SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

This is a two-pronged questions:

1. Goodreads seems to be a Review driven website. What drives you to write reviews? Do you feel you need to do so after reading a book? Addendum: why do the reviews on this site seem so much more positive on this website than on amazon.com?

2. This particular forum seems Challenge driven to some extent. Why do you feel that you need to challenge yourself to read X number of books in a year?

I'm asking as someone who hates writing book reviews (reminds me of a school assignment) unless they book is marvelous or has "product problems" Also, as someone who routinely reads anything and everything around me (I just looked at my stats from 2017 and it says I've read 89 so far this year), I'm not sure I understand the challenge bit.

The book discussions I do understand as those are like book clubs which I tend to avoid because I might find myself having reading something I don't want to read. I'm kinda stubborn that way, but if you do discuss something I've read, i will join in

CBRetriever wrote: "1. Goodreads seems to be a Review driven website. What drives you to write reviews? Do you feel you need to do so after reading a book?"

Personally I like to write reviews for 3 reasons. 1) It helps me to put together and focus my thoughts on the book. 2) My reviews have become almost a log or diary of what I read and what I thought about it. 3) They open up discussions with other readers which is one of the things I enjoy most about goodreads.

CBRetriever wrote: "This particular forum seems Challenge driven to some extent. Why do you feel that you need to challenge yourself to read X number of books in a year?"

This club is somewhat challenge focused but not in a way (in my view) that pressures me to read x number of books. For me it's just a goal or target. I tend to want to finish whatever challenge I choose to join so it's in my character to feel pressure to live up to whatever # of books I pledge. But that's on me, not the club or gr pressuring me. And being an IT/somewhat scientifically minded person, I tend to like ways of measuring progress and/or achievement so there is something in my make up that likes the pressures put upon myself in fulfilling a challenge.

I've been on gr for going on 5 years now and when I started I was happy with my 25 books a year. These days I couldn't possibly read that few. But lately I'm beginning to feel too committed to challenges and not reading what I'd like to read as much. I'm thinking next year, that I'm not not going to be so committed (meaning pledge fewer books for sfbc for example) but I will still participate in the challenges because they do drive me towards a direction I want to go.

The quantity isn't a part of the challenge thing. Last year I had a goal of 300. I chose not to do one this year because I tend to push myself much harder (which benefits sales for Amazon) but I don't enjoy it as much. I believe I ended up at 330. Challenges for me are about the goal and having fun along the way. There are ones like bingo challenges where when you read all the books in a row you get a bingo, and therefore a "Victory!" and a little dopamine rush :) Doing something like a TBR cleanup challenge gives you the fun of both meeting the criteria and knocking a book off your TBR. (double dopamine hit). I like having a goal and achieving it. If there's additional fun along the way, I'm cool with that too.

For reviews, I write them if someone I know will find them helpful, if there's something I need to remember, or if there's something that I feel needs to be said, like the sexual assault scene in Daemon.

As for goodreads vs Amazon, I think Amazon reviewers are a lazy and undisciplined lot. I find the reviews utterly useless and unreliable. I'll take goodreads anytime.

I don't review books because I don't think I have anything to say that would add to the existing reviews. I guess I'm smart enough to know that I'm not smart enough to contribute. However, I'm very happy that lots of people do review, because I love reading them.

I don't participate in the general yearly GR reading challenge, I don't care how many books I read in a year. Yes, I keep track of it just for the sake of interest, but it doesn't matter to me what the number is. Maybe if I didn't have enough free time to read as much as I wanted, I'd need to try and make sure I don't fall behind. I'm also similar to Monica in that I love all kinds of charts, spreadsheets and databases. I look at them several times a day because they're just so much fun. And I track lots of other things in a similar way.

This year is the first time I started taking part in the non-numerical reading challenges, and I love those for making me read books I might otherwise have let sit on the TBR forever. That's the same reason that I joined this group. There are so many books I want to read, that sometimes it's hard to choose what to pick up next. So it's been interesting to try a more structured style of reading. I've also found some very interesting books because I needed to find something for a particular prompt in a challenge.

For example, this month I'm reading 26 books/things, each starting with a different letter of the alphabet. I don't know if I'd ever come across The Queue by Basma Abdel Aziz if I hadn't been browsing a list of books starting with the letter Q.

