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At the beginning of last year, I made the full switch over from Goodreads to
The StoryGraph to track my reading. The decision came because I was tired of Goodreads purposefully choosing to ignore harassment via review comments–something that kept coming up on books that were being banned across the country. I did not use Goodreads to socialize but to track and make notes, so making the jump was not a huge deal. So far, I’ve been happy with how StoryGraph allows me to do what I hope to do.
But one of the most interesting things I did during the switch over was to really comb through my “To Read” books. I looked at each one to consider whether or not it was a book I truly wanted to read or not. In some cases, I ended up acquiring the book and in other cases, a quick delete took it out of my “I’ll get to it someday” list. This was a fascinating process.
I never used Goodreads to shelve things unless it was a book I really wanted to remember. Paging through and looking at each title highlighted a number of themes and trends. That 10,000 foot view gave me some perspective into books and stories that I am drawn to, interests that I want to (or have) pursued, and it forced me to really consider the kind of reader I am, rather than the kind of reader I wished to be.
Here are some of the interesting things I discovered.
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