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But the Goodreads phenomenon seems to have passed the UK by. Brilliant, popular British books are getting almost ignored. For example, the excellent What's Up With Jody Barton? by Hayley Long (highly recommended, for the twist alone) is a popular, new, book, in all the big UK bookshops and on Amazon UK, but it only has ten reviews on Goodreads. When you think about how many reviews/ratings it would've got had it been a US book, ten seems a tad unfair. I get that there are a heck of a lot less people in the UK than in America, but I know more than ten people have read this book. Someone needs to spread the Goodreads message. In the compulsory 'how to use the library' lessons we get aged eleven at school, it would've been so easy for the librarians to be like, "check out this site, kids,". When someone asks you how to find a good book that ISN'T Fifty Shades of Bookshop-Display-Hogging, point them in the Goodreads direction.
And finally, anyone who's read some good UK YA recently, or MG or adult, get onto Goodreads and review the heck out of it!
Who else loves/worships Goodreads (even though their bank manager would disagree)? And what's the best bit of UK YA you read recently?
I am on Goodreads, but there is so much to check out...I need a whole day just to explore!
ReplyDeleteI love Goodreads! And I agree I think UK should really step up their game (and Aussie and NZ as I've read some great lit from there as well). However I also think as Americans it's also harder to get these books.....We don't always get all the books printed in the UK in the States...disappointing really but also true. I wonder why that is hmm
ReplyDeleteI think to a certain extent, it nmight be because of all the editing needed, to edit out the British slang - judging by Harry Potter, US editors seem to believe that their YA readers are incapable of understanding brit slang, even though the many US YA books in their UK editions don't even change US spellings (color, gray etc), let alone slang. They should believe in their readers a bit more.
DeleteI haven't much gotten into Goodreads. I rarely look at reviews before picking a book, but I do like that idea of finding things I wouldn't normally find. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm on Goodreads, and most of the UK bloggers I know are there as well. We're a lot smaller of a community, but I feel like we make our voices heard!
ReplyDeleteI do really love this book (and author!) and I'm with you on wanting more of my favourite UKYA books/authors to have a bit more time in the spotlight.