It's also very rewarding to complete a challenge, like Sarah Anne said. And reading is among the few things I'm not completely useless at, so it makes sense to track something that'll make me feel accomplished. And it makes more sense when you can actually complete the challenge, like if there's a list of books or a set number, instead of just how many can I read. I don't feel weird at all trying to read a certain amount of group books per year, because there's a limited number to begin with, and I'm not going to read all of them anyway, so it's a subset.

I enjoy reviewing books, but I don't review them if I feel that I have nothing to say that hasn't already been said ad infinitum in hundreds of other reviews.

I'm not interested in the quantity of books challenge. The only challenges I've done were with the purpose of meeting goals that I've had. I did the Around The World challenge because I wanted to increase the number of books I read taking place outside my own country. I like to have an international perspective. At one point I did an alphabet challenge twice--titles beginning with letters from A to Z, and then authors beginning with letters from A-Z. They all had to be books that I own because I was dis-satisfied with the fact that I hadn't been reading any of the books on my shelves.

I never read books that I don't want to read for a group discussion. I only join group discussions if the selections are books that I've already read or books that I've been wanting to read.

I review ARCs. Other than that I write reviews only if something, positive or negative, stands out to me while I am reading and I make a note of it. I don't write reviews for books that already have thousands of reviews. Really what can I add to the discussion of Pride and Prejudice? I never participate in challenges. I don't need encouragement to read.

I'm asking about the reviews on Goodreads vs Amazon because of a book I'm currently reading: The Sea of Storms where I only see two written reviews that are 1 star and 2 that are 2 star, but Amazon has 6 1 star and 8 2 star reviews. I'm struggling to get through this book (with far too many eye-rolls). Maybe the reviews for this book are an exception (possible).

Do people that just rate a book w/o writing a review count in the statistics on a book? That's not very helpful if that's the case. BTW, this is one where I let the author talk me into reading it on the Amazon forums (he was polite and was not spamming his books)

However, I am glad to hear from people responding to my questions. It helps me understand this site better.

CBRetriever wrote: "1. Goodreads seems to be a Review driven website. What drives you to write reviews? Do you feel you need to do so after reading a book? Addendum: why do the reviews on this site seem so much more positive on this website than on amazon.com?"

It's much more than two-pronged.

Goodreads actually started as a cataloguing site like LibraryThing, Film Aficionado , or Last.fm.

I only review occasionally. Most times I have nothing I want to say. A rating suffices me fine for my purposes.

Remember there are far many more users on Amazon.com than there are on Goodreads. Many more people leave reviews there never knowing this place exists.

CBRetriever wrote: "2. This particular forum seems Challenge driven to some extent. Why do you feel that you need to challenge yourself to read X number of books in a year?"

This is fairly new and something we're trying. It started to promote more people reading past club picks and
reviving the threads. Over time it's grown to include other challenges for fun. But there's nothing mandatory about any of them and I'd never push people to do them. I've actually decided not to do any challenges next year apart from reading the club picks so I can focus on other things.

CBRetriever wrote: "Do people that just rate a book w/o writing a review count in the statistics on a book? That's not very helpful if that's the case."

Yes, as they should. Writing a review or not should have no bearing on whether a rating is part of the overall.

I guess I'd find it more helpful if they told us why the 1 or 2 star as I was thinking more of being helpful in the matter of deciding whether or not to get a book. The 1-Star reviews could all be a "I don't like non-human main characters" like one was on Amazon which I promptly discarded as a reason for a bad review.

And the two-pronged, referred to my question being two pronged (two questions in one), not the website or forum being two-pronged

And I'm a terrible writer, so I seldom leave a review myself unless it's to inform people of a problem with a book and then i go back and amend it once the problem has been corrected. I tend to think of Amazon reviews as product reviews and the ones here as book reviews.

I've generally found Amazon ratings to be higher than Goodreads ones, if I happen to check. But I'm firmly in the 'dislike writing reviews' camp. I do it when I can, mostly so that I can remember what I thought about a book. But all of my semi-articulate thoughts I have when I was reading become totally inarticulate when I sit down to write. I appreciate those great reviewers on the site though-they have totally convinced me to try some books I've ended up loving.

CBRetriever wrote: "What drives you to write reviews? Do you feel you need to do so after reading a book?"

I review every book I read, usually before I start reading my next book. I enjoy the process, and I think it has personal benefits. I’d continue writing reviews even if I knew nobody else would ever read them. The process of pausing to reflect on what I’ve read and trying to put my thoughts into words helps me better understand what I do and don’t like in a book, and the process also helps me remember that book better. I remember books much better now that I write reviews for them than I did before.

