I have been on Goodreads since 2010, and I even link my reviews to Goodreads. It is a platform that I have a great deal of nostalgia for and will continue to use- at least for now. That said, Goodreads seems to have a monopoly in terms of a social media platform for readers, and that is never a good thing. The website/app is in need of a major update. There are things that readers have been asking for for years (half stars anyone!) that the company seems to be ignoring. The search and recommendation functions are also terrible! The fact that the company is owned by Amazon doesn’t help its cause either.
For these reasons, I thought I would share a couple of alternatives that I have been playing around with these last few days and have been receiving a lot of attention on Twitter.
The first is The Storygraph, which was founded by Nadia Odunayo. The goal of The Storygraph is to track your reading and receive book recommendations. They highlight the fact that this is not a social media platform. You can follow another user’s reviews, but they will not know that you are following them and you will not know who is following you. This is done to eliminating any of the pressure!
What stands out to me about The Storygraph is the review system. You can rate books anything from 0-5 stars, whether that is 0.5 or 4.75 stars. There are also a series of adjectives that you can choose to describe the book (such as dark, informative, mysterious, sad, etc.), and you can answer various questions on pacing and character development. This is a great feature because the platform tells you the books that you are more drawn to. Right now, my profile says that I mainly read fiction that is emotional, reflective, and dark and books that are medium-paced and between 300-499 pages long.
There is also a survey that you can fill out in order to receive tailored book recommendations. It is also worth noting that you can import your Goodreads library and there are reading challenges.
Evidently, there is a lot to love about this The Storygraph, and it is only going to grow from here. I am looking forward to being along for the ride.
I am not as familiar with BookSloth, and it has been experiencing some technical issues due to its unexpected growth, but I love what I have seen from it so far. The thing that I appreciate about BookSloth is the recommendation section. As soon as you open the app, you will see a list of books- some that have been tailored to your reading, some that are recommended by the community, and some that are more curated and timely lists, such as books about Black Lives Matter and books that celebrate Pride Month. I have already found so many books to add to my TBR, which I will share with you on Monday! Another highlight is that the app lists upcoming releases. I cannot be the only one who struggles to find out what books are coming out, and BookSloth does the work for you! The community is also delightful- it is like Twitter for readers. The creators of BookSloth have incredible ideas, and I cannot wait to see where they go from here.
There is something about the combination of these two platforms that make for the perfect book-tracking experience. I highly recommend using them both!
Do you use The Storygraph or BookSloth? Is there another Goodreads alternative that you use? Let’s discuss in the comments!
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