Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Goodreads!

at Two Writing Teachers!
This past weekend, I finally did something that's been on my to-do list for quite a while: I joined Goodreads.

After hearing about it from several friends and several teaching blogs, I'd been wanting to try it out.  However, I just kept brushing it aside, thinking "I'll get to it over a break" or "Well, I can do that this summer."  I knew I'd want to add so many of my favorite books and explore so much that it would take me a long time to get started!

Finally though, I realized there might be an app for it, which would make it easier to play around just a little bit at a time... and there is!  I immediately started having fun on my iPod Touch marking books I'd read and new ones I want to read.  Check out my new widget on the right side of my blog to see what books I'm currently reading!

Husband and I got a big laugh when we clicked "compare books" and it told us that we only have 16 books in common!  We're so much alike in so many ways, but we really do have pretty different tastes in the genres we choose to read.  (Although, our tastes are 87% similar for the books we've rated, so we obviously feel the same way about books that we both end up reading!)

I've already noticed that just being part of the Goodreads community makes me want to read more.  For one thing, I think, "ooh, I have to read so I can show people that I finished this book!"  Moreover, my "want-to-read" list (which used to live in Evernote but now has moved to Goodreads) is increasing exponentially as I look at my friends' updates and browse through the site.  And finally, I'm just more excited about reading from seeing my Goodreads friends be excited about reading!   

I've always thought that it would be great to use Goodreads or Shelfari with students to build their excitement about reading, and my initial experience is giving me hope that it would work.  I'd like to play with both to see which one would be best to use with students, and I hope to try it with ESL students someday!

Have you used either of these sites with students?  How did it go?  And if you're on Goodreads, I'd love to be your friend and share books with you!

7 comments:

  1. Oh, I am the worst Goodreads person - I never remember to use it! I think it would be a great tool if I could just remember to go there and log in the books I've read! ha ha! I'll look to see how it works for you, maybe you'll inspire me.

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  2. I just asked you to be my friend! I use Goodreads, but my reading life has slowed down a bit since March. There is only so much time! But I love to hear about new books coming out and being the first to put them on hold at my library! It is exciting to visually see the list of books you read and I, too, think kids would be excited about it too . . . wonder if there is a kid version? I have heard of teachers using it to record 'class read aloud' books. Happy reading!

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  3. I haven't taken the time to check your pages out yet, Jennifer, so I'll go right after this comment. I think it's lots of fun, & hope to join one of the groups this summer that are discussing YA books, or something like that. I should ask about it too to see if more of us on the slicing are doing it. Thank you! And it's fun to hear about your comparing to your husband's choices. My husband & I liked some of the same things, but he leaned way more into non-fiction.

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  4. I have never heard of Goodreads. Thank you for writing about it. I wonder how many books I have in common with my husband.

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  5. I love your enthusiasm! I think I signed up once upon a time then didn't know what to do. I may have to dig into it once again and see what happens. You inspire with your enthusiasm.

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  6. Followed you! Can't wait to see what you are reading. My problem is I keep forgetting to log in and add my books!

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