Another big benefit of posting reviews on a site like Goodreads is that sometimes they generate discussions with other people who have read the book. I think people overlook this sometimes when they’re reluctant to review a popular book like, say, Harry Potter. Sure, you aren’t going to say anything brand new, and your review will quickly get buried and may never be seen by anybody casually browsing the book page. On the other hand, your friends will see your reviews on their feed. With a popular book, there’s a good chance that your friends have read it already and may enjoy seeing what you thought and discussing it with you. When I read Harry Potter for the first time, only a couple of years ago, the reviews I posted on a different site got quite a bit of comments as people followed along and discussed the books with me, kindly avoiding spoilers for the books I hadn’t read yet. I had a lot of fun with that.

But I do understand that reviewing seems like torture to some people, and not worth the benefits. I enjoy writing (although I have no aspirations to be an author!), and it helps me think through things, but not everybody does. A book review doesn’t have to be something you spend hours working on, though. It can be short and simple. Some people just write a sentence or two. I especially love reading reviews from friends about books I’ve read myself, and I enjoy them whether they’re long or short.

CBRetriever wrote: "Why do you feel that you need to challenge yourself to read X number of books in a year?"

I personally don’t. I’ve never participated in the Goodreads yearly challenges, nor the challenges in this group. I do occasionally, if rarely, participate in some of the group read discussions. It’s always fun to have people to discuss a book with if you wanted to read that book anyway. I just don’t participate often because I like to follow my own reading schedule. In any case, I don’t count those group reads as a number toward any sort of challenge.

I think reading challenges work better for different personality types than mine. To me, a challenge is something I would set to encourage myself to do something I don’t enjoy, and I enjoy reading. I’m also pretty goal-oriented, so couldn’t set a goal and then not try to achieve it. Other people can just have fun with it without taking it too seriously. For example, I often see people talk about lowering or raising their original goal later in the year to match up with what they now believe they’ll actually accomplish. My goal-driven brain goes, “What?!” For my personality, I see only negative consequences to setting a reading goal: 1) I might shirk some responsibilities to meet the goal, 2) I might choose shorter books if I think I’m in jeopardy of meeting the goal when the books I’m really interested in reading happen to be longer, or 3) I might rush through a dense book that requires more time and effort to fully appreciate, therefore missing out on the enjoyment I might have had otherwise and making it a waste of time.

YouKneeK wrote: "CBRetriever wrote: "What drives you to write reviews? Do you feel you need to do so after reading a book?"

I review every book I read, usually before I start reading my next book. I enjoy the proc..."

I agree with you about reviews helping me with focusing my thoughts on a book. Sometimes the process of writing the review helps me to decide my opinion of the book.

I don't agree with you about writing a review of a popular book that's redundant because it might generate discussion among my friends. My experience is that there won't be discussion unless my review is very different from others that have been posted. My friends want to know whether or not I liked the book. A star rating is sufficient for that purpose, but I agree that it's not sufficient for someone who doesn't make reading decisions on the basis of stars even if they are friend reviews. I happen to be one of those people. I generally make decisions on the basis of descriptions myself.

I found a book today that I really wish I'd written a review on because I'm remembering it as two stars and a DNF and I gave it four stars. And apparently I finished it.

I write reviews for me for a mixture of all the reasons stated here: I like talking books, I like collecting my thoughts (I've noticed trends in my preferences this way, and it's helpful to me and people who recommend books to me to know about them), and I have a terrible memory, so it's a good way to remind myself wtf happened. This has been exceptionally helpful, because pre-Goodreads I'd often re-read books I disliked so much I couldn't remember them until I got to the Big Reveal and then remembered how mad I'd been the first time around. Also, it's been helpful because people post content warnings, or know that I have content I liked to be warned about, and will therefore do so for me, having seen my comments in past reviews. That's vastly improved my reading experience.

The challenges I do for myself. I set annual goals that are realistic but require focus to achieve and then I do book club challenges once it's clear I'm going to do the things I'd have wanted.

So like this year, I had a personal theme (authors I'd not yet read but should have). Once I'd done all 20 of those books, I jumped into another challenge to generate a new goal. I only read with the group(s) if it's something I want to do, but I do prioritize books that I know others will be reading around the same time because the talking part is a ton of fun. The Stormlight Archive re-read was a total spur of the moment thing that just sounded like too much fun to miss, and I'm really enjoying it.

