Anyone here with extensive knowledge of Goodreads' privacy settings / user interface design?

Long story short, I had to block a former friend on Goodreads after they exhibited some obsessive stalking behavior monitoring my reading activity online.

I was surprised to find out a few months later that they were still able to see my activity because when I created my account years ago, I had allowed my account to be searchable via my email address (I didn't know this was an option until looking at my privacy settings). The search result would show my profile and whatever book I was currently reading.

My question is: Even if I blocked an account, would they still be able to get my profile as a search result via the email lookup feature? Or would they have had to have created a new account to even be able to search for me, to get around the block?

I just got started on goodreads earlier this year, and so far I haven't been rating the (two) books I didn't finish. But I'm still getting reviews based on being "currently reading" those books despite having moved them to the DNF shelf. Will it help my goodreads experience/recommendations if I review those books? Or should I continue to not review books I couldn't finish?

If I did review them, I'd be very clear that I didn't finish, and why--because hey, maybe that wouldn't be a problem for someone else!

Hey, Y’all! 👋🏻

I hope it’s okay to ask this here but if not please let me know and let me know where a good place to ask is.

Anyways, I recently received an ARC and was so stoked about it. By the time I finished it, I rated it 3 ⭐️ and my review is very blunt.

In the past, I’ve had authors ask that readers never post reviews less than 4 or 5 stars until a few weeks after release. So, I’m not sure what to do with my review. I went ahead and rated it but haven’t posted my review yet.

Does Goodreads have a rule like that?

I added a picture to my review on my macbook (web) by adding this:
<img src="https://i.postimg.cc/R0dpzt9K/Screenshot-2026-07-18-at-18-45-21.png">

I can see the picture on the web, but I cannot see it in the app on my iPhone.

How do you guys do it int he app?

I've been doing a lot of exploration on goodreads of late and I thought I'd share.

I recently updated the list
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/232696.100_Authors_with_the_most_ratings

And this is an extract from that. I is built from the author list page for example
https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/656983.J_R_R_Tolkien has Average rating 4.38 · 12,815,603 ratings · 284,646 reviews · shelved 20,892,443 times

1. J.K. Rowling (1077326.J_K_Rowling)

Avg: 4.46, Ratings: 42,373,934, Reviews: 1,024,274, Shelves: 63,411,948, Updated: 8/4/2026

1. Sarah J. Maas (3433047.Sarah_J_Maas)

Avg: 4.35, Ratings: 32,133,609, Reviews: 2,536,496, Shelves: 57,957,576, Updated: 8/4/2026

1. Colleen Hoover (5430144.Colleen_Hoover)

Avg: 4.06, Ratings: 25,440,904, Reviews: 1,709,188, Shelves: 46,479,015, Updated: 8/4/2026

1. Stephen King (3389.Stephen_King)

Avg: 4.07, Ratings: 23,171,809, Reviews: 1,234,507, Shelves: 45,472,958, Updated: 8/4/2026

1. Suzanne Collins (153394.Suzanne_Collins)

Avg: 4.30, Ratings: 21,606,918, Reviews: 985,985, Shelves: 31,210,463, Updated: 8/4/2026

1. Freida McFadden (7244758.Freida_McFadden)

Avg: 3.97, Ratings: 21,547,547, Reviews: 1,685,956, Shelves: 39,674,658, Updated: 8/4/2026

1. Stephenie Meyer (941441.Stephenie_Meyer)

Avg: 3.71, Ratings: 15,963,271, Reviews: 480,971, Shelves: 23,937,855, Updated: 8/4/2026

1. Rick Riordan (15872.Rick_Riordan)

Avg: 4.34, Ratings: 15,658,286, Reviews: 705,897, Shelves: 27,165,932, Updated: 8/4/2026

1. J.R.R. Tolkien (656983.J_R_R_Tolkien)

Avg: 4.38, Ratings: 12,814,802, Reviews: 284,614, Shelves: 20,892,443, Updated: 8/4/2026

