Why I am deleting Goodreads and maybe you should, too | Kat Smith

There's a buzz to sharing your reading life, but for me it turned it into a kind of competition that distracts from what I love about books

I can't remember the last time I enjoyed reading a book where my enjoyment wasn't tied to the euphoric sense of achievement I got from finishing it. This is not because I don't love reading, or would rather watch television. No, it's because of a little app on my phone called Goodreads.

Home to about 90 million readers worldwide, Goodreads is a website that lets users track their reading and broadcast their tastes to the world - or, in my case, a few friends and vague acquaintances. At its core, it's a harmless concept: an online community for bookworms, and an opportunity to discover new books your friends have loved.