Kindle and Goodreads

I recently had the pleasure of speaking with one of my students, as well as one of my fellow amateur writers, about the value of a kindle and it’s associated functionality in goodreads.

The kindle(or an e-reader), while not a paper book, is one of the best inventions a writer can possibly have prayed for. I understand it greatly weakens the mom-and-pop used bookstores that branch out across the land, but I’m not interested in what helps them as much as I am what helps me and my own. Want a book? It’s likely in there. Want a huge series of books for the cheap? Kindle unlimited magically appears. Want recommendations? Welcome to goodreads.

Goodreads is an attached service that comes from using the kindle, but doesn’t actually require you to have a physical version of it. You can purchase books through amazons e-book system and read them off your computer/laptop/phone, and upon completing said book you just give it a rating (if you want) and it changes it’s status on your goodreads account. The following is mine: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/37852873?ref=nav_mybooks

Is that every book I’ve ever read? god no. But the best part of all of this information is the recommendation system. If I read three classics, more classics are recommended. If I read a few books about writing, it tries to find other books about writing that follow a similar vein. You can set favorites and blahdiblah. There’s plenty of articles about how to use goodreads and/or the kindle.

The purpose of this post, which I as a poor writer and teacher am not paid for, is to enlighten the amateur writer for how to save some bucks, and potentially find other books that may help them in their endeavors. Maybe it’s not so cheap to start, but I know from my own voracious reading that I’ve saved hundreds just by having a kindle and it’s unlimited software. Consider it is all I ask, and if you really have to have a physical book in your hands, more power to you.