Are You a Social Reader?

On Tuesday, I flippantly said I'd dumped LibraryThing for GoodReads.

This incurred some friendly wrath from two librarian acquaintances on Facebook who dig LibraryThing. That's cool! They have good reason: besides an approachable site staff and informative newsletter, LibraryThing offers free books for early reviewers.

I already knew why I left LT for GR: GR is much slicker. It seems to be better monitored as well (when I type stephen king into the search box, GR gives me two author listings; LT gives me 159).

But it occurs to me there are two distinct types of users on either site (or others, like Shelfari): those who want to keep track of what they've read and want to read, and those who want to share what they've read and want to read.

I'm mostly the former: my GoodReads is where I go when I find a new title, or remember a book I read in the early 90s, or finish reading a book.

I haven't used the social aspects of GR much, though. I don't think I've ever written a review (and doubt I will); instead, I use the star-based rating system. Three stars...click...move on to the next book. I've been part of two book clubs there, but neither has been active for several months. I rarely read others' reviews of books (though I sometimes glance at their star ratings). I've never swapped books with other users.

And yet these are exactly the features that thousands of other users most value at GR.

So I ask...

Do you consider yourself a social reader?

In other words, is sharing book experiences with others a large part of your reading experience -- through book clubs, blogs, book-related social media sites like GR or LT, the #amreading hashtag on Twitter, public readings, etc? If so, why is that shared experience important to you?

Do you think we're hard-wired to find common ground?

[image via Shutterbug Mama]
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