The reason I decided to bring this up here today is this: After being away from my local library's website for a couple of months, I went on there this morning to request a couple books. Even though I live in the largest county in the state of Florida, we're typically not in the forefront of technology, but we do usually catch up. Anyway, after I pulled up the book I was interested in borrowing, I was surprised to notice there is now a thumbnail picture of the book beside the description. I thought, 'Wow, that's nice'. Then I continued scrolling down the page and noticed a section for 'Reader Ratings and Reviews'. This is also a new feature on the site. It has a bold disclaimer about Goodreads and shows the average rating and a button you can click to read other reviews. After the shock wore off, I decided that this was a positive step for our po-dunk county libray. I am actually really impressed that the PTB in charge of my library made such a positive step in making our site better.
That got me to thinking that maybe Goodreads joining Amazon might not be as horrible an idea as I first thought. I don't know when any changes are to be made but I'm confident that it will not affect my current list of 'friends' on Goodreads and my access to their reviews, so I am willing to wait and see how it turns out. Has anyone else heard any rumblings about this major change? If so, I'd sure love to know what you know. I used to use LibraryThing but eventually made Goodreads my number one book site and I am hopeful that this will not completely screw up my Feng-shui.
With my depression over the loss of Google Reader in July finally subsiding, I don't think I can take anymore major changes to things I love. I still am very perplexed as to why Google has decided to do away with Reader, but I don't want to get all that started up again....
One last thing I wanted to mention is that I'd like to let those of you who may not know, that I have a page on Facebook for Southern Girl Reads. Many of my book-friends on FB have already 'Liked' my page and I want to say Thank You for that. If you are my Friend on FB but only want to see book related posts/reviews and don't really care what I'm making for supper or family stuff, you may want to make the change to my FB fan page. For those of you whom I am not Friends with on FB, I invite you to visit my page and 'Like' it if you so desire. I'd love to have you!
OK, well that's all I have today. I hope that if any of ya'll have information on the Amazon/Goodreads Thing, you'll leave a comment so we can all know what you know! Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful week ahead in books!
I'm upset about the loss of Google Reader too - I've tried Feedly and Bloglovin' and am not crazy about either one.
ReplyDeleteI have mixed feelings about Goodreads joining Amazon. I like them both but do not care for the reviews on Amazon . I liked that Goodreads was it's own separate place and hope that they keep the reviews that way. I'm sticking out to see what happens, not giving up yet. I'm with you about Google reader, have downloaded feedly but haven't made the switch official yet.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure what it means either, but right now, if you want to purchase a book that you saw on Goodreads, it takes you to independent booksellers and now I am guessing it will take you to Amazon.
ReplyDeleteMy thoughts are still out on the purchase of Goodreads by Amazon. I feel that if it gets too chummy then someone else out there might create a site similar to GR and we'll all flock to that one!! I don't use a Reader because I list the blogs I follow or subscribe by email..just easier that way for me.
ReplyDeleteRe Goodreads: I'm staying put. I know how to buy a book from somewhere other than Amazon so whether they only link to A or continue to offer links to BN, indies, and others I'll stick with GR. I think it's much easier to navigate than LT and I don't want to go to there trouble of joining a new site - unless GR changes in a big way.
ReplyDeleteI use google reader but have been subscribing to individual blogs since hearing that service will go away this summer. It's already gone from my Gmail links so they must be rolling away slowly? I like Staci's idea of posting a blog roll in my sidebar of the blogs I follow. I may do that as well.