryThing.com, I might consider introducing goodread.com to them, as an option for them to consider as an alternative or, preferably, a companion to LibraryThing.com. 

 

References

A home for your books. LibraryThing. (n.d.). https://www.librarything.com/home

Ai-generated books of nonsense are all over Amazon’s bestseller lists. VICE. (2023, June 28). https://www.vice.com/en/article/v7b774/ai-generated-books-of-nonsense-are-all-over-amazons-bestseller-lists

Edwards, B. (2023). Author discovers ai-generated counterfeit books written in her name on Amazon. Ars Technica. https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/08/author-discovers-ai-generated-counterfeit-books-written-in-her-name-on-amazon/ 

Friedman, J. (2023). I would rather see my books get pirated than this (or: Why goodreads and Amazon are becoming dumpster fires). Jane Friedman. https://janefriedman.com/i-would-rather-see-my-books-pirated/

McCluskey, M. (2021). Goodreads’ problem with extortion scams and review bombing. Time. https://time.com/6078993/goodreads-review-bombing/ 

O’Donovan, C. (2023). Goodreads was the future of book reviews. then Amazon bought it. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/07/01/amazon-goodreads-elizabeth-gilbert/ 

 

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