In one of our earlier classes, I was surprised to learn that libraries were in their earliest days designed to be as much a place to be seen as a place to read. I think, in general, people today associate reading with a more introverted existence. A more reserved person’s ideal night is often excusing themselves from going out to stay in with a good book. E-readers now have also made it possible for most people to get their hands on a new book without leaving their home.

But while reading Northanger Abbey, I was struck by the social role that reading took in that novel. One of the first foundations of Catherine and Isabel’s friendship is when they find out they have the same taste in gothic novels and spend the whole day inside together reading them. It is also reaffirming to Catherine when Tilney acknowledges the joy in reading novels, rather than more practical and instructional histories. It strengthens their bond and, to me, is further proof of how well they work together.

While socially we now are now more connected than ever, sometimes it feels like reading and books get excluded from that. Thinking on it later though, I realized I belong to what functions as kind of a virtual library and a social network at the same time with the specific idea of what you’re reading being seen and advertised to others: Goodreads.

Goodreads is an online network where you can rate and review books you’ve read. It also lets you mark books you want to read one day. It is a place to organize and keep track of what you read. Also a place, for me at least, to sometimes procrastinate actual reading.

Goodreads takes the books you read and puts them in a public space where others can scroll through what you’ve read and how you liked it in a matter of minutes. I personally find Goodreads so addicting and love how it makes up for my own lack of organizational skills. If I can’t remember the name of a book I got from the library three years ago about a prisoner of war, all I need is to go look through my books and see that it was Unbroken.

The numerical 5 star rating system is tricky, though. Some books I’ve read and have really enjoyed I find myself giving three stars to while other books that I didn’t like so much I find myself giving four or five to simply because they’re considered to be of a higher literary merit. With the rating system, it’s hard to know if I should be rating purely on how good I thought a book was or how much I enjoyed it.

Writing reviews though allows me to fully explain what the book meant or how I saw it in the moment. I love also going through others’ (mostly strangers) reviews. Reading reviews of books that you love and seeing how others are able to capture what makes those books so great is an addicting experience that isn’t available that much outside of a college classroom or possibly a book club.

It’s also refreshing to read reviews that are just by other ordinary readers. Reading movie reviews in the paper or talking about books in class both usually involve some level of critical analysis, references to theories from people who have studied film or literature academically. Sometimes it’s just nice to read about someone saying they really enjoyed this book because they found the main character relatable and it helped them through a bad break-up. It reminds me of how it is okay to just read for fun sometimes and that it is okay that if, like Catherine, not every book I read is the most educational.