How Did Goodreads Get So Bad?

A platform where you can record what you’re reading and talk to others about what they’re reading doesn’t sound like a recipe for dystopia. But throw in a negligent billionaire conglomerate owner, optimization culture, and a competitive industry in which the line between reader and author is continually blurred… and you have a legitimate book lover’s hellscape. In other words: Goodreads! Today, I’m joined by book lover and book critic Maris Kreizman to talk about the rot at the heart of the platform, what feeds it, and whether there’s any hope of salvaging the entire enterprise. (Plus: a special bonus section where we give advice about dealing with self-imposed pressure to read X number of books a year). Also: it doesn’t matter if you’ve never gone on Goodreads in your life. If you read books, if you’re interested in the way we talk and think about books, you’re going to appreciate this episode.

Since you’re a paid subscriber, you won’t hear the ad for Bookshop.org at the start of this episode— but we want to make sure you get the discount code! Use promo code CULTURE to get 10% off your next purchase. (And tell us in the comments what you buy!)

• Maris on Instagram! Maris’s new newsletter, The Maris Review! Maris’s new column for Lit Hub! Maris’s old podcast, also titled The Maris Review!

• Maris’s piece in the New York Times on the decline of Goodreads: “Let’s Rescue Book Lovers From This Online Hellscape”

• Some of Maris’s favorite places for reviews and criticism:

  • Bookforum

  • Bookmarks.reviews, which she describes as Rotten Tomato for books

  • Los Angeles Review of Books

• A rundown of that weird story of the author creating fake accounts to review bomb other debut authors on Goodreads

• Just for funsies, one-star reviews of classic novels

• How we talk about the royals today (especially looking for some questions from people outside of the U.S. here!)

• The State Of The Food Blog in 2024

• Your strong opinions on things that, in the grand scheme, don’t matter much

• For our continuing series on romance novels: QUEER ROMANCE and ROMANCE BOOKSTORES

• The future of reality TV

• What’s the deal with JEANS right now (alternate title = Jeans: Help)

• The Contemporary Jennifer Lopez

• Ben Affleck (specifically within the framework of Ambition)

• Artificial Intelligence (in a thought-provoking way, think expansively here)

• The economy, a.k.a. why is everything so damn expensive right now (and we need your co-host ideas for someone cool and fun who can talk about this in an accessible way!)

• Anything you need advice on!

• You can submit them (and ideas for future eps) here (and here’s the subscriber-only priority form)

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• Catch up on everything else happening in the Culture Study universe here.
• Transcripts will be available here within 24 hours of publishing.

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