Some of 2017's Most Popular Reading Challenge Books ... So Far
Posted by Cybil on January 11, 2017

The Buzziest Books of the Season
Posted by Hayley Igarashi on January 10, 2017

The secret to succeeding in your 2017 Reading Challenge is starting off with some great books! That's where we come in. To help you meet your goal, we rounded up beloved new books, each with a 4.0+ rating from Goodreads members. From secrets in the Sistine Chapel to insanity at the end of the world, from the women who would be queen to the man who created a galaxy far, far away, these are the buzzy books that have captured your fellow readers' hearts. What will catch your eye?


FICTION

The Sex Pistols' Steve Jones Recounts his Illiterate Junkie Days
Posted by Cybil on January 09, 2017



If Sid Vicious is best remembered as punk rock's death-obsessed "Pretty Vacant" poster boy and Johnny Rotten as its anarchy-embracing id, then their Sex Pistols bandmate Steve Jones can be understood as the genre's first—and arguably most iconic—guitar hero. The London native's don't-give-a-damn attitude, offstage lawlessness, and chugging riffs helped set the parameters for the countercultural movement.

With his memoir, Lonely Boy: Tales from a Sex Pistol, however, Jones elucidates the Dickensian childhood that underpins his band's glamorous nihilism as well as the multiple addictions—heroin, alcohol, stealing, and sex—that almost took him to an early grave. Below is an excerpt from that interview which you can read in its entirety here.

Goodreads: In the book you say upfront that your memory isn't very good. And therefore you don't make the most reliable narrator—even for your own life. That must have made writing this hard.

Steve Jones: It was very hard. I had a lot of help from Cookie—[Sex Pistols drummer] Paul Cook—who the ghostwriter spoke to and who has a very good memory. I know there's a lot that I ain't rememberin' that will probably come up later. I just did the best I could. I know that everything in there is the complete truth. There's no exaggeration or fabrication of anything. That's the main thing I want to get across.

Goodreads: Toward the end of the book you describe battling heroin addiction. You say being a junkie "felt like a necessity after the Pistols ended." You acknowledge it's crazy to say your life was saved by that addiction—but that's what happened. How was it a saving grace?

Steve Jones: That two- or three-year whirlwind of the Pistols was pretty wild. Then heroin comes along after that ended, and it was perfect. I think heroin would have come regardless. Whatever the circumstances were, it was the next step for me. I tried alcohol, blow, all the rest of it. For someone like me who's constantly got a hole inside them that I'm trying to fill—hence the name Lonely Boy—there's always this hole I'm trying to fix with whatever. That's where I go to. It's almost like not wanting to deal with reality. Heroin was the perfect antidote to not dealing with reality.

Goodreads: Dangerous thing to fill a hole with.

Steve Jones: Absolutely. But it didn't matter. I never think about doing the right thing. I always thought about the stupid thing. And at that time heroin was the answer. It did help for a while. Until that stopped working. Until I had no money left. I often wonder if I had Keith Richards's money if I would have stopped or if I would have kept on going. I just know if you're lucky enough, you get to a point where you've had enough. A little light goes on in your head and you look at yourself and go, "Holy shit, look at me. I'm homeless. I have no money. I've got a heroin habit." For me it was like, "OK, I'm going to turn this around." You're the only one who knows.

Goodreads: You were functionally illiterate until your thirties. Which books have influenced you? Which ones influenced the writing of your memoir?

Steve Jones: [laughs] I've read one book my whole life: William Burroughs's Junkie. That was 30 years ago when I first got sober. I couldn't tell you one sentence out of that book. I just don't read books—I'd rather listen. I did an audiobook for this one.

Read more of our exclusive author interviews on our Voice page.

Read Up on the Golden Globes' Literary Inspirations
Posted by Cybil on January 05, 2017



The 74th Annual Golden Globe Awards are this Sunday, and as we prepare for our viewing parties and predictions, we also wanted to look back to the great books that inspired the year's best films and television shows. Check out Hollywood's source material and be inspired to add some of these books to your Want to Read list.

Have you seen these shows or read these books? Which of the two would you recommend enjoying first? Share your thoughts in the comments!


Nominated in the Movie Categories:

Roxane Gay Talks About the State of Feminism in 2017
Posted by Cybil on January 04, 2017



Roxane Gay is back this month with a new short story collection called Difficult Women. The author and columnist has developed a following for her essays, particularly the ones collected in 2014's Bad Feminist, but she's also earned glowing reviews for her fiction, including the novel An Untamed State. The versatile writer is a regular contributor to The New York Times and also writes for a Marvel Comics series, Black Panther: World of Wakanda.

