The New Social Website for Bookworms

There are few people who have not heard of, let alone make use of, the popular social website Facebook. Now a type of obsession, Facebook allows us to constantly be updated on the state of our friends and the state of our individual interests or groups.

Now, with the emergence of Goodreads we witness the birth of the Facebook of the literary and publishing world. Goodreads is a social networking site that focuses on readers, writers, and different publications. According to their website, “Goodreads is the largest social network for readers in the world.” Founded in December 2006 by Otis Chandler, the Goodreads monthly newsletter now reaches over 3.485 million online readers. To cement Goodreads place in the literary and contemporary world, Apple began offering Goodreads as a free web app in June of 2009.

Members of this free site share their reading recommendations, reviews, and thoughts on the literary world in general. Authors also partake in the exchange by posting thoughts about their latest releases and teasing audiences with hints about upcoming publications. Goodreads also features trivia, quizzes, author interviews, prelease book giveaways, video blogs, favorite literary quotes, and even book swaps among readers.

I have a couple of favorite aspects about the site. First of all, where on the internet can you enter a giveaway contest that is actually legit? On Goodreads, apparently. Authors feature prerelease copies of their books for the giveaways. In return, the winners are asked to read the book and post a review to contribute to the book’s burgeoning publicity. And the big news is…you can actually win! And for those of us too cowardly to join a book club and irreversibly confirm ourselves as shameless bookworms, Goodreads offers an awesome forum for exchange and opinion. There aren’t that many book clubs where the author partakes in the discussion.

PW Announces Top 100 Books of 2010

Publisher’s Weekly recently announced their picks for Best Books of 2010. With an average of 7,000 book reviews each year, editors found it tough to pick worthy candidates for this year’s prestigious list. While the full 100 were published in the print edition yesterday, PW allowed a sneak peek at the top 10 on their website in an article published on Nov. 8. Editors agree that female authors had a strong presence in this year’s publishing market, and, consequently in their top 100 list.

Without further ado, the top ten include:

1. A Visit from the Good Squad by Jennifer Egan
2. Freedom by Jonathon Franzen
3. Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
4. The Surrendered by Chang-rae Lee
5. The Big Short by Michael Lewis
6. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
7. Just Kids by Patti Smith
8. Man in the Woods by Scott Spencer
9. The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udal
10. The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson

Also, worth the read to learn what’s worth reading is PW's Best Children's Books 2010. For more details on PW’s top ten please click here.