Thursday, April 07, 2016

Now I Officially Spend Too Much Time On Goodreads

Ever since David Bowie died, I've been finding it hard to write anything -- even a shopping list. Of course, that probably has nothing specifically due to David Bowie's death. I'd been having trouble finding any paying writing gigs since 2014.

So I started hanging out at Goodreads. Originally it was to promote my ebook Not the New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes but then I just began hanging around to get recommendations on new books to read. I found out that I could  write short book reviews which may help other book lovers (or at least just give them a laugh.) Some days I'd be there for hours. I began to suspect that i was spending way too much time on Goodreads. I even wrote a blog post about it.

Well, now it's official. I DO spend way too much time at Goodreads. Yesterday, I received this email from Goodreads itself:

Hello Rena,
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In our community of readers, you stand out in a notable way: You're one of the top 1% of reviewers on Goodreads!
With every rave and every pan, with every excited GIF and every critical assessment, you've helped the Goodreads community get closer to a very important milestone – the 50 Million Reviews mark! Check out the fun infographic we made to celebrate!
You've written 1071 reviews since joining Goodreads on September 5th, 2014. Out of all the reviews you've written, this is the review that got the most attention:
34672471
 
Rena Sherwood rated a book liked it
Nov 18, 2014 11:30 PM
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The Young Black Stallion (The Black Stallion, #20)
by Walter Farley
This was Walter Farley's swan song to the Black Stallion series. His son Steven helped him write it. The events consist of a flashback Alec has right after the cataclysmic events of The Black Stallion Legend. It's at turns poetic and then downright bizarre. A two year old colt being called a stallion? Hmmm. Also, I liked the fact that The Black looked as if he killed someone right before he was forced onto the Drake. It made him a real bad-ass. Here this scene is rewritten to be more PC. Oh, come on. This book does however help explain why the Black didn't kill Alec while they were stranded on the island in The Black Stallion.
Reading reviews by book lovers like you is one of our favorite things on Goodreads. Thank you for helping other readers find a good (or avoid a not-so-good!) book.
Keep reading (and reviewing!)
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Co-Founders of Goodreads