Your Next Great Read: Exploring Goodreads' Top Books of 2023

by Joyce Mirador

---

Finding the next great read is a priority for every avid reader. Time is precious, and nobody wants to spend it on a mediocre book. Reading summaries, reviews, and ratings online can help, but there is a more efficient way: looking at the annual Goodreads Choice Awards.

---

Objectives

This project aims to gather and summarize data from the Goodreads Best Books of 2023, assisting readers in discovering their next favorite book based on their preferred genre. Key information includes each book's ranking based on votes, ratings, number of reviews, and summaries.

⃟⃟⃟

Data Process

The data was collected using web scraping techniques with the Selenium library in Python. A waiting period was implemented using the Time library to ensure the website remained stable during the scraping process. After testing, a 10-second delay was found to be optimal. Selenium’s WebDriverWait was also utilized to enforce this delay. The scraped data was then exported to a CSV file and cleaned using the Pandas and Numpy libraries.

⃟⃟⃟

Results

The dataset comprises 299 books, with an average rating of 4.024 stars. All books are in English. The top 5 books, based on votes, are:

• Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
• Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
• Happy Place by Emily Henry
• The Woman in Me by Britney Spears
• Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross

Most of the books are fiction and are available in audiobook format. This project not only highlights the top-rated books of 2023 but also provides a curated list for readers seeking their next literary adventure.

---