A lot of bloggers and authors use Goodreads, a platform where you can review books and make lists of books you liked, want to read, etc.  I mostly use it for cross-posting purposes to get reviews on my blog out there to a wider audience (which can be extremely helpful for self-published authors as well as traditionally published authors).  Although I do also keep track of books using my shelves so I know which books I’ve read but have yet to review, what series I haven’t finished and what books I really want to keep an eye out for in bargain shops.  Goodreads is not perfect by any means in part because of the author-reviewer drama that sometimes goes on, but it’s pretty much everything I need it to be: generally user-friendly, simple and practical.

What I want to know now is this: How do you use Goodreads?  Do you use it as a way to keep track of your books, simply cross-post reviews, connect with authors or a combination of all of them?  As an author, is it a good way to reach out to new reviewers or just readers in general?  As a reviewer, do you use it quite a bit or not at all?  Why?