We talked with Gay about her new book, her influences, as well as her take on the state of feminism in 2017. Below is an excerpt from that interview which you can read in its entirety here.

Goodreads: Here's a question from a Goodreads reader, Patsy Lynn: "Men and some women have a knee-jerk reaction that associates feminism with hatred of men. How do you work around these stereotypes and prejudices to make a difference and to educate people?"

Roxane Gay: I think the most important thing is that people understand what feminism is. It's silly in this day and age for anyone to labor under the impression that feminism is about hating men. It's not. Feminism is about equity and equality and just making sure that women have equal opportunities, making sure that our bodies are not legislated and we're treated like human beings who can make decisions about their own bodies. That we're being paid equally for equal work. It's not about taking anything from anyone.

The people who think that feminism is about hating men—they've already made up their minds. They're not interested in any sort of engagement or conversation or trying to make progress. So put your energy elsewhere. We don't need to convert these people because they're just not reachable. We need to work around them.

Goodreads: This question comes from Cindy, who teaches at an urban Kansas City high school and sent one from a student, Marley: "What are your thoughts on the future of our country and what feminism will look like in the coming months?"

Roxane Gay: I think we're going to see more and more of a necessity for feminism as we see a retrenchment of reproductive freedom across the country. We're already seeing it in Ohio, with the ridiculous six-week ban [on abortion]. And we're going to see the need for standing up and pushing back. We can't just take these kinds of things quietly.

What I hope we see is a lot more intersectionality in feminism and working with racial justice organizations and LGBTQ organizations because we're all going to have to work together, and women are not just women—we also have multiple identities. We're going to have to continue to recognize that.

Read more of our exclusive author interviews on our Voice page.

Exclusive: Kickstart 2017 with New Notes and Highlights on 'The Power of Habit'
Posted by Cybil on January 04, 2017



We all want to create more good habits and fewer bad habits. Luckily, New York Times reporter Charles Duhigg researched the science of how we form (and can break) these routines in his 2012 bestselling book, The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business.

Now, five years later, Goodreads asked Duhigg to revisit this powerful book which has won rave reviews from Goodreads members to share his updated insights, further learnings, and general reactions to passages throughout The Power of Habit. In these new highlights and notes available exclusively on Goodreads, the author gives us more information on changing our habits and gives a behind-the-scenes look at writing the book.


Goodreads asked Duhigg about returning to The Power of Habit and his best advice for your new year's resolutions:

"This is actually the first time I read it since I wrote it," Duhigg said about adding the new notes and highlights to The Power of Habit.

"It was definitely like rediscovering the book. When I was writing it I didn't know if anyone was going to read it. I just had no clue if it would be popular or not. So, it was fun to re-read it and think about the choices I made writing it."

His Best Advice for Keeping Resolutions:

"My number one piece of advice to achieve your New Year's resolution is to actually define what you want to do," he says.

"One of the things we know about why people have trouble achieving goals is that they don't define their goals with real precision. For instance, saying I want to lose weight is a goal that would make sense. The problem with that is it's not specific or granular enough to develop a plan around that goal," Duhigg says.

"So instead of saying I want to lose weight, you should say I want to lose 10 pounds over the next six months by eating less food or, more specifically, by not snacking outside of mealtime. Now you have a very specific goal. The nice thing about specific goals is that you can measure against the goals on a daily basis. What you're trying to do is set up a system where you can get a feedback loop."

"You'll know if your plan is good if you get feedback on your success once a day or once a week. It probably shouldn't be less than once a week," Duhigg says.

Know Why Your Success is Important to You:

"You need to have an idea—a goal—in your head that tells you why your tactics are important," Duhigg says. "Unless you do the big work of asking yourself why you want to change this way, it's very hard to make that change become real, it won't become self perpetuating. Once you know the 'why' it actually becomes much easier to change."

"I spend a lot more time asking myself what's really important, why it's important to me, and what will I care about most in the future. I use a method of decision making called the 10/10/10 rule. When making a decision, ask yourself, 'How will I feel about this decision in 10 minutes, in 10 weeks, and in 10 years?'"

"Ultimately, finding ways to tell yourself to think more deeply about the choices you're making seems to always pay off."

Read all of Duhigg's new notes and highlights to The Power of Habit. Here's a sampling of his new insights:

"Most people don’t wait until they have cancer or an accident. Rather, they start believing that change is possible, and they work at the change—and fail repeatedly—until they learn enough to make the change become real." Read more of this note.

"Numerous studies have shown that visualizing something with precision—imagining how you hope a meeting will play out, for instance, or visualizing a specific conversation, or pushing yourself to daydream about a task you hope to accomplish—increases the odds that things will turn out pretty well." Read more of this note.

