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Question: Do you make use of Goodreads recommendations?
Answer: If you mean the ones on their site - based on your reading this you might like that - recommendations then no.
Just because I like one book doesn't mean I want to read a dozen more books just like it. Sometimes I read outside my genre, like a thriller, and all of a sudden they are recommending 80 thrillers to me and NO.
I also find a lot of the comparisons stupid. If I finish and love a romcom then they recommend a romance that ends in tragedy, missing why I loved the initial book. Or recommend a similar book based on a book I gave 1 star to.
I really don't listen any *professional* book rec's. I don't care about PW, EW, NYT or any booklists. I only listen to my bookish friends recommendations. They know me. I know their tastes and I trust them so that's that! lol
I never pay attention to the Goodreads recs. I glance at them now and then and some of the recs are so random. Another example of how Goodreads algorithms are on crack. LOL
ReplyDeleteThey are SO random most of the time.
DeleteI'm the same way. I roll my eyes so hard when I see a book blurbed as "for fans of so and so and so and so). I'm like, please. I have enough that I find on my own and other blogs... I will say, though, that I kinda wish I used Goodreads more. Not for recs, but just... all the groups and all that. When I started blogging I saw all the book groups and discussions on there and thought it was so cool, but I haven't been there in ages...
ReplyDeleteThe comparisons are usually the worst. Nothing about them is the same. And I don't care if a famous person blurbed something.
DeleteI'm really bad at using Goodreads. I only go there to look up a book I'm interested in or mark one read.
Exactly. Same here
DeleteI never pay attention to Goodreads recommendations either. Like you said, sometimes they recommend books based on my 1-star reviews. No thank you. I get books from blogs or from what my friends are reading on Goodreads. :)
ReplyDeleteRec'ing a book based on something you hated is hilarious to me. I need to trust people I get them from. I always feel like the other rec's are paid for.
DeleteI got the weirdest one today, nothing I would ever read. Oh well
ReplyDeleteAmazon's are even worse but they are usually irrelevant.
DeleteThat's a big no to both Goodreads and Amazon generated recommendations. They both show me Romance novels 75% of the time and I'm allergic to romance. 😁 Goodreads once recommended biker erotica to me. Ha! 🙃
ReplyDeleteI find that if I loved a romcom they then recommend some super sad historical romance or women's literature.
DeleteAmazon always recommends erotica to me no matter what I've read lol
😛
DeleteSame, though I like the "readers also enjoyed" on individual book entries. I have some good books that way.
ReplyDeleteThose might have a better record of being true than what Goodreads feels is similar.
DeleteThe only GR recs I find helpful are the similar sort of books in the top right corner. I think the same thing Samantha is talking about. I do sometimes find more books I'm interested there. But yeah, the rest usually miss what it was I liked about the book.
ReplyDeleteThey tend to lump general genres/authors together and that's not what makes a book for me so it can be hard to find another book based on what I did enjoy.
DeleteAnd I don't necessarily want to read another book similar to what I just finished.
I agree. No algorithm has been able to accurately recommend to my eclectic tastes. I much prefer getting recommendations from my trusted book buddies like you!
ReplyDeleteThey can't capture the exact reason you like a book. I think maybe they're good if you read less?? My MIL loves recommendations like that and lists from famous people lol
DeleteBut that's how she chooses her books and isn't involved with a book community. I think we tend to stick with each other because we trust the recommendations more and we already have too many books to read!
Their recommendations are usually so off the mark. Although recently when I posted a review for Ensnared by Tiffany Roberts they gave me a treasure trove of very weird books, lol.
ReplyDeleteTheir interpretations of why you like something is usually not correct lol
DeleteHa NOPE! I agree with you, I don't really trust "professional" recs, I feel like they were just paid advertisements? And usually when a "friend" recommends to me, it's just them being buddies with an author and throwing some random book at their entire friend list so... still hard no from me!
ReplyDeleteThat's what I feel. The Goodreads ones are just really bad algorithms that rarely capture what I liked in the book they are comparing to. EW/PW etc...hardly give any actual information about the book and, int he case of EW especially, just feel like paid promo.
DeleteHmm! I have to say my reply to this question would also have been 'No!'. Thinking about recommendations just aren't something I do. Sure, give me your thoughts on a book and I'm all ears ... but recommend it? Hmm! No.
ReplyDeleteI stick with reading reviews from people I know and trust. Goodreads is an algorithm that doesn't truly understand why I do or do not like a book so they're usually useless.
DeleteI don't really pay attention to it.
ReplyDeleteThey just aren't that helpful to me
DeleteWell written! I agree 100%. I enjoy recs from my book friends. Once and a while, I'll see a random book on Netgalley that I may like but I always check with my book peeps before I move ahead!
ReplyDeleteSame jen!
DeleteI don't use them either, though I have seen reader friends on Facebook and in Goodreads groups say they do. I'd rather trust a reviewer I know has similar tastes to my own because those recommendations can include authors whose books I KNOW I dislike.
ReplyDeleteMy MIL uses them and best seller lists. I feel like I don't know these people so I don't trust their taste lol
Delete