And I do like checking boxes off, so anytime I can read a book that hits my personal theme AND something in a group is a total win.

Re: conversation on books, it seems to go back and forth for me. I've had some really good conversations on the review itself, but usually it seems that I'll say I read X book and my brief thought on it in a thread, anyone interested will go read my review, and then come back to the chat to talk about it. Either way, it means that conversation that I might not have otherwise had has begun because of a review I wrote. I do the same thing for others. I eagerly await reviews/ratings from people on books that catch my eye, and when it's just a rating I'm often less likely to comment because there's nothing for me to grab onto.

Monica wrote: "CBRetriever wrote: "1. Goodreads seems to be a Review driven website. What drives you to write reviews? Do you feel you need to do so after reading a book?"

Personally I like to write reviews for 3 reasons. 1) It helps me to put together and focus my thoughts on the book. 2) My reviews have become almost a log or diary of what I read and what I thought about it. 3) They open up discussions with other readers which is one of the things I enjoy most about goodreads."

I'm going to let the comments about reviews by my spokesperson Monica who is clearly reading my mind stand on their own without further elaboration.

On Challenges, I just think they're fun. My personal great white whale for the past quarter-century has been my Alphabet Challenge, where I've been trying to read two books that start with each letter. 26 letters times 2 equals a book a week. So far I've always failed, but this year it looks like I'm actually going to accomplish that goal. I only have 5 books left (J, J, N, V and Z) and I'm halfway through both Js.

I like writing reviews of books I've enjoyed, so that other readers can hopefully discover the same joy I felt reading the book! And also to remind myself that I've read them.
I have written negative reviews, but always from a constructive point of view - those reviews are always shorter, and I do try to find something positive to say as well.
I love reading the reviews of the people I follow, and when the books looks interesting, I will check to see if there are reviews from people I trust. (if that makes sense, especially if there are reviews which are very firmly on both sides of the star spectrum)

I write terrible reviews. So I don’t bother, I usually just write a few thoughts and fangirl a little when I loved it. I’m not a writer or smart enough to come up with proper cohesive reviews that bring something new to the table. I just know what I like and don’t like. I do rate everything I read.
I love keeping track of the books I read, I feel quite accomplished if I hit my target. I also love participating in challenges. I love setting up lists, thinking about what I might read, being introduced to books outside my comfort zone and hearing other people’s thought. I should add I hardly ever complete all my challenges, but I don’t feel any pressure at all.
Reading is a pretty solitary activity, so these groups bring you into contact with a lot of like minded people.

Sarah Anne wrote: "I found a book today that I really wish I'd written a review on because I'm remembering it as two stars and a DNF and I gave it four stars. And apparently I finished it."

Yes. Because I don't trust my memory, I write reviews for myself, for every book I read and every book I DNF. (Don't trust the numbers on my shelves; many of my older reviews are lost, but I did write them, I promise!) Since I read over 1K books per year, I need the reviews to help me remember them.

Also, Monica says it better about how I write reviews. And, yes, sometimes I read popular books, but *my* reaction is what counts, even if it just happens to be the same as someone else's.

Sarah Anne says it best about the challenges, the fun, the dopamine hit. Also sometimes challenges encourage me to try something outside my comfort zone (yes, even though I read so much, I still tend to avoid certain genres), and sometimes that leads to a pleasant surprise.

I usually don't do the site-wide yearly challenge that is simply a big number, but this year I did because I wanted to easily confirm that I do indeed read over 1K/yr.

I encourage everyone to write comments about everything they read. Don't think of it as a formal review or a school-type book report. Think of it as telling friends about this cool/ interesting/ stupid book you just read. Because we are all Goodreads Friends and your opinion is more valuable to me than that of a professional reviewer.

(If you want support/ guidance/ encouragement, I'd be thrilled to see you join my group: More Than Just a Rating.)

Maxine wrote: "I write terrible reviews. So I don’t bother, I usually just write a few thoughts and fangirl a little when I loved it. I’m not a writer or smart enough to come up with proper cohesive reviews that ..."

Um, I totally disagree. I glanced at some of your reviews and they're exactly the type I like - they get to the point, say what's good and not so good, are personal to you.... I hope to make time soon to read (and 'like') more of them!

