2020 reading with the help of Goodreads

I joined Goodreads towards the end of last year. I hadn't joined before because I didn't want to get pulled into another social media black hole, but I think this will be different. I am able to track my progress on books I'm currently reading or listening to. (Tracking audio books is a bit of a challenge, though, since you enter a page number. I usually take a guess based on the chapter number.) Rather than feeling pressured to finish, my lack of progress may be an indication that I've lost interest or that this is a book that is just going to take a lot of time. Goodreads also keeps a running list of books I want to read. This keeps me from forgetting the books that have been waiting on the shelves, which are more than I want to count.

You can get recommendations based on your reading tastes too. I just added a few titles, some of which are at my public library. Some of the recommendations can be puzzling. I use the phrase "grimly fascinating" for the myth-busting history books I've been drawn to. One Goodreads recommendation based on this shelf was The Valley of Vision, the Puritan prayer book. Huh? I think their algorithm may need tweaking.

I often put off writing a review for the books I've finished as a blog post. Goodreads makes the process easier IMO, so I hope to be able to write at least a blurb for the books I finish this year. So far, I've read five.

I am also trying to intersperse uplifting books with the grimly fascinating. Too much of the latter isn't healthy even if it is with the intent to find the truth. I don't want to forget my goal of reading for my mind and my heart with the two greatest commandments in mind.

Photo attribution:Abhi Sharma from India [CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)]