Is there an alternative to Goodreads?

~ Lory

Alternatives to Goodreads come up now and then, and I check them out because I’m not wild about the Amazon monopoly. I’m not sure how my using GR would profit Amazon since I almost never buy books from them, and my reviews don’t attract lots of views and excitement. Still, I am always interested in seeing if someone has come up with a viable alternate book-tracking site.

So far, nothing has the features of Goodreads that make it useful to me. One thing a startup site is unlikely to have is the sheer number of listings — I can find practically anything on GR, including obscure titles and books published in foreign languages, and there’s nearly always some kind of review or at least a summary. Other sites I’ve looked into, like Riffle and StoryGraph, just don’t have all the books.

They also don’t have all the members, and that’s another thing that prevents me from switching. Many of the bloggers I follow are also on Goodreads and I appreciate the chance to connect with them there. I used to participate in more groups and discussions but I have gotten away from that lately.

I also like the “readers also enjoyed” feature and it sometimes leads me to books I would not have found otherwise. I like that different editions of a books are listed. I like the quote feature although I’m haphazard about using it to track my own favorite quotes. I sometimes look at reader-created lists when I’m searching for books about a particular topic.

There are sites that would allow me to catalog my own reads in an acceptable fashion, if that’s all I wanted to do, but I also want a place where I can find so much information and connect with so many other readers. If you use Goodreads, what do you like or dislike about it? Do you know of an alternative that offers these features?

Linked in the Book Blog Discussion Challenge hosted by Feed Your Fiction Addiction and It Starts At Midnight.

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23 thoughts on “Is there an alternative to Goodreads?”

  1. That is a good question but I haven’t found an answer to that, yet, either. But I’d love to see whether any of your friends will come up with an alternative.

    One thing that might not be as interesting to you but it is to me is that Goodreads always lists all the books, no matter in what language. I have many German and other international friends and I read books in other languages, so it’s always good to know the other titles for my blog and my friends.

    I see you are reading L’Ètranger at the moment. I love Camus and that is one of my favourites. Enjoy.

    1. I also appreciate that feature of including books in other languages, since I’m trying to read more in French and German. Reading is international!

      1. That’s for sure. And if you want to share it with international friends, you need the title because sometimes, you don’t recognize it again. LOL

  2. I like Storygraph for tracking and analyzing my reading, though I agree it’s not as good for networking and reviewing. I also like that you can create your own challenge pages fairly easily. I also think it provides really good recommendations. I mostly use Goodreads for posting and reading reviews. I’m struggling with tracking my reading in way too many places. I’d love it if one system had everything I need. Good luck

    1. I really don’t want to get involved in multiple forums, which is part of why I end up sticking with Goodreads.

    1. I should have mentioned LibraryThing. I like some of the groups but I never got into it for tracking my own books or reading, I’m not sure why.

      1. I still use LibraryThing (largely cos I paid for lifetime membership!) and it’s got the things you mention above – you can use WorldCat, so every book ever published is on there, and there are various types of recommendations that are quite fun.

        1. I haven’t looked into LibraryThing book listings for a while. I just had a look, and I find that for me it’s TOO MUCH information all on the screen at once. The thoroughness is admirable but it’s a little overwhelming. Still, it does have a lot of the features I like and I might consider switching over. Fortunately there is a possibility to import my books from Goodreads, which would make it easy.

  4. I use Goodreads for keeping track of what I have read and for posting reviews. I’ve been on the site since 2007 and haven’t seriously looked at alternatives.

  5. It’s a perennial problem; GR is incredibly clunky, but (like FB) I already have all my friends and books there, and I haven’t seen anything worth the hassle of changing. Storygraph seems neat, but I’m not too motivated. And I agree; GR’s extensive and international catalog is a big help. I like weird old books, and they are almost always on GR.

  6. You might want to check out Library Thing. I think they are more flexible in allowing you to curate and catalogue at will. I had a user ages ago but let it lapse and am now only on Goodreads. I can’t keep up with more than one platform.

    1. I have used LibraryThing but not so much lately. I’ll look into it and see if anything has changed.

    1. That’s good to know! I also want information about books I have not read, but maybe one could ask for them to be added too. I’m kind of lazy about doing things like that though.

  8. I’m not on GoodReads but I do refer to it for reviews of books I’m thinking of buying sometimes… Not being a member, I don’t ‘like’ reviews and I don’t think my presence even registers (though perhaps it does). I hadn’t even heard of StoryGraph.

    As a representative therefore of the technophobe sector of the internet, what I’m trying to say is that you might be being read more than you realise, and GoodReads does have the advantage of being so widely known that even we can use it.

    1. I agree, that’s part of the appeal. I’m disappointed to see they are testing a new format (I’ve tried it and I hate it of course). Technophobes hate techy change but they keep forcing it on us anyway.

  9. I was interested to try StoryGram, but after uploading all my books, I never really did anything else in it. Like you said, everything is already established on Goodreads and that’s where most people are at. I’m interested to see the changes that they’re going to be implementing, but I’m nervous to see that you said you hate it!

    1. For me there’s a fine balance between too much information on a page and too little. LibraryThing overwhelmed me with ALL the information all at once, whereas the new Goodreads is following the trend of stripping down (I’d call it dumbing down) to the basics and becoming less attractive to me thereby. However, if that’s what the masses are calling for that’s probably where they’ll go.

  10. Exactly, nothing as good as Goodreads, so far, for the reasons you mention. LibraryThing has a lot of members as well, but you have to pay after a rather small number of titles.
    Goodreads has a French equivalent: Babelio.com

    1. The membership fee for LT is pretty low, at least – I think only $25 for a lifetime membership? I think that’s reasonable. Anyway I’ve checked it out but I’ll stay with GR for now — until it gets ruined by “improvements”.

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