Good Reads+Amazon Wish List=Financial Ruin

There were a few weeks in between semesters where I didn’t have any homework, so naturally I headed to Amazon to catch up on my reading. Since I work in an academic library while going to school, I haven’t been exposed to any popular fiction. You start to ignore titles altogether when all you see are science journals every day. I was quickly overwhelmed by the selection on Amazon. Should I start with bestsellers, YA, or try out some graphic novels? Thanks to the Kindle app on my iPad, I did all of the above in one night. Now I have all these sample chapters filling up my Kindle shelf and I don’t know where to start. It’s time to introduce:

After filling out some basic information, I was given access to my personal account and saw that I have quite a few email and Facebook contacts already using this service. Hm. Thanks for the heads up guys. I’ll let this one slide, because you were probably doing me a favor by withholding this information from a book buying addict. Otherwise, I would have never finished school.

Goodreads is like having a librarian in every genre providing you with book reviews, subject lists and recommendations without leaving your bed, couch or desk. As an online student, this fits into my lifestyle quite nicely. I can only imagine how teachers and librarians are using this in their classrooms. As a K-12 student, I would have loved to see what those in my social network are reading, what’s new and offer personal suggestions. As a librarian there are many possibilities for using this service to improve customer service. Goodreads created a thread in their forum discussing some of these options for librarians.

“Goodreads is considering how best to integrate its content — its shelves, reviews and ratings — with library catalogs. We know that many users of the site are also library patrons, and we feel that high-quality reviews from Goodreads would add a lot to the average library’s online catalog.

We’d love to get some feedback from the librarians on the site as to which programs they’ve used, and which ones they think would work well with Goodreads. We’re specifically interested in hearing your opinions of NoveList, Chilifresh, LibraryThing for Libraries, or any other add-ons that add value. Have any of you worked with those products before? If so, how much did you like them? Would Goodreads content make them better or do you not see a fit?”

If anything, Goodreads has provided another idea for library staff to ponder as they determine how to reach more of their customers. Whether it is used solely or to accompany already existing services, many library customers are already Goodreads participants and would likely appreciate contribution from their library community.

Now that I can browse Goodreads before heading to the bookstore I am excited to get caught up on my reading. Plus, combining this with appropriate use of the Amazon Wish List, I should be able to get the book buying budget back on track