In 2007, today’s biggest social media website for book lovers was launched. Goodreads is a website where readers can find books and share their literary thoughts with friends. The website, founded in 2006 by Otis Chandler and Elizabeth Khuri Chandler, gained popularity as a website/app that focuses on connecting readers in a digital world. While the website has now gained popularity in the reading community, the origin of Goodreads was much more humble.
Otis Chandler came from a very literary background, his great-great-great-grandfather founded the Los Angeles Times, and many generations of Chandlers have followed in his footsteps working at the newspaper (Rainey). However, Otis Chandler didn’t let his heritage stop him from adapting to a new digital era of books and creating a website that allows people to discuss books and share them with their friends virtually. Chandler, a digital-engineer, constructed the idea of a website where readers could interact with each other and recommend books to their friends. Consequently, one of the original purposes of Goodreads was for its users to provide their opinions on the books they read through reviewing them on the website. Chandler stated, “Amazon is often full of people you don’t know writing reviews, whereas on Goodreads, you’re getting people who are there writing reviews for no other reason except they want to share the review with their friends. It generates a more genuine, thoughtful sort of review” (qtd. in Lee). The idea that you could go on Goodreads and find candid reviews of books from real people appealed to many Goodreads users.
Elizabeth Khuri Chandler was the other co-founder of Goodreads, she signed on to work with Otis Chandler, her now husband, on the startup while she was dating him. When Elizabeth Khuri Chandler first met Otis Chandler, she was a writer at the Los Angeles Times, his idea for the site interested her as a writer and avid reader. Khuri Chandler said, “He started building this, and as an English major and a working writer, I said, huh, I actually really care about this subject. So I started getting involved with him and suddenly, I was doing all the language on the site” (qtd. in Schwalbe). Khuri Chandler’s background in writing helped the site find its legs. She also developed a newsletter for Goodreads’ users that included author interviews and recommendations for books. The newsletter helped draw people back to the site again and again (qtd. in Lee).
Goodreads has grown into a site where any reader can go to do all things book-related. The site, founded with the simple idea of sharing the books you love with your friends, has grown into a social website titan. Since the launch of the site in 2007, readers have been attracted to the connection the site offers and the wide variety of recommended books that are tailored to the user’s interests. After the site launched, it quickly gained over 3.5 million users in only three years. As of now, the site has accumulated over 90 million users. As Otis Chandler remarked, “Goodreads is fast becoming the best way on the Internet to find a book to read” (qtd. in Lee).
Works Cited:
Lee, Ellen. “Goodreads’ Otis Chandler reviews growth” SFGATE, 21 July, 2012, www.sfgate.com/default/article/Goodreads-Otis-Chandler-reviews-growth-3725030.php. Accessed 5 January, 2022.
Schwalbe, Will. “Elizabeth Khuri Chandler Tells the Origin Story of Goodreads” Literary Hub, 3 December, 2018, www.lithub.com/elizabeth-khuri-chandler-tells-the-origin-story-of-goodreads/. Accessed 5 January, 2022.
Rainey, James. “On the Media: Goodreads.com founder pushes print on the Web, not on paper” Los Angeles Times, 14 August, 2010, www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-aug-14-la-et-onthemedia-20100814-story.html. Accessed 5 January, 2022.