5 Things I Hate About Goodreads + GIFs

No, wait, don’t pounce. I visit that site so often I virtually live there, but some features or groups of people are simply annoying. I normally don’t go around complaining, but I just had to get this off my chest. One of my favourite book bloggers was recently attacked on Twitter for uh… I have no idea why, and she was forced to make the account private. You’d think that reading books would help people make smarter choices, but apparently not. Here are my top five complaints.

1. The App

Seriously, the Android app is such a let-down. It’s one of those necessary evils because I don’t want to open my laptop just to update my reading progress. But it’s just SO slow. At first I thought it was my phone, but it seems extremely inconvenient no matter what you do or which phone you have. I love the website, so I wish they’d move on to improving the app experience soon.

2. Rating Books yet to Be Released

I get that people are all shades of excited about future releases by favourite authors, but this seems illogical to me. I add upcoming books to my TBR pile so as to fuel the hype if I really want to (or, you know, to remind Pat Rothfuss that his next book is long overdue). I understand that some people get ARC’s to review, but most of the time I see books having ratings that don’t even have a cover yet. Why is this a thing?

3. Attacking Authors

I’m not a literary angel. I have my fair share of authors whose works didn’t appeal to me (but I don’t DNF them, as you already know). I just put those in the ‘Read’ pile and don’t rate them. I get that most people don’t want to be so considerate and are frank about not liking certain books. But, for the love of God, why would anyone attack the writers personally? At the end of the day, they are just people who want to entertain you, and if you didn’t get your money’s worth, by all means, rant about it, but that’s immature, especially on a forum such as Goodreads. How would you feel if someone who has no idea about your job suddenly shows up at your office and yells at you for being incompetent?

4. Attacking Readers

I’ve come to accept that I live in a world where people don’t like The Lord of the Rings. In fact, a lot of people can’t stand the kind of books I read. My mom thinks reading fantasy is foolish and weird. And you know what? That’s okay. She’s entitled to her opinion, just like everyone else on this planet. It’s perfectly fine if you’re having a discussion about your disagreements, or even arguments (although I can’t relate to that), but it’s not your job to bully other people into hero-worshipping the authors you love (nobody’s even paying you). A big thumbs-down for such behaviour from me.

5. Spoilers

Goodreads was made by people who love books for people who love books. It has an option to hide spoilers in one’s review, which is super helpful, and meant to be used. That twist you never saw coming and are totally psyched about? React to it without revealing it, thank you very much. Don’t ruin the experience for others, please.

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I feel loads better now. Don’t GIFs make everything more interesting? Are you on Goodreads? What is your opinion?