"There’s a small, irrational fear to starting an exercise habit. And so, when you finally overcome that small fear, and start exercising habitually, it causes a shift in self-image: you start thinking of yourself, almost sub-consciously, as the kind of person who exercises. And that kind of person tends to procrastinate less, and avoid frivolous spending." Read more of this note.

You can learn more about our beta project to share Kindle Notes and Highlights with your friends, family, book club, etc., here. And follow author Charles Duhigg for more of his updates and reading. In addition, Duhigg will be debuting a New York Times business column this month.

Want to Read More This Year? Join the 2017 Reading Challenge
Posted by Cybil on January 01, 2017


It's time to bring on the 2017 Reading Challenge! Give yourself a resolution you'll want to keep: a promise to spend more time reading this year. Goodreads makes it easy to set your own reading goal, track your progress, and celebrate your success with our much-loved Reading Challenge.

In 2016 alone, more than three million readers joined the Challenge and collectively read 37.8 million books. Wondering what all those people read? The top new books read in the 2016 Challenge were: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts 1 & 2, A Court of Mist and Fury, and When Breath Becomes Air (see more of the most-read 2016 Challenge books).



Want help achieving your goal this year? Here's what many of our members do:

Set your goal:

• Make this fun, not stressful! Start off with a small, easily achievable goal to avoid feeling daunted by your Challenge. If you hit the number early, you can always stretch yourself and increase your goal.


• Need help settling on a number? Some members like to set a goal based on the year: 12 books (one per month), 24 books (two per month), or even 52 books (one per week).


• The Reading Challenge is all about what you want to read. If you're focused on tackling long, literary classics, account for the time you'll need and set a smaller goal. If you're breezing through lots of great graphic novels, you can be more aggressive.

Find great books to read:

• Get recommendations tailored just for you as you rate books you've already read. The more books you rate, the better your recommendations will be.


• You can also browse the thousands of reading lists on Listopia—where you'll find categories on everything ranging from 2017's Biggest Book-to-Film Adaptions to Books Everyone Should Read at Least Once.


• Find books with great buzz by looking through the winners and runners up in the 2016 Goodreads Choice Awards, representing the readers' selections of the year's best books—more than 400 books across 20 categories to add to your reading list.

Adjust your settings:

• Pro tip for Kindle readers: Connect your Goodreads and Kindle accounts for more features to help you reach your goal. To connect your accounts, click here and scroll to the Amazon section to connect your accounts.
  
  
  • U.S., U.K., & Ireland members: Goodreads is available on most Kindles and Fire tablets so you can easily update which books you are Currently Reading and have Read from inside the book. There's no need to switch to Goodreads to update the books you've read to make them count for your Challenge.
  
  
  • U.S. members: If you use the Kindle app on your iPhone or iPad, keep your Reading Challenge count up-to-date by switching on Autoshelving. When you finish a book, both your Read shelf and progress toward your goal are automatically updated!

Productivity tips:

• Whispersync on Kindle: This Kindle feature allows you to read in bed on your Kindle ereader and then pick up where you left off with your Kindle app on your iOS or Android device during your morning commute.
  
• Use your local library's website to request books online and have them waiting for you. Plus, that due date provides an extra incentive to finish the book! Add your local library link as one of your Book Links so that whenever you discover a great book on Goodreads, you can easily open up the page on your library website and order the book.


• Listen to audiobooks. Our members say this is an easy way to read more books—you can listen while making dinner, exercising, or driving. Find some great audiobook suggestions here.

Be a Team Reader:

• Join one of our thousands of online reading groups that span across topics, themes, and genres. You'll be sure to find the perfect reading community waiting for you.
  

Find the time:

• Take some great advice from our Facebook and Twitter followers! We love this one: "Cut off all outside distractions. If your phone dies, let it die. Don't plug anything in until you're finished with your book. And get cozy. Make yourself a hot tea or hot chocolate and throw on some flannel pajamas."

What is your 2017 goal? And how to you make time to read? Tell us in the comments!

23 Highly Anticipated Books of 2017
Posted by Hayley Igarashi on January 02, 2017

We pity the man or woman who asks (often with a puzzled head tilt as we march, once again, to the library or bookstore), "Do you really need more books?" As any book lover knows, there will always be more books and thus we will always need more books.

So allow us to suggest a few additions to your overflowing bookshelves and ereaders. We rounded up the 2017 books that are getting the most buzz from your fellow Goodreads members. Take a look! How many do you need?


