The Sword and Laser discussion

Does anyone know the best way to read a book twice on Goodreads? I'm about to read The Name of the Wind again, but I don't want to lose the history of my first read - reading challenge, date read etc. Cheers.

As far as I know there is no good way. Some people add a different edition. It's a definite hole in the feature set I hope they fix eventually.

How does adding a different edition work? Fortunately I am actually reading a different edition, but when I do that it simply changes the book I've already marked as read to another edition. Might be doing it wrong. Thanks for your help.

I've never done it except by accident before. My OCD doesn't like to have multiple copies of the same book on my shelves. Hopefully someone else can help you out.

While you're writing a review there's an option that allows you to mark how many time you've read a book

If you search for the title and bring the book up, off to the right there should be a section that says "other editions", hit that link and it will pull up all the editions, then just hit the button that says "switch to this edition".

You could copy and save your first review into a word document and then post both reviews together when you're done with your re-read. That's the best I can come up with.

Ctgt, if you want to add a review and rating for each read
do not use the switch to this edition feature. That moves your review and rating to that edition and removes the edition you already reviewed from your shelves. Having more than one edition on your shelves is the only way to have multiple reviews/ratings. If you merely wish to keep track of the number of times you've read a book, but not the dates, you can use the "number of times I've read this book" box.

There's a "read count" in the advanced options, but that's it. Switching to other editions changes your review to that edition, it does not allow you to count it twice. Not too sure about the multiple editions on your shelves, either, since once you've read a book, all editions show up as read, even the audio versions.

You're right Sandi, I was just describing how to switch editions. Generally I don't change my reviews, I may edit but that's it.

Sandi wrote: "Ctgt, if you want to add a review and rating for each read
do not use the switch to this edition feature. That moves your review and rating to that edition and removes the edition you already revi..."

So how do I add a different edition without using the switching edition feature? I.e. I don't want to change the already read edition.

To add a different edition, go to the book page and fine the link at the upper right that says "more editions". Click on that and select another edition from the list. If you are asked if you want to switch to that edition, just say no.

I'm not much of a re-reader, but I have listened to a few audiobook editions of books that I previously read in print. I'm currently reading the Kindle version of a book that I listened to in audio a couple of years ago. It all works.

Damn. I'm totally wrong. They've changed it completely. I just tried to add the Kindle edition of Among Others to my currently-reading list. I previously listened to the audiobook and I have that rated on my read shelf. I cannot find a way to add another edition.

URGH!

(I just posted the question on the feedback group. I need to know how to add the Kindle edition.)

Sandi wrote: "To add a different edition, go to the book page and fine the link at the upper right that says "more editions". Click on that and select another edition from the list. If you are asked if you wan..."

Let me know what you find!

You can add a different edition but the default READ shelf is exclusive, so you can only have the same book in there once.
The only way I can think of for getting it in twice it to make your own shelf for each year 'READ 2012', 'READ 2013' etc. That way it can appear on multiple shelves. It's a real pain and I am currently stuck with this problem while doing a re-read of the Renegade Read pick.
Has anyone tried exporting the data, editing it in excel or something and then re-importing it? The fact that there is a 'remove duplicates' button suggests to me that it would let you import a duplicate.

AndrewP wrote: "You can add a different edition but the default READ shelf is exclusive, so you can only have the same book in there once.
The only way I can think of for getting it in twice it to make your own shelf for each year 'READ 2012', 'READ 2013' etc. That way it can appear on multiple shelves. It's a real pain and I am currently stuck with this problem while doing a re-read of the Renegade Read pick."

I accidentally stumbled into differentiating editions in "Read" by adding the year-based read lists, like "read in 2012" etc. However, I also had different editions on my Read list. I haven't used the advanced features, though, so I don't know if those actually work for each edition.

AndrewP wrote: "Has anyone tried exporting the data, editing it in excel or something and then re-importing it? The fact that there is a 'remove duplicates' button suggests to me that it would let you import a duplicate."

I don't mess with sorcery, and Excel is the blackest of magics.

Can't exactly but one way I've remedied this for myself is by making a shelf for every year. That way I can still limit to year and genre and whatever else. So a book can belong to multiple read shelves.

Well, I did get the Kindle edition added to my currently reading list and it does show up in both formats when I search my library. Life is good, at least so far.

Jenny wrote: "Can't exactly but one way I've remedied this for myself is by making a shelf for every year. That way I can still limit to year and genre and whatever else. So a book can belong to multiple read ..."

Good call, actually.

Sandi wrote: "Well, I did get the Kindle edition added to my currently reading list and it does show up in both formats when I search my library. Life is good, at least so far."

How did you accomplish this feat?

Let's see if I can explain it clearly.

1. I went to the page that listed all the editions of the book.

2. I went to the book page of the edition I wanted to add.

3. Next to the words "My Review" are two links. One says "Review this edition" and the other says "Switch to this edition". I clicked on "Review this edition".

4. In the review form, I was able to select my currently reading shelf and enter my start date.

5. To check that it worked, I searched my books for the title and found both editions listed.

That does work Sandi. Thanks!

You're welcome.

Sandi wrote: "Let's see if I can explain it clearly.

1. I went to the page that listed all the editions of the book.

2. I went to the book page of the edition I wanted to add.

3. Next to the words "My Revi..."

Thanks Sandi! Just tested and worked great. No clue why this is such a buried feature.

It used to be a lot easier. Maybe it was too easy and people were adding duplicates that they didn't intend. I know that happened to me a couple of times.

https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/8...

Is there a way to place an initial reading date in the distant past? I thought there used to be a way to do this but now I can't find it.

You just add another entry by clicking on Dates Read. It's in the reviewing part of the book under the text box.

I guess I wasn't clear what I was trying to ask. I was trying to find out if there a way to add in the "distant past" (like, I read it long, long ago when I was a kid so I don't remember the date).

I thought there used to be a way to do this but maybe it was in another app, not goodreads...

Tina, you don't have to put a date when you add a "dates read" section in the review of the book. So it'll show that you've read the book X times, but just won't have a date for some or all of your rereads.

Tina wrote: "I guess I wasn't clear what I was trying to ask. I was trying to find out if there a way to add in the "distant past" (like, I read it long, long ago when I was a kid so I don't remember the date)...."

Just enter it and take a best guess at the date. I have entered most of my previous reads into Goodreads, going back 20 years.

Tina, what I have done is enter a best guess Year with with January as the month. You don’t have to enter both a started and finished date nor a specific date at all. I’ve tried to enter as best I could the books I read as a kid, just for fun.

Thanks for the tips everyone! I didn't realize you could move the slider to an empty date at the top. That works for me!