I love goodreads

Hi everyone!

Sorry I’m posting a little later than normal. I found out about an amazing summer internship with a RD here in DFW last night, so I’ve been working on getting some application materials together this morning. I am SUPER excited and would love this internship – so here’s to hoping I get it!

Yesterday I mentioned that I have found a solution to the 2011 Goal of reading 12 books.

You may remember that I’ve been having a lot of trouble with this goal and had mentioned it several times in January-February. The problem was I didn’t like the books I was reading. I didn’t really want to buy new books, because I had a full bookshelf as it was and needed to read those books. I also “couldn’t find the time” – which isn’t really true, I have the time – I was just using it to watch TV instead of read.

Several people mentioned I should just take the leap and buy new books. Others mentioned I try to find different books that I like.

But how exactly do you find new books? Most of the books on my shelf are either trashy romance books (which I love, but you can only read so many at a time) and non-fiction – serious type books. While I really like non-fiction, reading it while I’m also in school isn’t fun. I feel like I go from studying nutrition for my classes to studying something else in the book I’m reading.

I needed books I could just lose my head in. Fiction books that were light and airy, but still had a good catching plot. But once again, how do you find new books? I had asked friends for recommendations, bought said recommendations and didn’t like them. I had gone to the bookstore and just stared aimlessly at books. I had checked through my bookshelf at home. I had looked on amazon. I had checked people’s blogs.

But I couldn’t find books that I thought I would really like that were worth buying.

Enter two solutions, which kind of happened at the same time.

1. Something Borrowed – I picked this up ordered from amazon because I saw the movie was coming out. I never read the book before seeing the movie, so I thought – eh what the hell? I have time! Then I started reading and realized I LOVED this book. LOVED it. I read it in about 1.5 days and bought Something Blue before I even finished because I knew I wanted to finish the series.

2. I joined Goodreads – Goodreads is a social media site for book reading. Heather had mentioned it several months ago and I was intrigued but never signed up. You have bookshelves that you can add read books, currently reading, to-read and any other custom categories you like. You can rate books. You can join virtual book clubs based on your interest. You can see what your friends are reading. You can ask for book recommendations from strangers.

I kind of had an epiphany in the car several weeks ago that I’m reading Something Borrowed and I love it, and I wonder if goodreads has a mobile app with a barcode scanner so I can scan the books in my bookshelf in?

Went straight home and signed up!

I’ve discovered that I love chick lit, which I had read in the past – but again, how do you find new books? I have probably 20 chick lit books on my to-do list right now that I’m waiting to read. I love it!!!

And the best part (in my opinion) is their book swap! Add any books you have that you no longer want and people will request them. The buyer pays for shipping and that’s it. You print out a label at home and send the book to them. For every 10 books you send, you get one shipping credit free. And you can request books from other people!

The book swap is amazing. I’ve been able to clear my bookcase of all those books that I didn’t want/need but couldn’t sell on amazon because they were too cheap. It’s also been a way for me to get books that I want to read for only $3-$4 from people and then I plan to add them right back to the swap if I don’t want to keep them!

I love Goodreads. I’m seriously addicted and I might check it more than I do anything else besides email.

In the past 2 weeks I’ve read three books.

And I’m currently reading these two books for virtual book clubs.

(source)

(source)

Then I’m going back to the 4 other books in the Sophia Katz series (Sex, Murder and a Double Latte) after I finish those.

If you want to join Goodreads or are already on there, make sure to add me as a friend!

Also check out another one of Heather’s recent posts about how to stay on a reading kick.

Since it’s the burning question today, how do you find new books!?

I’m off to bike ride with Sarah from Sarah Snacks at the Trinity Trails, but I’ll be back (later today or tomorrow) with pictures and tales of our grand adventure