Welcome to chapter 23 of the book column. Developing a community of book lovers grows your passion for books enormously. Exploring Goodreads.com can bring a community to you and help keep track of your library.
On Goodreads, you can search for books, read reviews and summaries of them and add them to various shelves in your own library. If a book is on your "currently reading" shelf, then you can update your progress. Goodreads will tell you what percent of the book you have completed. It is a great way to stay motivated while reading, especially a long novel.
Another fascinating Goodreads function is the book clubs on the site. Here, readers come together to discuss books and post their own reviews of the story in a centralized location.
All you have to do is look for the button that says “Community." Once here, groups are organized by popularity, relevance to books you’ve already read, or groups you are in now. Some groups are based on physical location, and others are based by author.
One very popular group was created by Emma Watson. “Our Shared Shelf” is an all women’s book club dedicated to reading feminist literature and creating an open forum for women to express their beliefs and be educated.
“Our Shared Shelf” has 212,296 members and counting. Despite being an online forum, some members who live in the same area organize meet ups.
This month, the group is reading “Why I’m No Longer Talking To White People About Race,” by Reni Eddo-Lodge. Members must be done with the book by February 28th, and they can discuss their thoughts on the book in the discussions section of the book club.
Another book club that would be of interest to college students on Goodreads.com is “A Million More Pages." This group, like many others, can be found listed on the Goodreads website.
This group has around 1,600 members. They have multiple options for current books to be reading, and they will assign a set of new books quarterly. Now, they are reading fairy-tale adventure stories until the end of June.
If you are a fan of fantasy literature, this group would be a great community for you right now.
“Catching Up On Classics” is another book club on Goodreads.com that offers more than one reading selection at once. In this group, they read mostly classic literature. It is a big improvement over high school reading assignments.
Personally, I like this option because I’m so indecisve about sticking to one book. I also feel compelled to read more classic literature. They are masterpieces for a reason, so true bookworms should start to fill their shelves with Jane Austen and William Shakespeare.
Setting up a physical book club can be time-consuming, and often it doesn’t work. However, online, with a large group of committed people, book clubs can be great sources of community for students.
The literature they read will grow your mind, and reading fun novels outside of class can be a great stress reliever as well. Students can find any book club to fit their favorite genre or reading challenge on Goodreads.com.
