Tag: community

Well, I Didn’t Know That! #9

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For today’s Well, I Didn’t Know That! feature, I am taking a look at new-to-me features on StoryGraph. If you’re not familiar with the site, it is an independent alternative to the likes of Goodreads. It allows you to track reading progress, organise the books you want to read, and set reading challenges. All of this kind of functionality is already in Goodreads. However, there are differences between the sites. In this Well, I Didn’t Know That! feature most, I intend to explore some of those.

Before I dive in, here is a link to the introduction post for my Well, I Didn’t Know That! series, in case you want to find out more.

Now, let’s go and check out Storygraph’s amazing features!

 

Reading Challenge flexibility

Currently, the Goodreads website only allows you to set a reading goal based on the number of books you aim to finish in a year. Storygraph is slightly different and offers more options for setting a yearly reading goal.

If you want to track your reading based on page count, rather than book count, that option is available to you. The best feature though, especially for audiobook listeners, is that the website can track your reading goal based on time listened. All you have to do is make sure the format of the book is set to audio, and that an option in your settings, records audiobook time in minutes rather than pages. The rest is all done for you!

This is functionality not yet available on Goodreads, and great for audiobook listeners.

 

The Devil’s in the details

Both Goodreads and Storygraph have ways in which to filter down your reading lists. Whether that’s book you’ve read, or books you have on your TBR.

As a veteran Goodreads user, I was surprised to see that Storygraph has a lot more functionality in terms of filtering and sorting books. Each book entry into the site records criteria such as mood, pace, length, format and even content warnings. And even better still, all of these are searchable/usable data points.

If you want to take a look at your bookish stats and see what mood the books you read are, that information is available to you! Here is an example of my stats based on my 2023 reading so far!

 

These fields are also searchable in your reading list section. For example, if you know you wanted to read a faced-paced, mysterious book between 300 and 499 pages long, the website can bring up listings from your reading list based on that criteria. The site is also flexible in that it can bring up entries matching any or all of those criteria! I’ve given just a basic example here, but there is a lot more detail and flexibility in the way in which information about books can be used.

 

Buddy Reads

A feature I haven’t used yet, but would like to be able to use in the future, is Buddy Reads!

Having had a look at the details on the website, you can set up a buddy read with multiple friends and share your thoughts on the book between the group as you go. A really great feature is that comments/spoilers will only be unlocked once your fellow reader has reached the same point at which you submit the comment. Not only is that incentive to keep reading, but this way, you’re not spoiling anything either. You can submit comments/discussion points at your convenience, but not in a way that ruins the other person’s experience.

It is also possible to get recommendations on books to buddy read with a certain group, depending on your individual tastes. This is behind a pay wall, I will disclose. Personally, I don’t pay to access all the features on the site as yet. However, if it continues to improve as I think it will, then I might consider it in future.

 

Upcoming New Feature – Book Club

I also want to make a brief mention of an upcoming feature I discovered when researching for this post. I’m looking forward to trying it for myself. At the bottom of the homepage of StoryGraph, there are details on functionality available on the site. Some of this is much like Goodreads, whereas others are improvements.

The last of these is an upcoming feature – the ability to set up a bookclub, vote on books, and have discussions about them… all on Storygraph. 

If this could be done within a site I already use to track my reading, I would consider this a massive improvement to using a separate site such as Fable. It would also be a great way to reach out to like-minded readers, as the size and popularity of the site will make for a greater community to interact with. 

 

I hope you have enjoyed today’s Well, I Didn’t Know That! post.

Do you use Goodreads, Storygraph, or any other means of logging your reading progress? Do you have any preferences on how you manage your reading?

Let me know in the comments!

 

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Discussion Post: The Benefits of Joining a Book Club

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There are so many benefits to joining a book club… and sharing a handful of these benefits is the purpose of today’s discussion post. A few months ago, I joined an online community and started reading along with Ezeekat’s book club on Fable.

Now more than ever, it is easy to join in! The effect of COVID-19 is that a lot of these previously in-person events went virtual. As someone who lives in a relatively small community, I have been unable to find a reading group locally. However, my brief experience of the online book club I have joined has been an enjoyable one. In this discussion post, I discuss a few of the benefits I have already enjoyed being a part of this group!

 

Accountability to read

One of the perks I don’t necessarily need as much, but will benefit other people greatly, is having accountability to pick up a book. I already read on a regular basis anyway. However, even for somebody who picks up books a lot, having a set read to pick up in a month and a conversation to take part in is motivation to get stuck in.

If you are someone who doesn’t read all that much, then having a deadline or a date in order to submit feedback by, can be the nudge in the right direction! What can be especially useful about platforms like Fable is that a book club host can prompt readers to offer feedback by chapter or section. That way, if you don’t get all the way through the book, you can still have your say. It’s also at your convenience, and however far you get!

At the same time, it’s okay to skip a month. I really wasn’t interested in last month’s book selection. So, I made the decision not to try and force myself through it and discussed that briefly in my March TBR post. And that was fine! There were no repercussions or callouts for making that decision. Ultimately, we want to read because it is something we enjoy… not because it is a chore we must endure.

Not every book will be for you, and there is no shame in choosing not to pick it up.

