By the way, I had my first game of curling yesterday! We won! And it was fun! And I didn't do as badly as I thought I would LOL. I'm also playing tonight, a different league though. I'll let you all know about my teammates and the games after tonight :) So stay tuned!
As for today, well originally, I had a review planned (not that it's written yet), but something happened this week that made me changed my mind. And instead, here's a discussion post that I've been wanting to write for a long time already. The topic, Goodreads :)
When I have to describe Goodreads to people who are not familiar with it, I basically tell them that Goodreads is Facebook for book lovers LOL. I think the description is quite accurate, no? And as a whole, I like Goodreads. I think it's a very useful tool to keep track of books - what I've read, what I want to read, what others are reading, etc. It's also a source of reviews and opinions and that's good for older books - the ones that were published before blogland existed - and the ones which I've missed the buzz for when they were released because I'm just discovering them. I also admit that a lot of time, I check the overall rating of a book before purchasing it, although I know some of it can be misleading because it depends on taste... and very often, if it doesn't have a rating of at least 4, I'll think twice about it before giving the book a try.What I like most about Goodreads though is that it is convenient. Kind of one place for everything and also, it's quick - a few clicks and voila.
As much as I like Goodreads, there's no denying there is some flaws. This week, we got some changes in Goodreads (which is what prompted this post)... but instead of improving or changing those flaws, they went and changed something that did not need it: the shelves/labels/tags. We got a shinier and bigger button and quite frankly, I personally feel it doesn't fit ^_^; Ah well.
What don't you like in Goodreads and wished it'd be changed/improved?
Here is my list.
1) How the search results are displayed. Before Goodreads, I used to look up for books on bookstores websites. I actually still do, just not as much. One thing I do like about those websites though is how the results are displayed. Okay, not so much how they are displayed, but the fact I can sort through the results quickly. I'd like to be able to sort through the books by year of publication or perhaps alphabetically. I know it can be done on Goodreads, but not directly. Say I'm searching for Victoria Alexander newest book... I'll type Victoria Alexander and then, will get the results of all her books. Then, I'll have to click on one of the books "Victoria Alexander" which will lead me to the author's Goodreads page. Then I'll have to go look for her "distinct works" and finally, I'll be able to sort them out by whatever I want. Well it'd have been nice to have that option right away.
2) Ratings before publication dates. Ugh, I hate those!! It totally skews the ratings :( I understand that some people get an ARC copy and that's fine... However, to see ratings before the book is actually published simply because fans are excited or for whatever reasons, not good! Sigh.
3) Half-star scale. I wish Goodreads would implement half-star scale for the rating. I understand how it'd probably complicate the calculations and so on, also how it'd affect past ratings... but at the same time, I think it'd be a lot more accurate and reflective of our true feelings.
4) The search engine. Okay, this is minor, but it's still annoying. So for the longest time, I thought you couldn't search a book with its title and author's name at the same time. I just (read: a few hours ago, testing for this post) discovered that you could! The trick is when the results appear, click on the "all results" tab instead of "books." My question is why bother with such a tab? I mean, I'm looking for a book... So why would it show in "all results" and not "books"? Just doesn't make sense to me. Is it because it's too specific then? Speaking of specificity, I'd like to still be able to find my book if I make a small mistake... Just saying.
I know I'm not being very original since a lot of these issues have been brought up before... but this begs the question: why hasn't it been addressed yet? So what about you? Do you use Goodreads? What do you like and don't like about it?
