Goodreads and the subtle shift of incentive

[cjsmith]

Now that I am logging things on Goodreads, I find I am starting to challenge myself. Should I read the last chapter of that tech book so I can call it completed? Should I read Le jeu des forces instead of Power Play just because I can, just because I happen to have a copy in French (not to mention it'll be a bit of a stretch for my brain)? Dang, this kind of thing could get addicting.

I bet there’s something to be learned about human motivations here, at least about my own and likely about the general case. (People get paid big bucks to increase folks’ use of web sites, so it would be naive in the extreme to expect the problem hasn’t been examined.)

Comments

[nosrednayduj]

I mostly use goodreads to keep track of the series I'm reading so I don't double-purchase books, or buy book 4 when I haven't read book 3 yet. I'm not embarrassed by the fact that 99% of my reading is escapist. I also have no qualms about not finishing books -- I didn't sign a contract with the author -- and I have a separate"abandoned" shelf.

[cjsmith]

Oh interesting! Do you find it useful to keep track of the abandoned stuff?

[nosrednayduj]

Not particularly, but I don't want to put it in "read" or leave it in "currently reading", so I made a shelf. I also have "in the middle" shelf which is for stuff that I might get back to sometime.

[cjsmith]

Ah... yeah, that makes sense. :) Tidier that way.