Why Is Goodreads.com So Popular?

[astrum]

I wouldn't be surprised if it outpaces Amazon & becomes the go-to place for book reviews.


I also find it interesting that there are reviews for obscure books and for books that were written ages ago (which aren't classics or bestsellers).

Why do you suppose that it has gotten so popular? If you use GoodReads, how is it different from other such sites?

[Buh4Bee]

I haven't spent a lot of time on Goodreads, but it's a good site to just browse for books. It's a good place to find out what is out there or interesting in a wide range of genres. I find I do the same thing at the library. Sites like Litnet may have have a more narrow selection of book reviews. Litnet offers a great listing of books, but they tend to be classics or critically acclaimed books. This is at least what I have found.

[sandy14]

[QUOTE=astrum;1249680]I wouldn't be surprised if it outpaces Amazon & becomes the go-to place for book reviews. [QUOTE]


Amazon owns Goodreads. Considering Amazon also owns Abebooks (in the UK at least) my guess is that the Goodreads site will point visitors of the site to Amazon, or one of Amazon's second hand subsidiaries.

I agree that the reviews of Good reads and tools are useful - I have dropped in there from time to time.

[Helga]

I don't use it a lot but I do enjoy reading blogs by authors like Neil Gaiman and others. They also have blogs written by authors that aren't on goodreads. I browse a bit for books there but the main reason I use it is because I like keeping count of what I read, I don't put everything up there but some.

[The Kid]

Actually I disagree that they have reviews for unpopular books. I often go there to look at chess books, but the result is disappointing. Many people rate books using the star ratings, but without a review. This is unhelpful.

I guess the problem is this is sort of a niche interest, and anyone who wants to review chess books will probably do it on a chess website. Understandable, but there are many non-chess books that I have searched that are not reviewed at all either.

[YesNo]

I went there for the first time based on this thread. The initial book lists they used for a rating upon which they calculated their recommendations seemed too similar. Perhaps they needed to do that to get faster recommendations? Perhaps those were the books they wanted to sell? It seemed disappointing.

However, after finding reviews of the book by Norman Cantor I'm reading at the moment giving me a chance to get a quick overview of differing opinions, I can see the value of the site. I wonder if I will try to follow the norm after seeing these reviews.