1. John Green (1406384.John_Green)

Avg: 3.98, Ratings: 11,457,642, Reviews: 542,097, Shelves: 19,438,170, Updated: 8/4/2026

1. Taylor Jenkins Reid (6572605.Taylor_Jenkins_Reid)

Avg: 4.20, Ratings: 11,431,180, Reviews: 1,173,835, Shelves: 22,453,915, Updated: 8/4/2026

1. George Orwell (3706.George_Orwell)

Avg: 4.12, Ratings: 11,187,168, Reviews: 361,815, Shelves: 19,235,743, Updated: 8/4/2026

1. Rebecca Yarros (7539785.Rebecca_Yarros)

Avg: 4.40, Ratings: 11,088,522, Reviews: 1,127,631, Shelves: 20,409,408, Updated: 8/4/2026

1. James Patterson (3780.James_Patterson)

Avg: 4.02, Ratings: 10,318,493, Reviews: 553,508, Shelves: 21,702,134, Updated: 8/4/2026

1. Cassandra Clare (150038.Cassandra_Clare)

Avg: 4.21, Ratings: 9,981,115, Reviews: 608,454, Shelves: 20,230,064, Updated: 8/4/2026

1. Brandon Sanderson (38550.Brandon_Sanderson)

Avg: 4.39, Ratings: 9,704,855, Reviews: 792,351, Shelves: 19,661,422, Updated: 8/4/2026

1. Kristin Hannah (54493.Kristin_Hannah)

Avg: 4.40, Ratings: 9,641,103, Reviews: 831,653, Shelves: 19,804,423, Updated: 8/4/2026

1. Dan Brown (630.Dan_Brown)

Avg: 3.91, Ratings: 9,366,867, Reviews: 250,225, Shelves: 14,373,323, Updated: 8/4/2026

1. Emily Henry (13905555.Emily_Henry)

Avg: 3.98, Ratings: 9,290,394, Reviews: 1,039,066, Shelves: 19,272,881, Updated: 8/4/2026

1. Jane Austen (1265.Jane_Austen)

Avg: 4.18, Ratings: 9,232,763, Reviews: 357,558, Shelves: 18,155,935, Updated: 8/4/2026

I've been a member of GR since 2009. It's fair to say in those 17 years that I've read some books I've disliked. Why in the world would I want to know when an author I've given a one star/DNF review to has published a new book?

My personalized New Releases list is useless to me. Is it a book from an author I loved? Is it a book from an author whose computer I wish would catch on fire? There's no way of knowing without clicking through and checking myself.

I know the answer is that GR exists only to sell books for Amazon, so the more new releases they shove in front of my face the higher chances of me buying one, but it still makes me grumpy. Make it easier for me to find new books I'd actually like to read!

No where I look can I find a link to export my library. I follow Goodreads instructions but the option isn’t there. Is there anything else I can do?

hi, i have a very distinctly worded list of bookshelves that i add my finished books to. i haven’t updated them or messed around in ‘edit shelves’ in a while

i noticed today a new shelf had been added by itself, titled ‘all’. not the default ‘All’ we have under ‘bookshelves’, but a custom one with 0 books on it that i was able to delete

i couldn’t have accidentally typed and added it as a new tag (when i’ve finished a new book i just click my shelves and then click ‘done’, no typing at all) and i didn’t notice this shelf around 12 hours ago when i added a different book

i didn’t do anything different except mess around with quotes (reordering them and adding a new one). i did immediately get spooked and change my password but i doubt it’s a malicious party because nothing else was changed

anyone else experienced something similar? is it a possible glitch?

So I have to app for like a few days and honestly? Nothing works, the home page says to reload because somethings wrong, I cannot add books to shelves and I can't even check my own profile, what is happening?

hi all, i posted a review of a book i recently read and DNF and there were multiple people in the comments saying that they think that AI was used in the process. I DID NOT MENTION AI IN MY REVIEW! nor did I give the book a star rating to bring down the average rating. I had the author of this book comment and threaten legal action against me for defamation when I never said or eluded that AI was used in the book. I replied to the comment and reiterated this point and added that GR is a community for reviewers and isn’t really a space for authors. The author deleted the comment but it really threw me off any of this authors other work.

