Nothing Gets Solved: Talking with Kevin Nguyen
Kevin Nguyen discusses his debut novel, NEW WAVES.
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Posts Tagged: goodreads
Everyday Ferocity: Kathleen Hale’s Kathleen Hale Is a Crazy Stalker
Throughout the collection, Hale speaks with an assured, accessible voice.
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A Spirit Born into a Human Body: Talking with Akwaeke Emezi
Akwaeke Emezi discusses her debut novel, Freshwater, her public and private identities, and deciding when to translate culture for readers.
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Language Is All Convention: Talking with Elif Batuman
Elif Batuman discusses her new novel The Idiot, what it means to be a writer, and the artifice of language.
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The Rumpus Interview with Becky Tuch
Becky Tuch discusses founding The Review Review, motherhood, creativity, and the future of literary magazines.
...moreReading with Hermione
Our Shared Shelf looks poised to be ideal for sharing feminist learning, just as Watson aimed for it to be. British actress Emma Watson—best known for playing the role of Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter movies—is starting a feminist book club on Goodreads, and she wants you to join, Bustle reports. “Given the buzz Watson’s […]
...moreAuthors, Goodreads Isn’t for You
In response to a recent scuffle between a Goodreads reviewer and an author, BookRiot offers this advice to authors: But it’s not just the one-or-two-star reviews. I also don’t think authors should respond to positive reviews, even to say thanks — the dynamic is too weird. Perhaps not all reviewers feel as I do, but […]
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The Rumpus Interview with Steph Cha
Steph Cha talks about her new novel, Beware Beware, writing compelling and complex Korean American characters, and what reading a book has in common with a level in a video game.
...moreWomen Read Women
Women read books written by women and men read books written by men, reports the Guardian. A study of Goodreads data suggests that people prefer reading books written by those who share their gender. The study also reveals that men and women read roughly the same number of books; however, women read twice as many […]
...moreReading Recs: Man vs. Machine
At Co.EXIST, Jessica Leber pits the algorithms of digital giants Amazon and Goodreads against the ultimate recommendation engine: librarians. Leber details her experience with the Brooklyn Public Library’s BookMatch program, in which real librarians respond to patron’s requests for reading recommendations based on other books they’ve enjoyed. While online services get smarter by the minute, […]
...moreOnline Ranting, Real-Life Raving
YA author Kathleen Hale became obsessed over a negative Goodreads review of her first novel, to the point of finding the reviewer’s address and deciding to stalk her in real life. She wrote about the experience on the Guardian last week, and now BuzzFeed Books has collected the reactions to Hale’s story.
...moreReading for the Numbers
Former child star Wil Wheaton read twenty-one books last year, meeting his annual goal on GoodReads of twenty books. Then the Internet flogged him for having a goal of only twenty books, and because three of those books were graphic novels. But as Jill Guccini points out over at BookRiot, readers can aspire to any […]
...moreAuthor Connections
Bookish social media site Goodreads has just launched a brand new feature—starting now, you can connect and ask questions of your favorite authors as well as fellow readers. Learn more and join the conversation here.
...moreHappy Birthday, Dorothy Parker!
Dorothy Parker, American writer, editor, and critic, was born today in 1893. Parker wrote fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and screenplays (including A Star is Born, for which she received an Oscar nomination), and is remembered in particular for her acid wit. A member of the Algonquin Round Table, she was also an ardent leftist, and was eventually […]
...moreWhat Makes a Book Not Worth Finishing?
Is it that you don’t connect to the characters, or that the writing is weak? Maybe there’s one too many typos or the plot seems implausible. Goodreads has created an infographic about the most abandoned books (Fifty Shades of Grey is among them) and the reasons for their abandonment based on the book reviews left […]
...moreGoodbye to Goodreads
If you’re feeling a little queasy about Amazon’s buyout of Goodreads, Book Riot has compiled a list of alternative book-based social networks. A few of them seem defunct, and one is actually also owned by Amazon, but some, especially the ones still in beta, look very promising. Do you plan on quitting Goodreads, and if […]
...moreDon’t Worry Too Much About Goodreads, Says Steve Almond
Amazon’s buyout of Goodreads has a lot of people curling their lips in disgust, and Rumpus columnist Steve Almond is among them: “As a reader and writer I find all this pretty despicable.” But it’s worth zooming out and looking at the buyout’s context: industry-wide changes to publishing’s traditional (and deeply dysfunctional) business practices. Says Almond, […]
...moreAmazon.com & Goodreads Link Up
Today, the Goodreads’ social network of book reviews and reading suggestions was acquired by online retail giant Amazon. While we are super bummed about this, Russ Grandinetti, Amazon’s Vice President, says: “Amazon and Goodreads share a passion for reinventing reading. Goodreads has helped change how we discover and discuss books and, with Kindle, Amazon has helped expand reading […]
...moreMush!
It’s that time of year again, the time we’ve all been waiting for: Iditarod season. What? You don’t follow the annual dogsled race through a thousand miles of brutal Alaskan wilderness commemorating the 1925 transportation of life-saving diphtheria serum from Anchorage to Nome?? Your browser’s spell check doesn’t even recognize “Iditarod” as a word???
...moreGoodreads Did Really Well in 2012
Goodreads has an end-of-the-year infographic that can only be described as nifty. Visually represented stats range from the book with the most popular quote of 2012 (The Fault in Our Stars by John Green) to the year’s largest Goodreads group (“Felicia Day’s Vaginal Fantasy”). Perhaps more shocking than whatever kind of fantasy Felicia Day is […]
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