✨ Welcome back to another week of LTB! ✨
Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme created by Rukky @Eternity Books and co-hosted by Aria @Book Nook Bits and myself! In this discussion meme, participants get to talk about certain topics, share opinions, and spread the love by visiting each other’s posts! Learn more about LTB, past topics and future topics HERE.
This week’s topic is:
Goodreads Choice Awards
Prompts: The 2025 Goodreads Choice Award winners were announced on December 4th! Do you vote for or keep up with the awards? Have you read any of this year’s winners or nominees? The categories have also changed in recent years, creating some controversy: the Romantasy category was added in 2024, and the Children’s and Middle Grade category was removed. What do you think about these changes? What categories would you like to see go away or come back? Are there any other changes to the awards that you’d like to see?
Do you vote or keep up with the awards?
In previous years, I have gotten involved in voting from start to finish but I didn’t do that this year. Mostly because I haven’t really been active on Goodreads this year, but more so than usual, I feel like a lot of the nominations feel kind of stale? I don’t mean to insult the books that get nominated or win, but every year, it’s practically the same authors in the same categories I read from (romance, fantasy, “romantasy”, etc.) and it just doesn’t feel exciting to me anymore. 😅 I also bemoan the lack of diversity in the nominations and for some reason, I’ve felt it even more prominently this year.
There’s definitely more to it than just “it’s Goodreads’ fault for not being inclusive or diverse and promoting it” because at the end of the day, the GCA is a popularity contest and a reflection of the site’s users. Of course, nominations are based on how many times a book is shelved as well, so it does come down to readers. Despite knowing all of that, it’s still disappointing that when it comes time for the GCA every year, it’s pretty much already a given who’ll be nominated (and who’ll likely win). I honestly don’t give it that much attention or “credit” though.
Have you read any of this year’s winners or nominees?
Unsurprisingly, I’ve not read any of the winners although the ones that won in the categories I most read (fantasy, romance, romantasy) are on my TBR! I’ve read 8 nominees total. I’m a bit sad that The Buffalo Hunter Hunter didn’t win horror this year, and I know I’m biased because that’s probably my favourite read of the year, but I know it’s winner material, lol! 😂 (Books by order of categories in the GCA):
The categories have also changed in recent years, creating some controversy: the Romantasy category was added in 2024, and the Children’s and Middle Grade category was removed. What do you think about these changes? What categories would you like to see go away or come back?
I’m sad that they took away the Middle Grade and Graphic Novel categories. I don’t understand why because a lot of people read from both categories, so I have no doubt they’re still popular. I do wish they’d put them back! Also, considering how popular romantasy has become over the past few years and how that popularity is not likely to die down anytime soon, it’s no surprise that it’s a category…
Are there any other changes to the awards that you’d like to see?
Honestly, I’m not invested enough in Goodreads and the GCA to think about what other changes I’d like to see. I still will say that I wish there was more diversity in the nominees but again, since the GCA is a popularity contest, I think this a call for people to read more diversely. I definitely include myself in that because I know I could do better, and every year I try to make a conscious effort to do so.
On that note, I thought I’d share a video by creator Jananie who always posts content that gets me thinking. She points out pretty interesting things about why abandoning Goodreads (for now) isn’t necessarily the right answer, especially in support of marginalized authors (she starts talking about this at around the 7:08 mark if you’re interested)!
Don’t forget to check out the other bloggers who joined the discussion this week! 👇🏽
Emma @ Pages of Emma
Rachael @ The Green Tea Librarian
Alli @ Alli the Book Giraffe
Annemieke @ A Dance With Books
Yolanda @ Past Midnight
Abyssal Librarian
Tasya @ The Literary Huntress
Elle @ Unwrapping Words
Raji @ Worlds Unlike Our Own
Jillian @ Jillian the Bookish Butterfly
If I’ve missed your post this week, don’t hesitate to let me know in the comments, and I’ll add you to this week’s list of community posts ASAP!
What do you think of the Goodreads Choice Awards? Have you read any of the winners/nominees this year? What would you like to see changed?
dinipandareads 
I think in recent years, I’ve become less interested in voting (maybe just in the YA categories) but it really has become a popularity contest and its not enjoyable to keep up with anymore. Like you said you can always kind of tell what’ll be on there, similar authors and books. I also wish they brought back the removed categories. Not sure what changes I’d like to see, at the end of the day its just about popularity but i would like to see more variety i guess. great discussion!
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I had the same experience. I used to be more excited and had heard of/read more of the books. This year I only read two books in any of the categories and I kind of didn’t even realize voting had closed and the winners were announced until a bit after it happened!
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I always find it interesting to see which books are super popular and if I read any of them. I do not follow any TikTok, BookTubers, etc, so this is where I hear about it. I did read three winners and 16 of the other nominees. As for removing categories, this is someplace where less is more is NOT the way to go. I liked having more opportunities to hype more books.
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I’ve been getting back into watching This Story Ain’t Over’s videos this last month. The Anti Brain Rot Challenge is so intriguing to me and doing it in conjunction with The Diverse Baseline makes sense to me. I’m not going to abandon Goodreads but I’ve loved being on Fable and Storygraph more. Speaking of stale, Stephen King was nominated in Horror but for a twist, he didn’t win.
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[…] Let’s Talk Bookish: The Goodreads Choice Awards […]
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I meant to check out the awards this year but somehow never got around to it 🙈 I dont even know which books got nominated on the whole tbh which is kind of ridiculous 😂🙈
Its definitely a shame that more of a mixture of books dont get included. And youre definitely right that the same popular authors are always bound to feature and, if they’re in the mix, win.
I loved Bury Our Bones for instance but I dont think it should have beaten The Raven Scholar. Yes I’m biased because the latter is my favourite read of the year but I’ve definitely seen my love of that one echoed elsewhere. Whilst Bones got more of a mixed reception in general – I adored it and know of other readers who did too but I also know the character driven nature of it didnt work for some readers too. Also how on earth did The Buffalo Hunter Hunter not win the horror category 😭 that books just phenomenal.
I didnt realise the MG category had gone but that definitely seems strange and I think it should make a return. I always mean to read more MG and never get to it but it is a massive genre. And I think its an important age range reading wise to cover too tbh because how many forever favourites do readers discover during that time of their lives? Its always such an important age to get into reading so we should be highlighting as many strong choices for readers as possible.
Making romantasy a category definitely makes sense with its popularity though. Even if I do sometimes wish the fantasy side of the equation got a bit more attention at times 😂
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[…] Dini discusses the Goodreads Choice Awards. […]
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I still vote in the awards, but I’m definitely no longer as invested in them because I don’t like the changes they made in the last couple of years 😢 Not allowing write-in nominations and completely removing the Middle Grade and Graphic Novel categories just soured my enjoyment. I know Romantasy is popular now, but there’s no reason they couldn’t just add one category instead of removing an entire age group of books 🤔
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tbh i agree with you that the past few years with gca has felt… stale. i dont mind the addition of the romantasy genre, but i dont understand why it needs to come at the cost of mg and graphic novel category… i genuinely think we could have ALL categories T_T
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[…] Talk Bookish: Deciding 2026 Goals & Let’s Talk Bookish: The Goodreads Choice Awards (Dini @ […]
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