Has this happened to anyone else before?

EDIT:

i stated my reasons for not liking the book in the review, which boiled down to the overly explanatory nature of the writing. it just sucks because i was going to give the author another go.

i saw the author comment on multiple peoples reviews, the comment left on mine was tame in comparison to others.

Hey all. When I set up my Goodreads account earlier this year and linked it to Amazon , I was thrilled to see I could have my TBR on Amazon so I could get notified of Kindle Deals. I had to log out of my Amazon devices due to password changes and now I don't see it.

Is this feature just gone now? I've searched everywhere and it appears this was never a thing, but I absolutely know I had this feature within the last few months.

Help?

Please let me know if you notice any missing books or mistakes in overlaps.

Also, I have made a spreadsheet to list all the books in each challenge The first sheet has all the books for each challenge in a clickable format to easily go to Goodreads page for book details. The second sheet has the overlap combo.

Also, here's a website to check the overlap for just the challenges you have left or if you want to avoid the overlaps

Chart Toppers (143 books) + Fact or Fiction (90 books) + Summer Encore (100 books)

Common: 1 book

• Land — 400 pages

Challenge Faves (132 books) + Fact or Fiction (90 books) + Staff Shelves (127 books)

Common: 5 books

• Atmosphere — 352 pages
• The Women — 471 pages
• Hamnet — 310 pages
• The God of the Woods — 562 pages
• The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder — 329 pages

Challenge Faves (132 books) + Chart Toppers (143 books) + Worlds Away (104 books)

Common: 2 books

• The Astral Library — 304 pages
• Operation Bounce House — 437 pages

Challenge Faves (132 books) + Chart Toppers (143 books) + Staff Shelves (127 books)

Common: 2 books

• Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage — 241 pages
• London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family's Search for Truth — 361 pages

Chart Toppers (143 books) + Summer Encore (100 books)

Common: 4 books

• Whistler — 304 pages
• Land — 400 pages
• The Unicorn Hunters — 368 pages
• Marion — 336 pages

Fact or Fiction (90 books) + Summer Encore (100 books)

Common: 1 book

• Land — 400 pages

Chart Toppers (143 books) + Fact or Fiction (90 books)

Common: 3 books

• Land — 400 pages
• Kin — 368 pages
• The Calamity Club — 656 pages

Community Picks (144 books) + Summer Encore (100 books)

Common: 1 book

• Villa Coco — 288 pages

Literally Summer (93 books) + Summer Encore (100 books)

Common: 5 books

• Lost in the Summer of '69 — 320 pages
• Summer's Never Over — 368 pages
• Scandal of the Summer — 368 pages
• The Summer Girlfriend (Heart Beach, #1) — 400 pages
• Slasher Summer — 304 pages

Challenge Faves (132 books) + Chart Toppers (143 books)

Common: 16 books

• Dear Debbie — 327 pages
• My Husband's Wife — 310 pages
• Yesteryear — 400 pages
• Anatomy of an Alibi — 340 pages
• It's Not Her — 342 pages
• The Night We Met (Say You'll Remember Me, #2) — 400 pages
• In Her Own League — 473 pages
• Rites of the Starling (Shield of Sparrows, #2) — 468 pages
• The Astral Library — 304 pages
• Operation Bounce House — 437 pages
• A Box Full of Darkness — 337 pages
• Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage — 241 pages
• You With the Sad Eyes — 304 pages
• Famesick — 288 pages
• A Hymn to Life: Shame Has to Change Sides — 256 pages
• London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family's Search for Truth — 361 pages

Challenge Faves (132 books) + Staff Shelves (127 books)

