Goodreads Has A Problem. It Isn't The One You Think It Is.
or: “Nine Years. 3100 Goodreads Choice Nominees. Over 1800 Books Read. Only 48 Goodreads Choice Nominee Books Read.”
Yes, I went back and counted after seeing yet another slate of “Goodreads Choice Award Nominees” and seeing that I’ve read exactly four of them - one of which was nominated in two different categories, and three of which were in the same category (Mystery/ Thriller).
The four for 2026:
- Mab Mabel by Sally Hepworth (nominated in Mystery/ Thriller and Audiobook)
- It’s Not Her by Mary Kubica (nominated in Mystery/ Thriller)
- Heart Of Glass by Jennifer Hillier (nominated in Mystery/ Thriller)
- This Is Your Land by Beverly Gage (nominated in History/ Memoir)
I’ve read nearly as many books so far this year (171) as there are Goodreads Choice Nominees this year (180), and given that roughly 50% of my reading has been Big 5 Publishers this year, the sheer breadth of what I do read (damn near anything not swords and sorcery fantasy), and the fact that I routinely buy hundreds of books per year, I think I can make a reasonable case that if anyone should find themselves reading a decent swath of the Goodreads Choice Nominees, it should be me.
And yet, I haven’t.
Why is this?
I think there are at least a couple of factors at play here, one of which has been in the zeitgeist a bit more than the other, though I’ve seen some mention both at various points and in various discussions this week.
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The Goodreads Choice Awards Have Become Exactly Like Any Other Entertainment Award
While at their founding, they may have represented genuine excellence in a field, they have come to be nothing more than participation trophies awarded to chosen in-group insiders and a tool for in-group self congratulation rather than a continued recognition of excellence across the given field. This is true of pretty well any so-called “major” award, and to a degree even such illustrious awards as the Nobel Peace Prize, though it is a far larger problem within entertainment awards. Indeed, I have a version of this exact problem with the Oscars and even the CMAs these days, and I’ve said for a couple of decades now that for the most part, if the Academy likes a given movie (particularly in the Best Picture/ Director/ Actor type categories), I almost certainly will not. There have been the occasional exceptions to this, just as there are the occasional exceptions with the Goodreads Choice Nominees, but the pattern is true enough to use as a general rule.
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The Goodreads Choice Awards Are Evidence That Publishing Has A Problem With Males, and Particularly Straight White Males And/ Or Conservative Voices Generally.
Take a look through the nominees. Seriously, take a good, long look. What do you see? As someone whose views don’t align with almost literally anyone that well, I can tell you that left-of-center (if not true extremist left) views vastly dominate these awards. But look to the demographics. If humanity is roughly 50/50 male/ female, and if (as some claim) 70% of books are published by male authors… where are the dude nominees outside of a token John Grisham or Malcolm Gladwell? Even there, note that Gladwell himself is far from anything anyone would claim is remotely conservative. Even Jack Carr, whose work has become a very successful TV franchise on Amazon now, showed up under Debut Books for The Terminal List… and has never been nominated again. So are you truly telling me that of the 180 “best books of the year” across over a dozen categories, truly that few male voices are among them? That few conservative voices are among them? That doesn’t speak to quality - it speaks to the prejudices of the entire industry, and it turns away large swaths of potential readers.
Now, in speaking to a few friends while writing this article, one of them brought up a good question:
What is the actual nomination process? Is it a curation from Goodreads staff, or is it based on member/ reader activity?
My initial response was that either way there is a problem - either with Goodreads specifically or a far larger problem with the industry/ society at large… and it turns out it is likely the second one there.
According to both Grok and Gemini (X/Twitter and Google’s AIs, respectively), the nominations are largely - though Gemini in particular makes clear not exclusively - driven by member/ reader activity re: shelving books, with some filtration in place regarding average rating, number of books allowed to be nominated per author, and others. But Gemini does note that there is at least some direct input from Goodreads staff for “edge cases”. Interesting. An open and clear statement of how such determinations of “edge cases” are handled could be enlightening.
Now, I’m a guy that openly markets himself in booklandia with the statement that “If you want the books everyone else is reading, go to them. If you want the books you won’t hear of from (nearly) anyone else, I’m your guy.” Clearly, I’m not in it for a popularity contest - I’ve never been good in those types of events, and in my elder years I’ve come to actively eschew them more and more. I’m going to do my thing my way, and if you like what I’m doing, I invite you to hang out and follow along and see what I do next. If you don’t like what I’m doing, I invite you to leave in peace - I truly don’t give a fuck that you don’t like my work. I know and embrace that not everyone will, and I’m not here for you - I’m here first because I want to be and maybe the people that do like what I’m doing after that.
Thus, maybe this simply boils down to “this is nothing more than a popularity contest, which you just said you despise”. Perhaps.
But I detest bigotry in ALL its forms even more, and to me, these nominees and their lack of diversity in certain areas speaks to a bigotry that is far too commonly accepted by far too many who pat themselves on the back for “celebrating diversity” and “being antiracist” and other such bullshits. I am a man who has quoted the climactic speech of The American President (the 1995 movie with Michael Douglas as the titular President) way too much in the 31 yrs since the movie released:
“America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You gotta want it bad, 'cause it's gonna put up a fight. It's gonna say "You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours. You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country can't just be a flag; the symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms. Then, you can stand up and sing about the "land of the free".”
If you are leaving certain demographics and certain viewpoints without a seat at the table - no matter your reasoning - you are actively embracing being bigoted towards the groups you are telling are not worthy of being at the table, no matter what those groups may be. This is true of the KKK member - and it is also true of the Black Panther member. It is true of the Christian extremist - and the atheist extremist. It is true of the extreme right - and the extreme left.
This is why I have little interest in the so-called “Based Books” movement either, as it actively promotes a more right-leaning slate that is equally problematic with anything Goodreads is doing here and indeed simply the other side of the exact same coin.
Ultimately, I don’t really know what can be done here, well, I do. But it won’t be a mass movement. Not initially, at bare minimum.
I can’t do anything about millions of people, whether they be Goodreads users or society at large. I can’t do anything about any publisher other than myself.
But what I can do is exactly what I already do - I embrace having a wide range of interests, and I pick up any book within those interests that is also within my budget. Goodreads ratings and demographics of the author are 100% irrelevant to me - I usually barely even look at the author’s name.
Maybe, MAYBE, if I can slowly convince one reader, two readers, three readers to be more like me in that regard, MAYBE we eventually change the books that appear in the Goodreads Choice Nominees list.
What do you think?