Goodbye to GoodReads

My reaction to the news a week or so ago that GoodReads was bought by Amazon was one of disappointment.  I do not begrudge the GR founders any amount of reward, financial or otherwise. They established something wonderful and they deserve to benefit from it.  I simply chose to not be part of it anymore.  They missed the mark in not understanding that GR became bigger than just themselves; it became a fiercely devoted community of users who provided a great deal of content with no expectation of commiseration, but with, we see now, a great expectation of stewardship.

I don't hate Amazon; I own a Kindle and I love it. We use their streaming service for movies and I buy things from them.  I just want a little separation between these two sites.  I did not mind the advertisements side barred on GR but to abdicate control to an organization devoted to commerce, not to community indicates a huge shift in mission.  And I am not an anti-corporate, anti-commerce, anti-profit person by any means.  I just think there's a time and a place......

I do understand the irony (hypocrisy?) of being more and more absorbed by, embraced by Google. What with my Android OS on my mobiles, my corporate email and cloud services, and now this blog.  But I guess I feel these are my choices on my terms. 

I have exported my GR books to a PC-based software system called Book Collector.  Available at http://www.collectorz.com/book/ (they also have similar software for comics, movies, music, games).  I haven't figured all of this out quite yet and the transition has not been seamless.  This is partly due to my own choice to clean up my database of about 2,700 books and so I am going through each record on BC one by one to update.  I have also downloaded the mobile app for my tablet and phone but have not really explored this too much.  I believe my book lists can be made available for others who'd like to view them but I have not figured that out exactly.  I'm sure I'll have more later as I get this all straightened out.

I expect this blog to replace my book comments (what GR called "reviews").  I never felt I reviewed a book precisely.  I would simply write what I felt moved to write with no artifice, no pressure, no pretense and I do not wish to adjust that position.  I am not a book reviewer; I am simply a book woman, a book lover, someone who lives to read.