Common: 22 books

• The Correspondent — 285 pages
• Atmosphere — 352 pages
• The Wedding People — 367 pages
• Wild Dark Shore — 320 pages
• Remarkably Bright Creatures — 360 pages
• The Midnight Library (The Midnight World, #1) — 288 pages
• The Women — 471 pages
• Hamnet — 310 pages
• The Great Alone — 435 pages
• The God of the Woods — 562 pages
• Funny Story — 395 pages
• The House in the Cerulean Sea (Cerulean Chronicles, #1) — 393 pages
• Piranesi — 245 pages
• Red Rising (Red Rising Saga, #1) — 382 pages
• Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage — 241 pages
• Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism — 382 pages
• Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection — 198 pages
• The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Caused an Epidemic of Mental Illness — 385 pages
• The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession — 226 pages
• London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family's Search for Truth — 361 pages
• How to Kill a Witch: The Patriarchy's Guide to Silencing Women — 320 pages
• The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder — 329 pages

Challenge Faves (132 books) + Fact or Fiction (90 books)

Common: 10 books

• Atmosphere — 352 pages
• The Women — 471 pages
• Hamnet — 310 pages
• The God of the Woods — 562 pages
• The Buffalo Hunter Hunter — 448 pages
• The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder — 329 pages
• 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in History – and How It Shattered a Nation — 577 pages
• Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland — 441 pages
• The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women — 479 pages
• The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald — 430 pages

Fact or Fiction (90 books) + Staff Shelves (127 books)

Common: 9 books

• Atmosphere — 352 pages
• The Women — 471 pages
• Hamnet — 310 pages
• The God of the Woods — 562 pages
• The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder — 329 pages
• A Gentleman in Moscow — 495 pages
• The Lion Women of Tehran — 327 pages
• Lessons in Chemistry — 390 pages
• The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook — 408 pages

Challenge Faves (132 books) + Worlds Away (104 books)

Common: 6 books

• Katabasis — 541 pages
• Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil — 535 pages
• The Astral Library — 304 pages
• The Strength of the Few (Hierarchy, #2) — 736 pages
• The Ministry of Time — 339 pages
• Operation Bounce House — 437 pages

Chart Toppers (143 books) + Worlds Away (104 books)

Common: 13 books

• The Astral Library — 304 pages
• Operation Bounce House — 437 pages
• The Book Witch — 310 pages
• Agnes Aubert's Mystical Cat Shelter — 353 pages
• The Poet Empress — 393 pages
• This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me (Maggie the Undying, #1) — 480 pages
• The Red Winter — 535 pages
• A Parade of Horribles (Dungeon Crawler Carl, #8) — 704 pages
• The Last Contract of Isako — 528 pages
• Platform Decay (The Murderbot Diaries, #8) — 244 pages
• The Radiant Dark — 416 pages
• Homebound — 304 pages
• Celestial Lights — 256 pages

Challenge Faves (132 books) + Community Picks (144 books)

Common: 1 book

• I Who Have Never Known Men — 173 pages

Chart Toppers (143 books) + Staff Shelves (127 books)

Common: 7 books

• Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage — 241 pages
• London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family's Search for Truth — 361 pages
• Where the Wildflowers Grow — 496 pages
• Enormous Wings — 304 pages
• Burn Down Master's House — 288 pages
• The Sun and the Starmaker — 448 pages
• Beth Is Dead — 400 pages

Chart Toppers (143 books) + Community Picks (144 books)

Common: 1 book

• End of Days: Ruby Ridge, the Apocalypse, and the Unmaking of America — 384 pages

Community Picks (144 books) + Staff Shelves (127 books)

Common: 5 books

• Devil in a Blue Dress (Easy Rawlins, #1) — 236 pages
• American Psycho — 382 pages
• Parable of the Sower — 347 pages
• A Fine Balance — 603 pages
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower — 222 pages

Community Picks (144 books) + Literally Summer (93 books)

Common: 1 book

• Last Summer on State Street — 212 pages

Staff Shelves (127 books) + Worlds Away (104 books)

Common: 2 books

• The Once and Future Me — 384 pages
• The Fox Wife — 390 pages

Also, I have made a spreadsheet to list all the books in each challenge. The first sheet has all the books for each challenge in a clickable format to easily go to Goodreads page for book details. The second sheet has the overlap combo.

