85 Reasons to Read

I'm a member of the social networking group, Goodreads.com.  It's a group devoted to--you guessed it--reading.  Similar to other social network sites like Facebook and MySpace, you make friends with people, send messages, share ideas, etc.  But the focus of this site is books--books, books, and more books.

I heard about Goodreads from a cashier at Borders named Angela.  She suggest the website because I guess I was talking her ear off while I was holding up the register line, and the thought I would enjoy the site.

When you first log on, you are asked to look at  a list of, say, 100 books.  Have you read them? If so, how would you rate it?  If not, would you like to read it?  The books include all genres--they ask you about books from The DaVinci Code to Dracula, from Pride and Prejudice to The Princess Bride--there's something for everybody.

Eventually you come up with a booklist--books you have read in the past and books you plan to read.  You can look at other people's lists for ideas.  Eventually when you collect friends, you can compare your taste in books.  If you love to read, this is Mecca.

Goodreads is my current not-so-guilty pleasure.  I get ideas from friends for new books, look at booklists from other people, take quizzes, write reviews.  I've amassed a list of over 400 books.  I've read at least 350 of those, and the others are on my "to-read" list.  My homepage includes a list of books I am currently reading--usually that's at least 3 books since I keep one at school, a few at home, and one in my backpack.  Sometimes my friends list books that look interesting and I add those to my booklist.  I don't feel so bad about my addiction to this social network because, hey, it's all about books so it can't be that bad.

At the beginning of January, Goodreads posted the "2011 Goodreads Challenge."  You commit to reading a certain number of books during the year.  When I signed up the first week of January, the average Goodreads member had committed to 85 books.  Well, I figured I should keep with the community, so I committed to 85 books.  Last year, I read 34 books, so 85 is pretty ambitious.    As more and more readers made their commitments, however, the average number kept dropping.  Now it is down to 74.  That's okay--I'm pretty sure I'll make my goal, and probably even beat it.

In the meantime, I am going to write a review for each book I read.  At this writing I have already 9 books, so I have to catch up a bit.  But so far it's been quite a ride.  And away we gooooooo.........