 

Reading out of comfort zone

Book clubs come in all shapes and sizes. Whether you choose to join one that focuses on a set genre, or even author, or go for something significantly broader, there is one out there for you.

Ultimately, the kind of group you decide to join will affect the book selections you are given. The broader the topic, the more adventurous I would recommend you being with your reading. I have favourite genres, but ultimately, I will pick almost anything up and give it a go. In fact, the main reason I wanted to join a book club is to help me read out of my comfort zone!

The book club I am part of at the moment tends to stick to books with a fantastical element. Readers of my blog will know that fantasy is by far my favourite genre. However, the books chosen (at least so far) often have other elements to the storyline. Some may have sci-fi elements, or a lean more into romance than I would choose to pick up myself.

Just because those are the nature of books being chosen at the moment, that’s not to say that won’t change in future. That is also the beauty of a book club. They can evolve over time… especially depending on the people that make up the group!

 

Community/Bookish Discussion

That leads me on nicely to my final point in this discussion post. There are lots of readers out there, and if you can immerse yourself in a community of like-minded people, and you can’t go far wrong. Especially with the power of going online, you can reach out to far more people than you could ever hope to meet in person.

Everybody who reads a book does so from a unique perspective. Everybody will have their own perception of the events based on who they are, and their experiences. No person, therefore, reads a book in the exact same way. For that reason, it’s great to be able to reach out to those people and discuss their alternate views.

Group size and setting can vary significantly, so I am sure you can find a community that works for you.

 

If you’re an avid reader and/or part of a book club, I’d love to know more! This is a discussion post after all! Do you meet in person, or online? If you aren’t part of a book club yet, is it something you would be interested in?

 

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Well, I Didn’t Know That! #6

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In today’s Well, I Didn’t Know That! post, I take a deeper dive into a website I use several times a week. I do so even without fully using or understanding the functionality available to readers. I’ve decided to discover what more it has to offer!

As you will probably know from my blog by now, I use Goodreads to track my reading. Goodreads is a massive database with a large community of like-minded readers. Yet, this is the kind of functionality that I don’t use all that often. So, if like me, you use Goodreads as a database and not much more, let’s dive into some of the functionality you can make the most of to improve your experience.

News, articles & recommendations

Overview

One of the functionalities I forget about the most is access to bookish news and articles about a variety of topics.

Some recent examples of these articles include recommendations for reading around certain topics (such as Valentine’s Day and Black History Month). There are also articles around topics like best books of the year, anticipated new releases; well, anything you can imagine. If you want to keep an eye on bookish news, then don’t be so quick to overlook Goodreads as a source of scoop. I won’t be any more!

 

Finding These Features – Website

However, you have to know where to look in order to find them. If you are using the web then it is a lot easier.

You can access recent news and articles via links embedded into the homepage. Equally, you can navigate to the browse menu and locate the ‘News and interviews’ page from there.

 

Finding These Features – Mobile App

If you want to locate the same page via the mobile app, click on the Discover tab. At the top of the page, there is a link to the latest post shared. If you click that link, a web browser will open. From there, follow the link to the news and interviews page at the top.

There are also a limited number of small boxes at the top of your homepage (picture above) with links to news articles. However, these are visually unappealing and don’t necessarily indicate where they’re taking you on the website. I would recommend paying attention to them now you know what they are!

 

Community – Groups, Lists & More!

 

Groups – Overview

There are so many community aspects to Goodreads that I just don’t use day today. From making friends and joining like-minded readers in a group, to sharing lists of books with a common theme (and this is very open, you can decide what you like). There are lots of things you can do to share with other readers. You can also interact with other readers and the content they create as well.

Groups are a great way to interact with other readers in a safe environment. Groups are often very well-moderated and vary in topics or themes. If you’re looking for readers of a certain genre, there is absolutely a group for that. If you want to join a catch-up bookclub, there’s a group (or two) for that too!

 

Lists – Overview

The community curated lists are a great way of finding books based on the topic that may not necessarily make it into a mainstream curation article. Particularly if you are a fan of indie, authors, or less mainstream novels, these lists can be a great way of finding new or different reads based on this kind of criteria. For example, I took a look at a few lists that have been created based on favourite and or strong, independent, or smart women. Partly, I wanted to see if this was a thing (and I can assure you it is). But, I also wanted to compare the books in those lists with my future books in the Top Ten Tuesday post I shared yesterday. There are some commonalities, which is great to see. But, more importantly, there are plenty more books that I haven’t yet read.

If you’re looking for recommendations, this can be a great way of finding something new! Having gone out of my way to explore what other functionality Goodreads has to offer, I will be making more of an effort to engage with this content in future.

 

Finding These Features

Finding these features on both the Web and mobile are considerably easier than the previous section. If you are looking for groups, this can be found on the website by Clicking on the community menu, item, and selecting groups. In the app, click on the more tab in the bottom, right screen, and then select groups.

To find lists on the web, click on the browse menu item, and then select lists. If you want to find the same content in the mobile app, they can be located in the bottom of the Discover tab.

 

I hope you have learned something in today’s Well, I Didn’t Know That! post. Did you know about these functions on Goodreads? Do you actively use them?

 

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