Goodreads.com, networking site for book fans, growing strong

Read any good books lately?

More than 700,000 other folks have, and they’re hanging out at a fast-growing Web site that combines the social networking of Facebook with the bibliophile heaven of Amazon or Alibris.com.

Goodreads.com launched in December 2006 and is climbing toward a million members, readers who have recommended or panned more than 10 million books and earned the site a spot on TIME magazine’s 2007 list of top 10 sites.

“It’s what your friends are reading” goes the site’s tagline – and that’s one of many things you can find out.

Users can browse what other members are reading or create their own lists of books they’ve read, are currently reading or plan to read. They can post reviews, find like-minded reading friends or even chat with an author.

“We want to be the watercooler site for reading a book,” said founder Otis Chandler. “You can always go to work and talk to people about last night’s 'Dancing With the Stars,’ but it’s harder to do that with books.”

Chandler, 30, worked on dating sites and photo-sharing sites before starting goodreads.

“I always had a thing for reading,” he said from his office in Santa Monica. “Ever since discovering 'The Hardy Boys’ in second grade.”

Looking around the Internet he could not find a social networking site for readers. So he made one.

“Whenever you go to a friend’s house you can see all their books on the shelves,” he said. “This is an easy way to find out from people whose tastes you share whether you should read a certain book or not.”

Reviews on the site can read like scholarly treatises or simple “that was cool” squibs.

“You don’t have to sound super-intelligent or professional,” Chandler said. “It’s just for your friends.”

The site makes money through advertising and from book-selling sites such as Amazon, Alibris, Barnes & Noble and Abebooks, which goodreads provides links to.

More than 1,000 authors, most mid-level or just starting out, Chandler said, have joined the site to discuss their work, make recommendations or just browse.

Chandler likens it to bands reaching new fans online.

“We want to be like Myspace music for authors,” he said.

It’s seductively easy to spend time – a lot of time – scrolling through the site’s titles and authors and reviews.

Many readers take to it like the guy on the “Twilight Zone” episode where he’s the only one left on Earth and alone in a giant library.

“Some people like to sit down and list every book they’ve ever read since they were a kid,” Chandler said. “People have told me they spent whole work days not getting anything done but listing books and writing reviews. Other people are more casual, browsing through suggestions.”

Mary Saburn, a goodreads user in Norfolk, said she liked the site’s convenience and camaraderie.

“I love it,” she said in an e-mail message. “It helps me keep track of my books, and it lets me find out what I’d like to read when I’m done with my current list from the books that my friends are reading/have read and the ratings they gave.

“It’s also a fun way to connect with people that perhaps you haven’t seen in a while or gives you a great topic of conversation.”

According to the site, she’s currently reading “Eragon,” the fantasy novel by Christopher Paolini. She hasn’t written a review yet.

Also a fantasy fan, Otis Chandler is reading “The Amber Spyglass,” the third book in Philip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” series. (The first book, “The Golden Compass,” recently was made into a movie).

And though he’s a high-tech guy, Chandler still reads plain old ink-on-paper books. He’s tried the new digital readers, but found that he can only handle small chunks of text at a time.

“Most people don’t want to spend four hours looking at a screen,” he said. “The written book is not going away.”

Jim Washington, (757) 446-2536, jim.washington@pilotonline.com