Social Cataloguing, Books, and Snow Days

You might ask what these things have in common. Books are often enjoyed in solitude, but on one of DePaul’s snow days earlier in February, I found myself entranced by the social cataloguing site Goodreads. I was sitting at the kitchen table, contentedly getting ahead on homework as the snow came down, when my cousin emailed.  She had forwarded me a copy of the monthly newsletter put out by Goodreads, thinking that I might want to enter their poetry contest. Not only was I immediately attracted by the newsletter’s full color format, but I recognized it as something that my fellow tutors in the Writing Center had been talking about recently. Imagining that it wouldn’t take me long to sign up, I quickly made an account. But signing up was the easy part! A few minutes turned into a few hours as I searched through lists of favorite books posted by other readers. When you sign up for Goodreads, you are automatically given three shelves: read, to-read, and currently-reading. While these are obviously not enough categories, the reader can then create as many shelves as they would like to further subcategorize their books. For example, I have a virtual shelf for my research books and another one for poetry. And the more friends you have on Goodreads, the more fun it is. While I enjoyed adding books to my shelves, commenting on what my friends were reading made it even better. I’ve found several of my fellow tutors on Goodreads and hope to find more. This site has been around since 2006, so some of you may already have accounts. But if, like me, Goodreads is something new and exciting, you should check it out. It costs nothing to have so much fun. Fellow readers, I hope to see your lists of favorite books soon!