There Are Alternatives to Goodreads
I created my Goodreads profile in 2008. It was a small site at the time, only launched in 2007, but it quickly changed the way I track my reading. The idea was brilliant in its simplicity – to give readers the ability to register books they owned, read, or want to read, and to interact with the broader community of book lovers through reviews and message boards. For me, the site offered an easy way to keep track of books I read but didn’t have – and there were many, given that I often used the library or borrowed from friends, and rarely had the money to build my shelves. Unfortunately, what was once a simple pleasure has become a cumbersome and often frustrating force in the book world.
Acquired by Amazon in 2013 , the site now has over 90 million users and is the primary source of information for many readers on how they read, browse user-generated book reviews, find recommendations, and give gifts. And while a strong presence on Goodreads could spell success for a new book, a few bad early reviews could ruin it . While the site provides readers with a platform to easily share their opinions on the book, the unstructured nature of Goodreads’ review system allows users to easily publish reviews – often small ones – even before the book even came out.
If you’ve ditched Goodreads, it can be difficult to find a good alternative, especially if a strong community is important to you. If you’re looking for a simpler review platform, a smaller user base, want to avoid feeding Amazon, or just crave easier, pressure-free days of tracking your books, here are a few suggestions.
Storygraph
Storygraph brings a fun twist to the aspect of keeping track of virtual books on social media. You can follow others and they will follow you, but there are no friends / followers statistics, and no one will know when you subscribe to them. It relieves pressure if you’re less interested in influencing the reader, including your own, and more interested in finding like-minded people. You can take a survey so the site recognizes you and recommends books, and the books you add to your list can also be assigned custom tags. The more The Storygraph gets to know you, the better it will recommend books that suit your tastes.
Book laziness
BookSloth is the fast-growing alternative that most closely resembles Goodreads. There are routine tracking, grading and peer review, as well as monthly assignments and achievements to help make your reading more playful. As far as I can tell, its aesthetic is similar to Bookstagram and Goodreads and is focused primarily on recommendation and what’s coming soon in bookstores. I don’t have an account yet, but that will change soon – seems like a great option for those readers who want to keep up with the latest news and are happy to amass a huge pile of TBRs.
Riffle
Riffle , founded in 2013, believes that “people recommend books the most, not computer algorithms.” Their community focus gives them the feel of an independent bookstore equivalent to Goodreads (there’s even a feature to connect you to a local indie and get source recommendations). It’s a reading tracker with a more personal touch, with genre editors, community managers and site administrators answering your questions and helping you navigate.
Libib
For those looking for a super powerful tracker, Libib can be an option for cataloging your books, music, movies and video games in one place. It comes in a free standard edition and a professional edition that costs $ 9 / month or $ 99 / year and is robust enough to cover everything a school or small organization might need, from multi-user controls to barcode recognition. Expect more data and cloud syncing options and less social media experience.
Library
LibraryThing is an option for those who can also track movies and music along with their books. It used to pay a small fee – $ 10 a year or $ 25 for life – but this year a blog announced that it would be completely free. They also created TinyCat , which you can work with as an online directory for your classroom, church, community center, or other small libraries. In 2018, they acquired Litsy , a photo- based social media app that aims to build a community of readers who love to share shelves, illustrated quotes, and photographs of book culture.
Spreadsheet – or old-fashioned pen and paper
To completely free yourself from the pressure of combining social media and reading life, consider moving to the old school. There is no reason why you can’t keep track of your readings in a simple spreadsheet. You can share with your friends if needed, but you can keep this to yourself as a personal diary, which tells about what you read, about your feelings and what was going on in your life at that time. If you’re worried about data loss, try a cloud service like Google Docs. And if you prefer a more personal chronicle of what you read and the thoughts that go along with it, the web platform may not be right for you at all. Sometimes there is nothing like a pen and a notepad.