21st Century Literature discussion

Since you started using GR, do you add every book you read to your GR shelf/shelves? If not, how do you choose what to add? Have you ever left off a book out of embarrassment or other reasons (shame, fear of tarnishing your lit cred, not wanting to give a bad rating to a friend's book, etc)?

I have an open policy - every book I read or have on the tbr pile is entered into Goodreads - the main reason though is because when people buy me books for birthdays and Christmas, they just have to check my goodreads so I don't receive duplicates.

Every one I touch, even if I abandon it. Otherwise, I might forget and waste precious reading time trying it again.

I try to enter every book, because I normally read one book at a time which makes them hard to hide, but occasionally I will choose not to put a review in my newsfeed. The exceptions are reference books and other non-fiction books that I don't read sequentially (e.g. walking guides).

All books read are noted in GR.

Carol, I was thinking there might be medical issues or sexual identities a person might not want to reveal publicly that certain titles might reveal (especially if one hadn't yet revealed these to family or had a job that would be negatively impacted by such info).

Like those who've posted, I also add every book I read, but I haven't added every book I want to read... (this is just laziness on my part and a feeling that I should do some cleaning up of my to-be-read lists).

I certainly don't add everything I want to read, though I do add the books I actually buy - I added too many of these a few years ago and the to-read-not-owned list is far too long to be useful, so these days I have to be fairly sure before I add to it.

I went through a horrible divorce a couple of years ago. During the same time, both my parents were diagnosed with cancer, three of my pets died in close succession, and more.

I read some self help and coping books at the time that I didn't post because everything felt too raw, too harsh and I wasn't comfortable advertising what was going on to the random public here on Goodreads.

That makes a lot of sense to me, Stacia. Hope some of those books helped through the hard times.

Hugh, I have a separate GR shelf just for "owned-and-unread!"

Over the course of a few months, I added nearly every book I owned into the GRs database--I was getting tired of coming home from a library sale to find I'd bought one or two duplicates. It's saved me in that regard.

I also have a 'to-read' but it's more like a want list, so when I'm out at some used-bookstore I can dial up my want list as I'm looking through the shelves.

This year I also made up a shelf of 2019 purchases and 2019 discards, to get a better handle on exactly how much I'm gaining over time. I'll have added about 125 this year--I'd like to see that drop significantly next year, but library sales are my kryptonite.

So I find the site very useful--I add all my read books, though I don't review too much anymore.

Stacia wrote: "I went through a horrible divorce a couple of years ago. During the same time, both my parents were diagnosed with cancer, three of my pets died in close succession, and more.

I read some self hel..."

understood, stacia. we all need to do what is best to get through really tough times and if a posting feels like an unnerving public disclosure to someone, then it is. i hope things are better now and in 2020.

My "books I own" shelf has become unreliable because, while I add every book I purchase, I often don't delete that field when I read and resell them. At least I know that if I've read it I might now own it, I'm not at risk of re-purchasing it.

I record everything I read mostly bc I really try to write something down after every book. Helps my digestion. I'm also not too proud to admit I browse my list of read books with the same kind of pride one might gaze at a collection of trophies. A little immature, but hey we all have our things :-)

I browse a lot of art books and art instruction books. It rarely feels like reading, so I rarely record them.

No way do my Goodreads bookshelves match either my library collection nor what I have read over so many years. The "read" shelf may be somewhat representative, at least for those entries dated as read since I joined Goodreads. But even there I feel no compunction to post everything I read -- partly because I browse many books for sections of information (sort of as references) and don't look to Goodreads for any memory of them, partly because some wait for a review I never write, let alone post, partly for ... whatever.

For the past few years, my virtual bookshelves on Goodreads that have probably served me most are a set I label "Awareness Yr". I place on them books that sound as if they might be of interest TBR, but may or may not ever reach that status. Those shelves are often fascinating for me to return to and figure out if I remember why an entry got shelved in the first place! But so nice to use as a resource.

I often forget why it is I thought I needed to read a particular book, especially if it has been many years since I added it to a list or GR shelf.

I deleted Twilight and the Harry Potter books from my bookshelf. While I didn't dislike Harry Potter the way I did Twilight, both of them were resulting in endless crappy recommendations from GR based on them being on my shelves, and it was driving me crazy. This was many years ago, and I think GR has since changed their algorithm; their recommendations are certainly less obtrusive than they used to be.

And, Stacia, I can certainly relate to that. I haven't shelved any self-help titles in GR. Not the kind of discussions I come here for.

I think the only thing I left off in that period was a local history book because of identifiability.

There were items I read before I joined that I remembered but didn't add to this account, local history from places I'd previously lived, some books on sexual topics, some of the worse self-help books, or related to my old work, but over the years I've clicked 'read' on a few of these anyway.

There are books I've said I might leave off if I did read them (e.g. authors like Paul Kingsnorth who've become political hot-buttons in some circles) where I figured that not advertising them might be considered the main thing at stake whilst quietly reading a library book in itself would be seen as less of an issue. But I've not actually read any books I might apply this to since I thought about it. (And in any case someone asked me on Twitter to review Kingsnorth's last book.)

As well as loving to read books, I collect them too, and over the last couple of years I have judged a national fiction prize, so I do end up with many more books than I have read or want to place on Goodreads. I have about 1300 books on Goodreads but have well over 4,000 volumes in the house. If I were to put all those on here, then I could probably waste the time it would take to read another 10.

When judging the New Zealand Booklovers prize I do write up the books I've enjoyed - anything that helps them reach a wider audience - but there are sometimes some that are bad, poor or just unreadable. Those I don't review on Goodreads. Having written a novel myself, I am very aware of the toil and effort that goes into both the writing and the editing, and so I am unwilling to run them down. I'd rather remain silent, even if I have made the efort to read the whole book.
Also there are many books that I read thirty years ago and I won't remember how good or bad they were. Those would only sit in the broad band that is the 'middle ground'. The very good and the very bad do tend to stick in the mind, but it is always good to read some of those again, just to check if my feelings have remained the same.

I do add every book I've read on the Goodreads shelves. I like to keep track and try to write reviews for each one I read (at least every one since I joined Goodreads. I'm trying to go back to review the other ones). I love this system of being able to see how many books I read each year and how many I've read in total.

Every now and then I think of one or two I've read in the past that I need to add.

I don't add book any more on the tbr pile. I'd rather just know in my head that I'm going to read that book and not add another number to my books.

I do add every single book to the corresponding shelves. I don't keep a ton of shelves, just some basic ones I am interested in having a list of (if I am doing a certain challenge; plays - as I studied theatre -, PR/ giveaway titles, read in English vs. Hungarian). I also keep my physical TBR separate from the general TBR (that is sort of like a wishlist for me).