Goodreads: The Review
Roy Lotz is an American writer based in Madrid. He is one of the top reviewers on Goodreads.
After spending my school years lazily looking up Sparknotes, resenting the demands on my time and energy that “important books” represented, something finally clicked during my first year in college and I decided that I wanted to read absolutely everything. It was at this time that I created an account on Goodreads.
Goodreads, for me, began simply as a way of keeping track of all the books that I wanted to ingest. For a certain sort of person, lists are divine tools, allowing us to organize the chaotic mess of reality into an orderly sequence—tasks to be ticked off one by one. Simply being able to add books to my “to-read” shelf made me feel calm, as if this assured that the knowledge and culture represented by these books would, without fail, be integrated into the tissue of my brain.
Competition
Yet Goodreads introduced another element into my reading life: competition. Now, I could see exactly how well-read other people around the world were. I measured my yearly reading goals against others, and found that I was far from top dog. Not only that, but the reviews on Goodreads became a kind of intellectual testing-ground. There, you could prove that you understood the book deeply, that you appreciated it properly, that you had reflected on it, cherished its message, and that you have enough literary talent yourself to write your thoughts in passable prose.
Soon, it was no longer enough to read books—difficult books, famous books, classic books—but I had to read them better than anyone else. I got into long, intricate debates on philosophical topics: whether free will was possible, the nature of the mind, the extent and limits of human knowledge. (All this, despite having absolutely no philosophical training.) I tried my hands at literary parodies, attempting to be both the smartest and the wittiest. I defended the banner of beauty and truth from the grubby masses.
Yes, I was quite insufferable. Yet somehow, throughout this process, I managed to make some friends. I grew to respect the opinions of other reviewers and to look forward to their writing. And as the urge to win waned, I began to see Goodreads, not as an intellectual proving ground, but as a kind of literary cybercafe, where learned conversation could be had with people around the world. I exchanged books with people through the mail, and members on the site even helped me to revise my novel.
Picture from Ugur Akdemir on Unsplash.
Lost magic
Sadly, some of the magic has gone out of Goodreads in the past few years. It was acquired by Amazon in 2013, but remarkably few changes have been made to the site during that time. What changes have been made have mostly been annoying, such as word limits on reviews or the removal of email notifications. And many elements of the site seem very clunky and outdated, such as the system for adding or editing books in their database.
What’s more, Goodreads is not without controversy. Since there is very little content moderation and no verification of whether users have actually read the book they are reviewing, books can get “review-bombed,” deluged with negative reviews by people who haven’t even read the book. On the other hand, book ratings can be artificially inflated with fake accounts or bots. (Luckily, most of the books I read are boring enough to avoid these issues.)
Even with these problems, however, I still love and cherish Goodreads. Without it, I’m not sure I would have maintained the motivation to keep making my way through book after book, or the discipline to write a review after each one. Now, looking back on over a decade on Goodreads, I have a wonderful record of all of the excellent (and not so excellent) books I’ve read, and how I responded to them at the time. It is a kind of unintentional intellectual autobiography.
Want more culture?
Read Roy’s excellent blog by following this link and buy his book here. For an aural experience, listen to our podcast. You can find Roy and his book on Goodreads.
Roy’s latest novel - Don Bigote.
