105 Ways to Give a Book

Good Reads and JacketFlap

So my friend Kelly over at Big A, little a mistakenly invited her entire email address book list to join her at Good Reads. She corrected the mistake by, um, telling us, but I was all like, “Why not join?” and I did. Problem is that I don’t really know what to do there other than add friends. And frankly, I’m not even that good at adding friends because I don’t recognize a lot of the names without the blog names listed. Point being if you’d like to be my friend on Good Reads, you’re probably going to have to ask me, as I can’t guarantee I knew who you were by “Susan, from New Jersey.” Anyway, now that I’m on Good Reads, what do I do? How do I add books? More basically, why do I want to? What’s in it for ME?

JacketFlap I’m enjoying very much. Too much, in fact, as I tend to see the blogs that are on JacketFlap and don’t always get back out to see my blogfriends that aren’t there. I’m also a bit concerned about reading blogs this way after the fall, when everyone starts posting all regular-like. Am I going to get too swamped with entries? Anyway, if you haven’t done so, than check out JacketFlap with its one-stop shoppping for authors, illustrators, publishers, editors, reviewers, and more. Signing in (finally) and using its blog-reader (finally) is really the only summer goal I’ve accomplished so far. (Crap.)

Lots of folks are at SCBWI this weekend, including some friends who are presenting on blogging. Go Kid Lit Bloggers!

7 comments:

Kelly Herold said...

Thanks, MR! Sorry about the invite :)

I rely on Jacket Flap at this point.

Good to see you back. I'm trying to get back too...

I have a picture up with us and the Disco Mermaids :)

Little Willow said...

We included the 48 HBC in our discussion, and TAMORA PIERCE asked questions about it.

Okay, as I'm typing this in one browser window, I'm reading comments on another blog in another window, and I see you freaking out there... Aw. :)

Elaine Magliaro said...

MR,

I now have friends on GoodReads,too--but I also have to figure out what to do. Heck, I still haven't added a blogroll at Wild Rose Reader yet. All this stuff is new to me.

Andromeda Jazmon said...

I joined Good Reads too. I also joined Shelfari because someone invited me, and I already have LibraryThing, Jacket Flap and Book Crossing. Ther is no way I can keep up with all of them. I am juggling them to see which one grabs me the most. LOL

I am not sure I see how Jacket Flap is better than reading in Bloglines. It seems more cluttered and takes longer to get through all the posts. The good thing is you can read comments without clicking through to the blog.

I spent so much time putting books into LibraryThing I don't really want to start over on another one. But I am seeing so much action on Good Reads I am starting to get sucked in. Is this a good thing? LOL

Saints and Spinners said...

One way to add books is to go down your friends' lists and add your own stars. That'll drag the books into your "read" (past tense) list, unless you use the drop-down menu to put the book on a different virtual bookshelf. Otherwise, you type in the book title or author in the search field at the top right corner, then add the book using the star system or the drop-down menu. I'm using the list in order to keep track of books I want to read next. I've left a few comments for other people, but I mainly see it as a device to find out what I want to read next and to recommend books to other people.

Jennie said...

I go through my blogroll, and then read Jacket Flaps mega-reader as a way to follow the blogs I don't read regularly.

As for goodreads... I'm on GR and LibraryThing. LT is for the books I own. GR is for the books I've read. There is a huge difference I'm not retroactively adding books (except when (1) I'm really bored and (2) I see a book and I'll rate it) but just started adding the ones I've read since I joined the service. I did add in my entire "too read" list one morning though.

Sandra Dutton said...

Okay, you've convinced me that I did a good thing by signing up for JacketFlap. And I was happy to read that your friend accidentally pressed the wrong button and invited her whole email list to join--I did the same on Facebook and was mortified. I'm not liking Facebook quite yet--feels like walking into the high school cafeteria (right now I'm taking a few days' break though my publicist--I'm a writer of children's books--suggested I join.
Anyway, I felt right at home on JacketFlap--there's something to "do" here. I found your blog, by the way, by typing in LibraryThing, JacketFlap, GoodReads, and Shelfari. Are you still on JacketFlap? I realize this is an old blog entry. I just started a blog, www.MaryMaeandtheGospelTruth.com. I went from not having a clue in January to feeling pretty comfortable with the controls.

Best to you!
Sandra Dutton