Week 4 , Assignment 1

I've been a Goodreads user for a couple of years now, and I find the site's features and capabilities quite useful. It's so convenient to be able to access my reading lists online, and I enjoy seeing what my friends are reading. I've suggested Goodreads to several customers who are avid readers, and a few of them have given it a try.

The way Goodreads determines which books it recommends is a bit puzzling to me. As best I can figure, it seems to latch on to one or two appeal characteristics in one or two books and it makes recommendations based on those, rather than a using broader range of criteria and more titles. I do like Goodreads' newsletters and alerts that I get by email, coupled with other sites like EarlyWord and IndieBound.org.

Although I've suggested a few titles to other friends previously, I posted this comment on Janet S's Goodreads page today, based on her 5-star rating of Edward Rutherfurd's New York: The Novel:

Hi Janet! If you like literary fiction with a bit of history and culture, you might want to try Brooklyn by Colm Toibin. It's a story about a young woman who emigrates from Ireland to New York after World War II to find work; a coming-of-age story and immigrant story that's fairly quick-paced.

One last comment about Goodreads...I've found the Goodreads app (available for both Apple and Android devices) to be really straightforward, and often easier to use than the full website.