Fiction

Veronica Roth's Resolution: Fight for a Better World
Posted by Hayley Igarashi on December 28, 2016



Is there power in a new year? As 2016 comes to a close, Goodreads asked Veronica Roth, author of the Divergent trilogy and the highly anticipated YA book Carve the Mark, to share her thoughts on resolutions and change. New Year's Day may be just another day, but to Roth it's also a chance to "fight for a better world, a better story, a better self."


I didn't always believe in New Year's resolutions. If you want to make a change, I thought, why not just make it now? New Year's is just someone drawing a line between two days and saying, "Here." And we don't even all have the same calendar.

But lately I've come around to the idea. There is power in significant days, the days we honor something or the days we celebrate something—the power that we give them. And on New Year's Day we drag ourselves out of bed and decide: This is how this year is going to be.

For me this upcoming year, 2017, is going to be something new. Not because it's inevitable but because I say so. And to make it a little easier on myself, I thought I'd share with you the way I've been thinking about it, in case it helps you, too. I call it the daily SIT, STAND, STRETCH. (I like alliteration.)

SIT means every day be sure to take care of yourself mentally, physically, emotionally. You can't do much else if you don't do this, so do it first. For you maybe it's eating your vegetables or taking a bubble bath (not at the same time, probably). For me it's taking my anxiety medication, exercising, and getting in some slug time on the couch. Once a day be kind to yourself on purpose, and let yourself feel good about it.

STAND means Doing the Thing. You know—the thing you've got to do. Getting your homework done, writing 1,000 words, taking out the garbage. Sometimes it's all I can do to just walk the dog and feed myself. Other days I knock out a few chapters and still have energy left for my trash fire of an inbox. That's all right. Just because you're wobbly doesn't mean you're not doing it.

STRETCH means challenging yourself. Making yourself a little bit uncomfortable. A few weeks ago, for me, this meant calling my local representatives about an issue I felt was important. I hung up in a panic on my first attempt. But on my second attempt I did the thing, I became a little more of the person I want to become. The meaning of stretching changes every day, but what matters is the habit of it—the habit of speaking up, reaching out, and being OK with feeling a little uncomfortable. That's how you grow.

This applies to my writing, too. Some scenes are easy, some are necessary, and some seem downright impossible. If I don't have the easy scenes, I won't have the strength for the impossible ones. And if I don't have the impossible ones, I'll never become a better writer. I need a good balance—in my work and in my life, too.

This way, one little step at a time, I can do what needs to be done, and I can fight for a better world, a better story, a better self, without becoming overwhelmed.

2017 will be different. Not because it's inevitable. Because we say so.


Veronica Roth's Carve the Mark hits bookshelves on January 17. Add it to your Want to Read shelf here.

How will you make 2017 different? Share your resolutions in the comments.

Goodreads Blog's Most Popular Posts of the Year
Posted by Cybil on December 29, 2016



Throughout the year, the Goodreads blog has brought you thousands of reading recommendations, deep thoughts, and everything else a fellow booklover could want. As 2016 draws to a close, here are some of our most popular posts—it's a also a great way to make sure you didn't miss some great books:

• 15 Highly Anticipated Books of 2016: Turns out, we're pretty good at predicting the most-loved books. Take a look at what we said would be the year's big hits.
  
  
• Shakespeare Week on Goodreads: In April, we observed the 400th anniversary of the Bard's death with six authors writing a 'deleted scene' from one of Shakespeare's plays.
  
  
• 21 Hottest Books of Summer: Beach-reads galore as we rounded up the best of the season.
  
  
• The Top 100 Children's Books on Goodreads: We looked for the best-reviewed children's books, all with average rating of 4.0 or above.
  
  
• 20 Books That Will Hook You From the Very First Page: Here we proved that everyone wants to fall in love at the very first page.
  
  
• 16 Underrated Books That Deserve Your Attention: We asked our community to tell us about an underrated book that everyone should read. Your answers did not disappoint!
  
  
• 20 Things All Book Lovers Wish Someone Would Say to Them: What do all book lovers wish someone would say to them? In our perfect world, we'd get to hear all of these.
  
  
• 25 Big Books of Fall: To help prepare readers for cozy reading sessions, we crunched the numbers to find the biggest, buzziest books of autumn.
  
  
• Announcing the Winners of the 2016 Goodreads Choice Awards: More than 3.5 million votes were cast in this year's 8th annual Goodreads Choice Awards, honoring 2016's best books as selected by the readers themselves.
  
  
• 17 Eagerly Anticipated Book-to-Movie Adaptations: Some of the biggest adaptions of early 2017 from some of your best-loved books!

Want even more reading ideas? Be sure to follow our blog, Facebook and Twitter accounts.