Monday, May 10, 2010

Good things about "Good Reads"

Well - it's week 4 now with the Web 2.0 Challenge and I am making good progress! Good Reads is essentially a "Book Lovers" social networking site.

I listened to the tutorial and it all seemed pretty straight-forward when it comes to signing up and setting up a profile - similar to other social networking sites like Facebook or Bebo. You can upload photos, add widgets, join different groups (book clubs) and you can find friends and follow what they are reading or reviewing. As the old syaing goes, "You can learn a lot about a person by the books they read - or have on their bookshelf!

Key features:

* Create your own custom profile
* Track what you have read and rate the books (like a review in My Library)
* Find out what your friends are reading
* Get good book recommendations
* Join Reading Groups

GOOD READS is a great social networking sites for librarians. There are some very useful features on this site such as the ability to click on a book and view cataloguing details e.g ISBN number, what the average score for the book is, as assessed by readers, and all the editions of the book that have been printed, along with the Literary Awards the book has received, where applicable.

I like the "explore" tab feature which allows the viewer to browse everything from "popular" titles to "unpopular" titles, events, trivia, quizzes and quotes - very useful for Book Club stuff!

Similar to "My Library," you can write reviews and you can also see the reviews your friends have written. There a more options too, that you can add to your review, such as commenting on who recommended the tilte to you, how many times you have read the book, and whether you actually own a copy of the book!

I am going to enjoy seeing the answers to my "challenge" question, when I build a set of "friends."

TTFN!


Jesus Freak