Goodreads is a global social network of reading enthusiasts, often called “Facebook for book lovers”. The service helps you keep lists of books you’ve read and lists of must-read books, as well as share recommendations with friends who, like you, love to read. Goodreads was founded in 2006 by Otis Chandler and today has millions of users from all over the globe.
Goodreads is a social network of reading lovers. It brilliantly solves the problem of choosing interesting and useful books based on recommendations and reviews of other people, the so-called “social cataloging”. Mark the books you have read, swap works, rate them, and write reviews.
The social network for reading lovers was created in 2006, and in 2013 it was bought by Amazon. By the way, after this acquisition, some book lovers became prejudiced against the stars and reviews published on Goodreads, but the site is still popular, and the ranking system is more trusted in the book world than Amazon ratings. Many people admit that when looking for a new book, it is this site that is the first place they look for reviews.
The Goodreads social network allows you to keep a virtual card catalog of books you have read, are currently reading, and have put off reading, as well as share recommendations with friends. Goodreads also helps you keep detailed statistics and plan the number of books you want to read.
Each Goodreads user fills out a profile – a detailed portrait of the reader. Books in the profile are located on bookshelves: by default, the shelves Read, Currently-Reading, To-Read, and Favorites are available.
Goodreads account is easy to synchronize with Facebook or Twitter accounts and check if your friends have read this book and what their impressions are. A personal virtual bookshelf allows you to visualize your book preferences and see what books are on the shelves of other users. And, of course, the main opportunity is to join many communities on the site, participate in interesting book discussions, and even vote in the annual Goodreads Choice Awards literary contests.
Goodreads It’s not just a service for marking books read. It also has a community where you can share reviews and follow your friends’ updates. It is a holistic ecosystem for book lovers, writers, and publishers to interact.
What is Goodreads?
Goodreads is the name of a well-known American service that recommends books based on genre preferences, ratings of books read, and Facebook profile. A new user must rate several dozen books when entering the service, and then the recommendation engine starts working. The information about books includes links to online stores where they can be purchased; after the purchase, Goodreads receives a commission.
In terms of visual identity, the Goodreads service can be categorized as “quiet luxury”. Everything here, starting with the color palette and finishing with the contours of the lines and characters, looks extremely balanced and elegant.
The Goodreads logo, designed in 2006, features a sophisticated lowercase inscription in a clean and neat sans-serif typeface, with the “Good” part written in very thin lines, and the “Reads” emboldened. There is no extra space between these two parts, which makes the lettering look more neat and balanced. The chosen brown color adds a sense of warmth and comfort, which are the best friends of reading.
The lowercase lettering from the primary Goodreads logo is set in two styles of one sans-serif typeface which looks very close to such commercial fonts as Europa Grotesk SH Trade, M Ying Heitrade HK, or Neue Haas Grotesktrade Display.
As for the color palette of the Goodreads visual identity, it is based on a warm medium-dark shade of brown, which sometimes is accompanied by white, and sometimes — by a very light yellow tone.