Goodreads Updates

It’s that time of year again … when Goodreads puts together its users’ Years in Books! Of course 2017 isn’t over just yet, and I think I’ll finish a few more before 2018 rolls around, but I’d thought now would be a good time to post the link to my 2017 Year in Books.

As you can see, it’s been a pretty solid year in terms of reading. I think there’s even been a few books that I forgot to track on Goodreads. The official count currently stands at 16 books, just shy of 6,000 pages. That’s about 500 pages a month! I’m pretty proud of that (even if about a third of these are graphic novels, haha).

In other Goodreads news, I’m moving closer to the point of posting “reviews” on books more consistently. (You may remember my mentioning this a few weeks ago.) But when I do, I expect they’ll look a little different than most (popular) Goodreads reviews.

For one, they’ll be shorter (two paragraphs, max). I also don’t think I’m going to include ratings In my opinion, ratings detract from the main content of review. I’m sure this perspective has been influenced by Kotaku’s video game review system. It’s also loosely similar to Brandon Sanderson’s Goodreads policy (which, like everything else he writes, is brilliantly thought-out and written).

I already have a loose system in place on Tumblr. First, I provide the title, authors, and date finished. The actual review begins with a description (really a sentence fragment) that I feel encapsulates the idea of the book. I then devote a few sentences to describing the plot without giving away too many details, almost treating it like copy from the back cover. Next I talk about some of the more metatextual elements like characterization, voice, or other aspects that stood out to me. Finally, I end with a “Recommended for…” sentence where I suggest what kinds of readers may be particularly interested in it. They may not be very in-depth reviews, but to their credit, they don’t take much more time to absorb than glancing at a rating. Plus, it’s the format I’ve used for years on Tumblr, so I don’t feel a strong sense to change them just yet

In the meantime, I’m still not sure whether reviews will make it to this blog in some fashion or another. I guess we’ll find out in 2018!

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