Goodreads and good reading

I've observed that Goodreads is doing more harm than good to my reading. Let me explain.

Goodreads is an excellent platform to find good titles to add to your reading list. The bit I struggle with is keeping track of what I’m reading and what I’ve read. Once I’ve marked a book as "to read" it looms over like a chore to complete until I move it to the "read" shelf. This impedes my ability to freely move between books and explore something more interesting or relevant.

If the book I started isn’t particularly interesting after certain pages, this is especially damning. I end up losing because I’m neither driven to read the book I’m currently reading nor comfortable taking on another one. Eventually I end up reading way lesser trying to comply to the structure Goodreads provides.

Well, I can’t obviously blame Goodreads for this. It’s a trait of the procrastinator to crave perfection and end up doing nothing due the fear of falling short. I’m constantly trying to internalise the truth that there’s more value to moving between books and reading anything that interests me at any time than finishing what I’m on taking my sweet time.

A friend made a very striking remark about Goodreads. He said the reason why many people flock to the platform is because the benefits of reading, although well known, aren’t immediately tangible. Marking a book as "read" and the associated social validation attach instant gratification to finishing books. I wonder how much truth this holds.

Likewise, travel and fine dining seem to be inseparable from Instagram. I would estimate that this has implicit effects on how we consume these experiences. Anyway, I’ll continue to use Goodreads to find good suggestions but I wouldn’t torture myself over not keeping track of my reads on the platform.