Sarah Anne wrote: "I found a book today that I really wish I'd written a review on because I'm remembering it as two stars and a DNF and I gave it four stars. And apparently I finished it."

That's reason enough right there. I've had similar experiences and when I've looked back at reviews I sometimes think, "Is *that* what I thought of that book?!" or "Did I write this while sleepwalking?"

CBRetriever wrote: "This is a two-pronged questions:

1. Goodreads seems to be a Review driven website. What drives you to write reviews? Do you feel you need to do so after reading a book? Addendum: why do the review..."

On Reviews: I read enough in volume (I'm at 194 books in 2017; despite there being a period in july-august where I did not note down most of what I read.) that I forget books which have not made enough of an impression, or forget the finer details of books I actually liked.

Reviews are an easy way of highlighting the salient points of any books I've read. I've tried other venues- individual blogs, tumblrs, personal records etc; and goodreads is the most sustainable review record method I've had to date. Must be something to do with how everyone here is all about books all the time so I don't feel like I'm shouting into the void. Also, like someone else on the thread mentioned, it really works well as a cataloging site.

Of course, the downside to this is that many of my reviews tend to be incoherent ranting and/or gushing rather than carefully crafted essays which would help people decide what to read/not read. But whatever.

On Challenges: I set my goodreads challenge at a placeholder of 52 books a year, a book for each week- and I'll likely do the same for every year. It's a number I can meet and exceed easily (barring unforseen and catastrophic complications) and it's mostly there because I like the badge. I'm not at all interested in setting the goal to say 200 books a year (a number I would have to push myself to meet), because determining book readings by number sounds nightmarishly non-fun.

On the other hand, challenges and buddy reads gives me the motivation to read books that I am, for some reason or another, reluctant to read. An example from this year would be The Handmaid's Tale. It's also reaaaally fun to discuss books, so I'm always happy to be in a reading group.

I must also admit that I like joining some of the more creative challenges (like bingo challenges, theme challenges, random criteria to meet challenges). It gives me a little thrill every time I tick off one of the requirements. I can either find books which meet criteria or look at my read/to-read lists and see if anything technically fulfills the requirements so I can shoehorn it into the challenge. My favorite interpretations so far have been The Extreme (a ya sci-fi ish book about kids turning into animals) as Horror (owing to frostbite, raw meat eating, dismemberment and mentions of genocide) and Lord Brocktree (a book where all characters are animals) as "book about/with soldiers in it" (owing to the fact that it's all set in a quasi-feudal society). I feel disproportionately happy whenever I can fulfill a challenge provision with an unlikely book.

Writing reviews now is different from when I was in school by one important thing: I do it because I want, and if I don't then I will not write it. I think even a very short comment can be useful for others, point out the good stuff or warn about problems.

About challenges, no idea, I set my goal to be realistic, based on previous year experience. I don't read that much (my goal was 25 for this year, now at 29th book), but I would not go into some very specific challenges - I still have far too long list of potential reads without needing to extend it way more.

CBRetriever wrote: "This is a two-pronged questions:

1. Goodreads seems to be a Review driven website. What drives you to write reviews? Do you feel you need to do so after reading a book? Addendum: why do the review..."

I write reviews for a different reason than most have posted. As a self-published author, I get excited when complete strangers read my book, especially if they like it. I’ve now placed a challenge on myself to read books with fewer than 15 reviews. I find the review process fun. I usually leave long, two-page reviews, but they are mostly for the benefit of the author. It’s hard enough to get someone to know your book even exists, let alone read and review it. I think the review process is a great way to pay it forward. I know I always appreciate feedback. It’s also hard to get honest feedback unless it’s an anonymous stranger online.

With regards to challenges, the books I’ve read lately have close to zero chance of being well known enough to be in a challenge. I try to read at least one complete unknown a month. Plus, like others have said, I want to be free to choose my next book.

Ultimately, it comes down to “to each his/her own.”

Well, I too read unknown self-published books, where even shorter comment can help by showing why it is good (if it is, ofc).

Phillip wrote: "CBRetriever wrote: "This is a two-pronged questions:

1. Goodreads seems to be a Review driven website. What drives you to write reviews? Do you feel you need to do so after reading a book? Addendu..."
All comments, even negative/critical ones are good and welcomed. I just like writing, so I write longer reviews. I break it down into the good, the bad, and the technical.

