The Sword and Laser discussion

I'd like to keep track of books that I've "lemmed", but don't want to mark them as "Read", "Want to read" or "Currently reading." If you create a shelf called "lemmed" and check it for a book, it marks that book as "Read."

Does anyone else have this problem? Could we, on the strength of the size of the Sword and Laser book club, petition Goodreads to add "Lemmed" as one of the major category shelves? Or lacking that, at least some way to mark books as "tried to read but couldn't get in to..."

Did you make it "exclusive"?

Click on "My Books" at the top of this page. On the left side of the screen you'll see "Bookshelves (edit)". Click on that. Find your lemmed shelf and check the box in the "Exclusive" column. That'll make "lemmed" into a category like "read" "currently reading" and "want to read".

On the 'My Books' page, there is an 'edit' button at the top of your list of shelves.

Once on that page, set your 'lemmed' shelf to be 'exclusive' by clicking the checkbox in that column. You'll notice that 'read', 'to read', etc are also checked exclusive. That means a book can only be in one of those categories.

^Since goodreads is owned by amazon and exists to promote reading, I would think this motion would not carry.

Ohhhh - I thought "exclusive" only meant that it wouldn't be seen by other users. Thanks, that helps a lot!

It'll unfortunately still count as total books read that year, but it won't show up on your "read" shelf.

Turi said: "Could we, on the strength of the size of the Sword and Laser book club, petition Goodreads to add "Lemmed" as one of the major category shelves? Or lacking that, at least some way to mark books as "tried to read but couldn't get in to...""

From other profiles I see on Goodreads, people usually create their own exclusive shelves for "abandoned"-type categories (like "lemmed" or "couldn't-get-into"). I doubt Goodreads will ever add abandoned as a category.

Joanna said: "It'll unfortunately still count as total books read that year, but it won't show up on your "read" shelf."

I'm not sure what you mean here, though, Joanna, because Goodreads isn't counting the books I've abandoned under "Stats" or my "Book Challenge." Maybe because the way I add books to abandoned is just by changing the category, I don't actually give it a "date 'read.'" Is that what you do?

Sean wrote: "Click on "My Books" at the top of this page. On the left side of the screen you'll see "Bookshelves (edit)". Click on that. Find your lemmed shelf and check the box in the "Exclusive" column. That'..."

OMG! OMG! OMG! I am having a moment. This (having DNF books marked as read) has bothered me for two+ years and I am beyond thrilled to have suddenly discovered there is a solution. Thank you.

David wrote: " I don't actually give it a "date 'read.'" Is that what you do? "

Oh, yep. That's what I've been doing. That's probably why it shows up in a year. I haven't been worrying about it because last year I blew past my book challenge and I'm likely to do so this year, too. But the stats part was annoying. Hm, but it will be more annoying to fix, now.

What I do is read a bit before I add it to my "official reading" shelf. There are times when I start a book and realize, I am not in the mind set to read this book right now( Happens a few time a year, especially during the summer months) or this book is so bad I cannot not see it getting any better( which happens rarely because I am a book optimist)

Joanna, you might be able to use the batch-edit function if you look at just your abandoned-shelf, maybe? I used to remove books entirely from Goodreads if I abandoned it, but the main benefit now is so that Goodreads doesn't recommend books to me that I know I already tried--and so I'd remember myself that I already tried the book and tossed it, haha.

David wrote: "Joanna, you might be able to use the batch-edit function if you look at just your abandoned-shelf, maybe? I used to remove books entirely from Goodreads if I abandoned it, but the main benefit now ..."

I poked at that. I can remove the whole shelf, or add the whole shelf to a different shelf. But I can't remove all the "read" dates from even book on the shelf.

Darn, sorry! And the interface for changing the date looks like you can't clear it at a go, so that's time consuming. I guess if you have an hour or two you could fix it, but yeah, at least now you know about the date-read, thing. :-/