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May. 16th, 2021 04:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pshaw_ravenWhy I Am Deleting GoodReads, and Maybe You Should, Too.
I've had several "social reading" accounts over the decades, including LibraryThing, which I still have but don't use anymore. I ditched GoodReads over the winter, and picked up The Storygraph while it was in beta, but I signed out of it recently with no intention of using it anymore.
LibraryThing is great for simply cataloging my books, and I have significantly fewer than I used to, so even that's no as much of an issue now. But the element of social media and sharing has really had an effect on my reading, and not necessarily for the better.
Right now, it feels nice to just be reading stuff and not worrying if people will think I'm slow because of how long I spent reading a 300-page book. Not worrying about making my $number-books-this-year challenge. Not wondering if people are going to think less of me for reading something controversial, or something frivolous. I'm back to just reading books for the fuck of it and I like it.
Right now I'm still reading A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy, and To Green Angel Tower Part 1. This Tad Williams series is really engrossing and I'm definitely going to seek out the other volumes he's written for this world. I also picked up Beastars volume 6 (and I used to worry about logging manga, as people might think I was cheating on my 'read so many books a year' goal,) Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes, because nothing seems to get a certain sector of the population all worked up like a discussion of nutrition, and Consolations of the Forest: Alone in a Cabin in the Middle Taiga, by Sylavain Tesson, which is about the joys of not being around other people. And I don't mind sharing that with anyone here, because we have good interactions about reading. Some of you are writers, some poets, or other creative types, and we like a well-written book.
I'm still keeping my physical reading journal, though. I've kept it since 1993 - not in the same notebook, of course. The actual book itself was acquired in around 2002, and I copied all the old info out of a battered spiral-bound I'd been using through high school and college.
I think it's somewhat like my recent purge of the shelves I did in 2019. Why keep a book around if I'm not going to read it? Books are meant to be read, so if I'm not going to read or refer to it, I should get it back out into the world so someone else can. I realized I was just keeping certain volumes because if someone came over, they might think a certain way about me when they see that particular book, and who the hell am I trying to impress? Since then I've gotten into a habit of boxing books I finish to either donate to the Friends of the Library for their book sale, or to go to Chamblin Book Mine to (hopefully) be converted into store credit so I can acquire different books. I only keep ones I feel that I'm likely to read again, or that make good reference works. I have a lot shelved in my studio that I may not read cover to cover again, but are good for world-building. I have a lot of nature and animal books shelved in the living room - bird guides, books on gardening, and things like mammals of Florida and "know your trees." (The Larch.) And of course I have my small collection of vintage cookbooks.
Plus I feel like it was becoming more of a chore to log books, make sure the edition is right, did I really start on the 12th, or should I put the 11th because I read some in the car... blah blah blah.
I've had several "social reading" accounts over the decades, including LibraryThing, which I still have but don't use anymore. I ditched GoodReads over the winter, and picked up The Storygraph while it was in beta, but I signed out of it recently with no intention of using it anymore.
LibraryThing is great for simply cataloging my books, and I have significantly fewer than I used to, so even that's no as much of an issue now. But the element of social media and sharing has really had an effect on my reading, and not necessarily for the better.
Right now, it feels nice to just be reading stuff and not worrying if people will think I'm slow because of how long I spent reading a 300-page book. Not worrying about making my $number-books-this-year challenge. Not wondering if people are going to think less of me for reading something controversial, or something frivolous. I'm back to just reading books for the fuck of it and I like it.
Right now I'm still reading A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy, and To Green Angel Tower Part 1. This Tad Williams series is really engrossing and I'm definitely going to seek out the other volumes he's written for this world. I also picked up Beastars volume 6 (and I used to worry about logging manga, as people might think I was cheating on my 'read so many books a year' goal,) Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes, because nothing seems to get a certain sector of the population all worked up like a discussion of nutrition, and Consolations of the Forest: Alone in a Cabin in the Middle Taiga, by Sylavain Tesson, which is about the joys of not being around other people. And I don't mind sharing that with anyone here, because we have good interactions about reading. Some of you are writers, some poets, or other creative types, and we like a well-written book.
I'm still keeping my physical reading journal, though. I've kept it since 1993 - not in the same notebook, of course. The actual book itself was acquired in around 2002, and I copied all the old info out of a battered spiral-bound I'd been using through high school and college.
I think it's somewhat like my recent purge of the shelves I did in 2019. Why keep a book around if I'm not going to read it? Books are meant to be read, so if I'm not going to read or refer to it, I should get it back out into the world so someone else can. I realized I was just keeping certain volumes because if someone came over, they might think a certain way about me when they see that particular book, and who the hell am I trying to impress? Since then I've gotten into a habit of boxing books I finish to either donate to the Friends of the Library for their book sale, or to go to Chamblin Book Mine to (hopefully) be converted into store credit so I can acquire different books. I only keep ones I feel that I'm likely to read again, or that make good reference works. I have a lot shelved in my studio that I may not read cover to cover again, but are good for world-building. I have a lot of nature and animal books shelved in the living room - bird guides, books on gardening, and things like mammals of Florida and "know your trees." (The Larch.) And of course I have my small collection of vintage cookbooks.
Plus I feel like it was becoming more of a chore to log books, make sure the edition is right, did I really start on the 12th, or should I put the 11th because I read some in the car... blah blah blah.
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Date: 2021-05-19 08:11 pm (UTC)I do think peeking at a person's online bookshelf of books they've read does proffer a glimpse into their psyche though. You get to find out what interests them. But I've always been curious about people anyway :)
Now people's physical bookshelves I think lean towards impressing others generally. I mean, just watch any tv channel when someone is being interviewed from their home ;)
I'm sure I've told you this before but I use www.paperbackswap.com to acquire books to read then once I'm done, I post them for others to request. It's pretty handy.
I like the community library boxes as well but around my area, people aren't really into what I like, so finding anything there is rare. They're a good place to get rid of books I've already read that no one wants.
I don't hang onto books because I never re-read what I've already read. Just like I don't rewatch movies & such. I'm not like most people in that regard.
But yeah - good for you! We should be reading what gives us joy :)
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Date: 2021-05-22 11:25 am (UTC)By only keeping the things I actually am interested in or use regularly I feel like, if someone wants to browse my shelves, they're going to get a much more accurate picture than if I tried to put something impressive together. Some of the most used and cherished books I own are in places people might not even really go - for example, no one much goes into my studio/office area. That's where my philosophy, art, design, and folklore stuff is shelved. I recently started shelving exercise, running, health and fitness stuff in the kitchen because ... why not. ;D There are two catch-all bookcases where, for better or worse, my vintage cookbooks live since I don't want them exposed to any more cooking grease and kitchen abuse than they've already endured.
I also found that the people I actually know in reality no longer used any of the social book sites. My only active "friends" were people who'd just randomly added me and I know nothing about them. And we didn't seem to have much in common, as far as tastes in books are concerned. I'd not worry about my literal neighbors and family knowing what I read though it might start some political fights.