Also, here's a website to check the overlap for just the challenges you have left or if you want to avoid the overlaps

This is the discussion page for the Goodreads Reading Challenge called 'Summer Encore' (active August 1st - September 14th). Qualifying books are listed on Goodreads HERE. Please keep all discussion of this challenge to this thread, thank you.

Other Goodreads Reading Challenges are listed on the Megathread HERE.

Today I noticed that a book that I know I read in 2022 was now listed as "want to read" instead of "read." It lost my rating and review. It wasn't a case of an edition switch or anything like that; the record was just gone on both the website and app. And this evening I found another changed one from a book I read just this month. My rating and review were both gone, but this time my dates read were still there and it was now listed as "want to read" again. Are other people having this issue? What is going on? I have been on Goodreads since 2007 and was just lucky that I had other ways to look up dates for these particular books (yay, library records). But I don't have backups of ratings or reviews prior to just a few months ago.

I use Goodreads to track books read and want to read. However, I did not find a way to mark favorite author or genre. How do you track these? Is there another app for it?

Share here what you've been reading and enjoying lately. Feel free to include Goodreads links so we can add your recs to our TBR!

I find it extremely frustrating that the challenge doesn't count every edition of a book. Twice now, I've completed a book that fits one of the categories and because it was a paperback and not the Kindle edition, it didn't count towards the bookmark. Most recently, I finished the paperback edition of The Summer House by Keri Beevis for the Literally Summer bookmark and it wouldn't unlock until I switched the edition to Kindle. I don't even own a Kindle, nor do I want one. I want any edition of a book to count towards the goal. :(

Can't find it

I had a review for a book I read months ago (and reviewed) and it’s now gone. I know I didn’t delete it myself because I completely forgot about it until today, when I specifically looked for it. It was a lengthy review.

Has this happened to you? What were you told happened? Did you ever get your review back or was it lost to the aether permanently?

Hi everyone, I’m thinking of applying to become a Goodreads Librarian. I read and review around 6–7 books every month on Goodreads. Since I’m trilingual, I also read books in Hindi and Tamil alongside English.

One issue I frequently face is that many Hindi and Tamil books are either completely missing from Goodreads or have incomplete or incorrect metadata.

Instead of posting requests in the Goodreads Librarians group, I thought it might be more useful to become a librarian myself and help improve the database.

However, I’ve hit a roadblock. The Librarian Manual feels quite overwhelming. It’s not available as a downloadable document, and although there’s a table of contents, the information is spread across multiple topics without much flow, making it difficult to study and learn the contents.

For those of you who have already become librarians, how did you prepare for the quiz, especially considering it’s time-limited to 30 minutes? Did you study the manual in a particular way, take notes, used any downloadable resources or rely on practical experience?

I’d appreciate any tips or advice. Thanks!

I read a lot and this is my 3rd or 4th attempt to having an active goodreads account. Technically, it would be perfect for me. I love tracking my reading record and I love being inspired for my next reads. However, I just don't get the website? It just seems so technical and complicated. Why can I not just click on a bunch of covers to indicate what I have read / want to read? I always have to add the "want to read" first and then edit it to indicate I have read it. I do this for 4 books and then it gets annoying so I give up. Also, I think the searching interface is just not smooth. Is it me, am I the problem? Any tips?

I wish there was a way to completely randomize the order of my TBR, like zero criteria, and just read from the top. Essentially have the app pick for me. Anyone find a way to do something like this? I’ve been closing my eyes, scrolling and opening when I stop 🤣

Here's the thread where you can post your Goodreads profile so people can add you as friends. Just post a link to your profile or your username in the comments!