Goodreads

Goodreads is a website as well as an app that allows teachers, students, and bookworms alike to organize their infinitely expanding bookshelves and discover books within a community of readers and writers. Users have the option to search for a book, add it to their “to-read” shelf or their “have-read” shelf, as well as the option to create personalized shelves of which the possibilities for content are endless. The website allows users to post ratings and reviews of the books they have read, thus allowing users to build a community of like-minded readers with the many social aspects of the site such as the ability to add friends, post comments, and like reviews. Although it may not be marketed as an “educational” resource, an English teacher like myself could easily use this site to build a bookshelf of books based on genre, author, difficulty, length, subject matter, etc. for my students to choose from for the completion of reading and writing tasks, or to turn to when they feel they have read all the good books that could possibly exist. Plus, Goodreads allows users to track their progress in a book as they read. If I haven’t sold you already, users can also view the profiles of their favorite authors and read their bios, see their other works, and even access their personal bookshelves. Oh, and did I mention it’s free?