Novel Ink: The One Where I Organize my Goodreads Shelves

The One Where I Organize my Goodreads Shelves

Posted on Friday, August 1, 2014 4:00 AM

I’ve been using Goodreads since January 2011 (a year and a half before the blog) and when I first discovered it, I was just using it as a tool to keep track of what I had read and what I wanted to read and that was basically it. It wasn’t until much, much later that I discovered that I could separate those books I had on my TBR shelf and break them down into YA, release dates, etc.

Lately, I’ve been trying to get more organized with my shelves on Goodreads and break everything down more specific than just TBR. I wish I would have took a screenshot of my shelves prior to all of my organization just so that I could appreciate all of the hard work but I didn’t. So to make myself feel better I thought I would share the results with you.

Notice all the shelves I have? I find this soooo much easier to keep track of my books, the books that I have for review, and release dates.

I would also love to know how you arrange your GR shelves so be sure to leave me a comment or even a link to your GR profile so I can check your organization skills out ;)

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delicateeternity 69p · 554 weeks ago

Funnily enough, a few months ago I organised my shelves on Goodreads and deleted a few, haha. For some reason I only like having as few shelves on Goodreads as possible, otherwise I think I would find it overwhelming and confusing!

I did once try and organise them more in depth, according to general genre (like YA), but I just felt like it was too time consuming.

I did, however, organise my TBR into: to-read (which means I just want to to read it but don't own it), to-read-own-ebook (in which case I own the book in ebook format but have yet to read it), and to-read-own-physical (I own it in physical form but haven't gotten around to reading it yet). I'm actually really happy I did it this way because now I know which books I own and want to read, and which books I simply want to read but don't own or don't need to own.

I'm glad you were able to organise your shelve in a way that assists you :D
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sharonbernt 39p · 554 weeks ago

I don't have very many Goodreads shelves but then again, I am pretty new to Goodreads. I don't have a ton of books on there. I really need to do that one of these days...
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kirstymstudio 102p · 554 weeks ago

You should be proud! I really don't have the patience to do it, haha. I joined Goodreads in 2009, just mainly to keep track of new releases to buy and check out some reviews before buying. Only just started getting into it more now (up until last year, I didn't even know you could shelve things other than wants to read).

I really do want to sort them all out (because I've read a ton I haven't even got on Goodreads or rated) I start and then just...give up. I almost have 2000 books on there, it's a time bomb. I have a schedule on Word so that I know which month and release date etc, and strike them off once I've posted them so I know which ones I have left and everything (and so I know I've actually sent the review links- I'm bad with that).
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bennitheblog 25p · 554 weeks ago

Good for you! I think I originally tried to be more diligent about arranging shelves, but right now all I can handle is "Read," "Currently Reading," and "Want to Read." :-)
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ponykins 105p · 554 weeks ago

I'm using a mix of genre shelves and sort of organisational shelves? Like, I've got year shelves and whether stuff is on my kindle tbr or my physical tbr pile, whether the protag is male or female, stuff like that. Lately I've been thinking of doing away with the genre shelves though. Or at least minimalise them to age genres and a few to describe the general area like scifi, fantasy, contemporary, that sort of thing, because I feel as though there are too many. I'm not sure though because my time is limited and I'd have to rethink my shelf tagging and probably re-shelve everything. Ahh, effort. :(
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Emma · 554 weeks ago

I started out with the standard shelves, and I've slowly added a few more: to be read released, to be read unreleased, reviews, favorites, e-galleys, ARCs, wishlist, and summer of rereads (which I'll delete once I'm done rereading all the books on that shelf).

I admire those who can keep extensive Goodreads shelves like you do. I don't think I'd ever be able to do that! If I did, it would only make my organizational tendencies worse (a.k.a., I'd be really obsessive about each shelf).
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caitdrews 124p · 554 weeks ago

It took me a few months of Goodreads-ness to figure out how to utilise the shelves properly too. x) I shelve by genre, mostly, but I also have like "best books of ever" shelves and then I put everything I read in a year on ONE shelf so I can like admire the pretties and things. Hehe. I love yours! So awesomely organised!! What I REALLY need is a shelf for books to-read that I need to actually read. Not just add it and forget, you know? I have like 500 books on my to-read shelf and I never remember which ones I was really desperate for.
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Mari@TheSirenicCodex · 554 weeks ago

Goodreads shelves are the best. I've officially started using publication year as a way to organize my shelves and they are fantastic as I can see which books that I like are coming out a certain year and what to look forward to.

-Mari
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narapanacea 99p · 553 weeks ago

I love organising my GR shelves! For some reason, I have a lot of fun doing it haha
Mine, I shelve by genre, and then I have some shelves like "for review", "reviewed", "edelweiss" etc.
Then I have shelves for "owned hardcopy", "wishlist" and "preordered".
And of course I have "incredible" and "favourite" shelves, and "swoony boy" and "book boyfriend" shelves ;)
I have a couple of novelty shelves as well like "into the fires of mt doom" for books which are just the worst, and "feels" for books that have made me cry :)
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Kristelle Elaine · 553 weeks ago

OMG!! Now that is one of the organized shelves I've seen so far. Maybe I should start organizing my books in GR, too. XD Err, for someone as lazy as me, this is such a big step. :))
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