Okay, so maybe Goodreads won’t enter the vernacular as a verb the way Google did, but the question still stands—are you a Goodreads user?

I’ve been a “member” since 2008, but it hasn’t been until recently that I’ve really figured out how I want to use it. Back when I first joined the site, I tried to go through and enter all of my books and, for a moment, I think I’d accomplished that. But as I’m constantly adding books to my personal library (especially now that I have a Kindle), and as I check a lot out from the library, I didn’t really know how to keep up with all of that. Plus there was the fact that I wasn’t doing a lot of reading those first few years I was a member. So really, it was just a site to catalog my books, and I didn’t really see the point.

Back in 2011, when I stopped editing for a living and was able to start reading for pleasure again, I started tracking what I was reading to see if I was meeting the annual goals for numbers of books read I was setting at the beginning of each year. Because I’m a visually oriented person and I don’t like the idea of posting reviews on Amazon—there have been far too many issues with them taking down reviews by people who are published authors, and it just felt weird to do it under my own name (as an author) when I didn’t like a book enough to rate it higher than 3-stars—I decided to start tracking on Pinterest. But because of the word-count limit there, I couldn’t always post my full thoughts on what I’d read and why I’d given it the rating I gave it. Plus, other than the few people who might see it when I pinned it, it wasn’t really getting out there. I know that it’s important to make sure that I’m as public as possible with what I’m reading (especially the stuff I really like) to help support the authors whose books I’m reading.

So a few months ago, I went into that unused Goodreads account of mine, cleared it out completely (yes, I deleted the hundreds and hundreds of books I’d spent so much time entering one at a time) and started using it for tracking what I’m actually reading. I’ve noticed that the reviews on GR seem to be a little more in-depth and honest than those I’ve read on Amazon. It also allows me to organize my lists of books the way I want to—and to be able to see my books organized by the categories I’ve set up.

Another great thing about it is the mobile app, which I can access on my iPad and Android phone, which allows me to keep track of not only what I’m reading but my progress and my start/finish dates without having to get onto the computer to do so. And, then, once I post my reviews of what I’ve read, I can go through and see what the people I’m “friends” with thought of it (those who’ve read/reviewed it), as well as others in the “community.” (Oh, and I do still pin it to Pinterest once I’ve posted my review.)

But, other than that, I haven’t really figured out the social aspects of it. I mean, I know how to click over to the page where all of my friends’ updates show up, but I’m not really interested in most of what’s posted there. I’m also frustrated by the notifications (even though they’re just on the site/app and not via email) of invitations, shared quotes, etc., that people send constantly. But it’s made me curious . . .

Do you use Goodreads?

How often do you use it? What do you use it for?

Also, if you use it, share a link to your GR profile page if you’d like to connect. (Mine is linked to the banner at the top of the page.)

Open Book by Dave Dugdale

I’ve been moaning recently about how I’ve been in a reading slump—that I just can’t seem to find anything to read that drew me in or that sounded in the least interesting.

And then I decided to listen to the audiobook of Under the Dome by Stephen King. It was my first experience with one of his books, and it won’t be my last.

I’ll get more into my thoughts on it in a couple of weeks in the reading report on the first Monday of August, but as I listened to the end of it this morning (and I completed a 35-hour audiobook in just three weeks—of course, I did have a 12-hour road trip in there), I realized that one of the things that sucked me into the story and didn’t let me go was the fact that I had no idea how it was going to end.

You see, I’ve been reading romance novels almost exclusively for thirty years, starting at twelve years old with both YA and adult-level books. And in all of those years, one of the things that I enjoyed about romance was knowing how it was going to end: with the two main characters getting together for a happily ever after (HEA). I liked the fact that the “risk” was taken out of reading by knowing that if it was labeled romance, I was going to get my HEA ending. I didn’t know how it would happen, just that it would.

And I think that may be one of the reasons why I’ve been in a reading slump recently. I’ve been reading too many (if that’s possible) romance novels—and most of them are series novels, so it’s the same authors over and over. Which means I’m not only getting the HEA ending, but I’m getting a lot of the same story structures and setups, even with authors who do a good job of varying their character types and conflicts/plots.

However, while I’ve been listening to UtD, I’ve been reading Angelfall, a dystopian/paranormal YA novel featuring a first-person main character ala Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games—which, in itself, removes almost all of the risk of reading the book. You see, with the first person narrator, it makes the possibility of mortal danger to the character extremely unlikely. Especially when it’s the first book in a series. And, thus, the leisurely pace at which I find myself reading it, and the days I’ll go without picking it up.

There have been a lot of articles recently reporting on studies that state readers and movie-goers are okay with knowing the ending and in fact actually seek out spoilers (or read the last pages first).

I’ll admit, there have been times when I’ve done this. Especially with long costume-drama miniseries adapted from certain 19th Century authors’ books. A prime example of this is when Little Dorrit was on PBS several years ago. I was unfamiliar with the story, and I got sucked into the series. But knowing Dickens’s penchant for sometimes killing off main characters before they could have a happy ending, I decided I needed to “spoil” it for myself—i.e., find out how it ended—before investing any more time or emotion into it. I did end up watching the remainder of the series based on what I read in the synopsis of the story on Wikipedia. Conversely, when faced with the decision of whether or not to invest more time in the Game of Thrones books/TV series, I ended up walking away from both once I read the synopses of the books which have already been published—because those “spoilers” turned me off from the story and made me very happy I hadn’t invested more time/emotion in the world of Westeros.

With UtD, I was emotionally drawn in and completely vulnerable to whatever Stephen King wanted to do to me—just like his characters. And just like his characters, I didn’t know how things would end. And once I got to the ending, I was glad I purposely avoided spoilers, even though I was worried about being disappointed or devastated (I wasn’t).

So, now I need to find another audiobook of a novel in which I will put myself into “reading jeopardy”—I’m thinking that this foray outside of romance needs to go on a little while longer, until I get as tired of not knowing the ending as I currently am of always knowing the ending.

Do you prefer to know how a book will end (i.e., that it will have a happy ending or that the case will be solved or the characters rescued) or do you prefer reading stories in which you, along with the characters, have no idea what is going to happen at the end, be it happy or tragic, mellow or melodramatic? Do you ever seek out spoilers?