Tomas wrote: "Well, I too read unknown self-published books, where even shorter comment can help by showing why it is good (if it is, ofc)."

I'd join you on this one. I'm not sure if writing a thesis is the way to go, when it comes to a review on Amazon. I think it can easily fall into the TL;DR category; and they only look at the number of stars you given to the book.

I don't review consistently- occasionally I'll sit down and write a long, thoughtful review of how a book speaks to me (or doesn't), or whip out a one sentence review if it's a re-read or I'm particularly in love with it or was absolutely awful (in which case I make sure to note that it's a personal opinion).

I do tend to pay some attention to reviews, although I concentrate on reading 3 star reviews unless there's a very obvious concentration of 5 or 1 star reviews for a book. Often I'll click on the username of a review and find out how close our reading tastes are, which is one of the reasons why I appreciate personal reviews rather than literary ones.

Ditto to many of these comments. Pre-Goodreads I was reading maybe 25 books a year, now I am reading 70-ish. I was having a hard time finding/deciding books I wanted to read just browsing books stores and talking to friends now I have too many choices :)

The preamble sets up the idea that one of the reasons I write reviews is to give back. I love reading all(some? most?) of my friends reviews it is the single biggest determinater as to which book I will read next, so perhaps every now and then a review by me might swing the balance one way or another for someone else.

Mostly I write reviews to give ME a simple reminder of the book but part of it is to add to the magic of Goodreads.

Marcell wrote: "I'd join you on this one. I'm not sure if writing a thesis is the way to go, when it comes to a review on Amazon. I think it can easily fall into the TL;DR category; and they only look at the number of stars you given to the book."

Well, my approach is only rating on Amazon, rating (copied through Kindle) + short comment here on GR and longer review on my personal blog. The upside is that the rating is instant (if I have wi-fi in range) and short comment on GR is in matter of hours, while the longer post on my blog usually comes with delay (up to week).

Marcell wrote: "Tomas wrote: "Well, I too read unknown self-published books, where even shorter comment can help by showing why it is good (if it is, ofc)."

I'd join you on this one. I'm not sure if writing a the..."

If I have a great deal to say about a book, that review goes on my blog which I write first. Then I excerpt it for GR. If I post a review for Amazon, I copy the shorter GR review to Amazon.

I felt like I was reading mostly the same kinds of books. This year I challenged myself to get out of my comfort bubble so I used a few challenges to help direct that effort. I really enjoyed quite a few books I might not have read otherwise.

I give every book I finish a star rating on GR. I write short reviews if there was something about a book that was amazing or awful. If a book already has a lot of reviews I might not bother. If a book is a turkey and finds its way onto my “unfinishable” shelf I might post a review to remind myself why I didn’t like it (I usually don’t give those a star rating). I review every book I win through a giveaway.

Mostly I just like to reflect a bit once a book is done, and I might as well share my ramblings.

I don't write reviews, nor do I read them. The only encouragement I get to try a new author or book is when some of these discussions ask for fav books / authors/ characters. Then I try reading some of the choices.

I must admit I have fav people who write comments , and I will lean more towards books they recommend.

I don't think I have even been to "my shelves" in the past year and ticked off what I have read.

Obviously some people need a challenge to push them to read, my "sin" is not to walk past that book that I swear is calling to me, to stop myself walking past that work that needs doing and pick up a book instead.

I categories books into : must re read, might re read, will never re read but will recommend it to someone, will never recommend to anyone. The last two groups means the books is given away as soon as possible.

Personally, I write reviews for myself mainly although if it helps to impact someone else's reading choices then that's all great. I find that it increases my enjoyment of a novel and allows me to remember it better long after I have read it.

Sometimes my review might be a couple of sentences, sometimes it might be a could of paragraphs depending on how much I loved or hated the book. Books which I really adore or really hate are most likely to get the longer reviews.

I also make a point of leaving a longer review on new books or indie-published books, particularly if it's a positive review. I hope this allows other people to sometimes find hidden gems and enjoy them as much as I have done.

In terms of challenges, I set myself 150 this year because I really enjoy reading but I was allowing other things to get in the way of me reading. I'll easily hit and surpass that as I'm at 149 now. It's given me a focus to ping onto and aim for, I suppose.

It has worked as in 2015 I read about 25 books I think but I wasn't recording them, 2016 I set a challenge and hit 100 and this year I will have hit 150. I think that's a comfortable challenge for me. Any higher and it would put me off reading longer books in order to number crunch which would to me at least be counter-intuitive!

