People have been clamoring for a better Booklist for a long time, and we’ve been listening! We're happy to announce, after a month of tag-team mass data entry, that the Booklist has been copied to Goodreads. Not everyone’s familiar with Goodreads of course, but the basic definition is that it’s a remarkably addictive combo of personal book database and social media platform.

The main thing for us is that with the Goodreads Booklist you can now do two key things people have been asking for: search the list, and easily find books about things other than a specific place and time, for example biographies, political history, women’s history, economic history, etc.

We hope you can now more easily use the 1000+ books recommended by the flairs of AskHistorians!

#Questions?

#Do I need a Goodreads account to use this list?

Nope, our shelves are set to public. If you have an account you will have a slightly better experience though, and of course then you can build your own book lists, and friend us!

#How do find books about a certain subject?

Subject tags are called “shelves” on Goodreads, so just browse our shelves! (full list of shelves is on the left)

#How do I search this book list?

Use the small search bar on our shelves page, just be sure not to use the big search bar by the Goodreads logo. Big search bar searches the entire Goodreads catalog, little search bar searches just our books.

#Can I find books that have been shelved under two subjects, like “Middle Ages” and “Economic History?”

Yes, you can do this, but Goodreads really doesn’t make it obvious:

1. Click on your first shelf.
2. Scroll to the bottom of the list of shelves. You will see tiny grey text saying “select multiple.” Click it.
3. Plus signs appear by the shelves. Click the plus on your second shelf of choice. Or third and fourth!
4. Books are filtered to your individual requirements.

#Okay I found a book, how do I buy it or get it from the library?

Goodreads makes both of these 1 or 2 click actions, no more copying and pasting to search!

On a book’s specific record there are links to Amazon, Other booksellers, and then Libraries, which goes to Worldcat by default. If you have a Goodreads account you can actually customize these buttons to your preferred bookseller and even your local library catalogs. (And if you have the means, I highly recommend adding in the search buttons for your library, it’s so choice. I’m talking 5 clicks to put a book on your request list.)

#Does this mean you are deleting the wiki list?

Nope. We made a copy on Goodreads for people who asked for a searchable booklist, because this was the easiest way to do it.

#Are documentaries, databases, and all the other non-book things on the Booklist on here?

Unfortunately no, Goodreads only allows for books. Another reason not to retire the wiki list!

#Hey there’s no books about [my favorite thing]!

The Booklist is crowdsourced from the flairs, go sweetly ask your favorite subject expert to give it some books.