Goodreads. I love Goodreads. Goodreads is where you find good reads, put all those that sit on your physical bookshelves at home and stock them into virtual shelves so you can track your progress on all the good reads that you are reading. Goodreads.

Reading is powerful. I read anything from Theology to books on Leadership. Last year, I got into reading Fiction, dabbled a bit into the Classics, read some Historical Fiction and even a bit of Mystery Thrillers. Last year, I read for sermons, for leadership development, for personal spiritual growth, for school, and for leisure. Although, this past school semester, there were two months where I only read 1 book each month, I still read. School classes were brutal. With so much entertainment in social media and TV, one has to make time to grow in knowledge by reading. It is fascinating to read sentences and paragraphs in books that ultimately move you, trigger a memory, or make you think deeper.

Maybe, in the future, I’ll write some blog posts on reading books. That’ll (for sure) drive away all the two people who skim my new blog posts. 🙂 Let’s get back to Goodreads.

According to Goodreads, they are the “world’s largest site for readers and book recommendations. [Their] mission is to help people find and share books they love.” On Goodreads you can:

• “See which books your friends are reading.
• Track the books you’re reading, have read, and want to read.
• Check out your personalized book recommendations. Our recommendation engine analyzes 20 billion data points to give suggestions tailored to your literary tastes.
• Find out if a book is a good fit for you from our community’s reviews.”

I’m telling you, it’s a great resource. I found out about this site a while back and joined it on December of 2013 and committed to use it. I organized the books I have into different shelves. As of now, I have a little over 500 books that I own and have on my shelves at home. I know this because I’ve put about 475 books on my “to-read-owned” shelf and have read 82 that are on my have “read” shelf.

This site has helped me track my progress on my reading. Seriously, reading can be a task. Although, I’ve always enjoyed reading, sometimes (often!) I would start a book and not finish it. When I entered the world of Goodreads, I found myself finishing my books. Why? Because I could track my progress and that would motivate me to finish books. I need those markers to accomplish my goals. 

Goodreads made it easier for me to read more than I have ever read. In January of last year, I accepted the 2014 Challenge and set my goal to read 35 books in the year. Because of the progress-tracking feature (which I used as virtual “pats on the back”), I was always encouraged to continue reading, finish the book, and pick another one. By the end of December 31, I had read 50 books in the year 2014. It’s not that I am a fast reader, or a super smart guy, or someone who has a book on hand at all times (well, maybe that last one is true), but I get so amped about seeing my progress that every time I see that percentage bar get close to 100%, I continue to read the book.

Click here to check out which 50 books I read last year!

This year, I am setting a goal to read at least 3-4 books per month. So, my goal is to read 40 books by December 31, 2015. How many will you read this year? Sign up to Goodreads, upload your books, become my “friend,” and let’s keep each other accountable in reaching our reading goals! click on the 2015 Reading Challenge to go to my Goodreads Profile.