I'll put down my responses, then read everybody else's. :)

1. I write reviews for a number of reasons:
a. To sort out my thoughts about the book in a (ideally) coherent way
b. My GR friends might read it and it will start a discussion
c. As a memory aid. If I don't write something about the book, it's likely I'll forget a lot of it. And that's bad when it comes to series.

2. I'm a slow reader, and while I like reading it is difficult. If I don't set a challenge I might shrug it off entirely and just stick to entertainment that asks less of me.

Add: I love setting up spreadsheets, too. I have a spreadsheet with all my ebooks on one tab, marking them off as I read; series I'm following on another; potential challenge reads (of whatever kind) on another, etc. It's fun and it's nice to see various percentages go up.

I wrote some reviews for a while, but I no longer do. I found that it changes my experience of reading. I would think about what I would write about the book, how what I wrote would be perceived, whether it could be justified, etc. A rating allows me to summarize my total experience, including parts that I have not put into words. I appreciate those who do write reviews, but I don't feel that doing it myself usually has net benefits for me. I do enjoy discussion, and sometimes I might write private notes.

I'm in the I write reviews to remind myself what I thought about the book camp. My reviews are nothing special but they also help me to think about what I've read and why I did or did not like a certain book. Because they are just for my cataloging and memory it always makes me laugh when a review gets a like or comment. I have one review from 2011 that still randomly gets a like or two which always makes me laugh because I didn't generally intend it for anyone besides me.

1. Why do I write reviews? Because I've never been popular in high school and here, in like 10 years I may reach my childhood dream.
Also, no-no to the whole "i no write review for popular book", because the style of the review matters to some ppl more than the "helpfulness" factor. It's an art.
2. I don't get challenges. My reading spirit does not conform to boundaries.

idiffer wrote: "1. Why do I write reviews? Because I've never been popular in high school and here, in like 10 years I may reach my childhood dream.
Also, no-no to the whole "i no write review for popular book", b..."

It's not that I never write reviews about popular books. Sometimes I have something to say about why I read it that would interest my friends.

YouKneeK wrote: "CBRetriever wrote: "What drives you to write reviews? Do you feel you need to do so after reading a book?"

I review every book I read, usually before I start reading my next book. I enjoy the proc..."

I loved reading your Harry Potter reviews! It was so fun to see what you thought about them :)

I don't usually read reviews until after I finish a book. I like to hear what people thought about it while I'm processing my own thoughts and feelings.

I think writing reviews is beneficial but I'm not a consistent review-writer. Like others have said, I think it helps me organize my thoughts, and it's nice to come back to later when my memory gets hazy. This is particularly true when it was a book I disliked. It's helpful to have concrete reasons. on hand.
But sometimes (most times) I'm too lazy.

CBRetriever wrote: "Goodreads seems to be a Review driven website. What drives you to write reviews? Do you feel you need to do so after reading a book? Addendum: why do the reviews on this site seem so much more positive on this website than on amazon.com?

I write reviews to remind myself, later, what a book is about. What about the book I did or did not like - it is interesting to see my reading taste change over time.

re: Amazon/Goodreads. I only rarely read reviews on Amazon. Something like a decade ago I used to write reviews on Amazon, read reviews on Amazon, etc. etc., but since I write reviews for my own information purposes, I didn't like how much control Amazon had over the reviews so I stopped reviewing over there. The only time, for the most part, that I read reviews over on Amazon, now-a-days, is if there are few to no reviews for the specific book on Goodreads (occasionally I'll gaze at reviews on Amazon if the overall rating for the book is vastly different on Amazon and Goodreads, like a book that's averaging 2.1 on Amazon, but 4.2 on Goodreads (especially since ratings on Amazon tend to be higher)).

Stephanie wrote: "I loved reading your Harry Potter reviews! It was so fun to see what you thought about them :) "

Thank you! :)

I'm not a very consistent review-writer, but I write some reviews. Sometimes I'll read reviews after reading the book, and "like" others' reviews especially if I feel like they speak for me and/or they mention something particularly interesting.

I do write reviews and I wish everyone else did!!! I use other people's reviews to help me choose books and frequently come across some really good reads this way.
I do challenges too and I have discovered many books I would otherwise have never read this way. I find challenges do not limit my reading - quite the reverse.