Lately I’ve found that I’m spreading myself thin across the book review/cataloging websites. It has made me wonder: what the heck am I doing? Why can’t I just pick one site and stick with it? Why am I feeling uncertain?
The different sites out there
Here are some of the options that exist:
- Goodreads
- LibraryThing
- BookLikes
- BookDigits
- Literally
- …and more
Why I ditched LibraryThing
I started out using LibraryThing. When I found Goodreads, I mostly switched to that because it had a better interface. But for a while, I still kept up with posting my reviews on LibraryThing. Eventually I stopped. I think I stopped because I never got into the LibraryThing community. I felt like I was posting my reviews out there for NO ONE to see. So what’s the point? Goodreads was prettier, had a better community, and served my cataloging needs just as well. What did I need LibraryThing for?
BookLikes wasn’t for me
Then I experimented with BookLikes when that got hot.. but I quickly stopped. I didn’t find the site easy to navigate at all. I also don’t think it’s a good fit for me because it’s so heavily focused on blogging and I don’t need another blog. It’s a good site, just not the right fit for me.
BookDigits is cool.. but never took off
I experimented with BookDigits one day after my husband found it. It’s an interesting site and is pretty unique from the rest. It relies heavily on themes used in books when cataloging them. But I never got into it. I just don’t think it clicked with me and it felt like such a massive effort to add/rate/review a book because I had to pick all the themes and stuff. Also, it’s kind of ugly. It was clearly made by a programmer and NOT a designer. 😛
Literally… the next to go?
Then for the past few weeks, I’ve been toying with Literally. I don’t think this one fits for me at all though. It’s a nice, simple site, but one of the main things I want is the ability to look up a book and quickly see if my friends liked it or not. That’s done through seeing an average rating and quickly scanning my friends’ reviews. But Literally has NO star ratings and NO reviews. That just isn’t what I’m looking for at all. Other than cataloging, the whole point of a site like this (for me) is to be able to see my friends’ reviews so I can decide whether or not to read a book.
So what the heck am I doing? Why not just stick with Goodreads?
When contemplating dropping Literally, my thoughts immediately went to: What should I try next? But then my next thought after that was:
Why am I so desperate to find a replacement for Goodreads?
What’s wrong with Goodreads? It does everything I want. I can add books to shelves, track my reading progress, add reviews, quickly see average ratings, quickly scan my friends’ reviews. What’s missing? Is there ANYTHING missing?
Honestly, I was happy with Goodreads. I think I started looking for alternatives when there was all that Goodreads drama about them deleting peoples’ reviews. It didn’t affect me personally, but maybe all that drama just put a bad taste in my mouth when it comes to Goodreads. Do I subconsciously associate negative thoughts/feelings with Goodreads?
What if I made my own site?
So many times over the last year I’ve thought about building my own site for cataloging and reviewing books.. especially after I launched BookBlogging.net. Several people suggested I add a book rating/shelving/reviewing system… and I thought about it. But I had several fears:
- It would be A LOT of work
- What if I put weeks and weeks into developing this… and no one used it but me?
- If no one used it, it would be pointless (for me) because then I wouldn’t have one of the essential requirements: the ability to quickly see my friends’ reviews. At least I could easily add an “auto post review from WordPress to [my site]” feature to the UBB plugin and get peoples’ reviews that way. MUAHAHAAH #evilplan
- I’d feel obligated to make a mobile app, which I’ve never done IN MY LIFE! At least I took a class on Java, which you use for making an Android app… yeah I took that class in freaking high school like 5 years ago… #forgeteverything
So I keep going back and forth… It would be freaking cool… but it would be the biggest disappointment if it flopped.
What’s the point of this post?
I have no idea. I feel like I’m just word vomiting. I was just sitting here one night thinking, what the hell am I doing with all these different sites? I only want to use ONE! ..And this post was born from that ranty thought.
I’ve basically DREAMED of the day when you would say “hey yeah I’m going to put together a book cataloging website”. And while I know that’s not what you’re saying here it’s basically what I made out of it because I know it would be awesome. I know I would use that site and I’m convinced no one would be able to create that site better than you. I don’t say this to put pressure on you I promise but I do believe what I’ve said. I’ve had a grudge against goodreads for a long time but with no alternatives I’m stuck. Anywho I’ve rambled enough! Fabulous post and if you decide to jump off the cliff let us know!! 😀
Thank you Octavia! 😀 I’m so glad to hear that! I’ll let you know. 😉
Do it! 🙂 I feel that same way! But I also avoid Goodreads… It’s so busy in my eyes. There’s so much going on that I feel lost and overwhelmed. So, I peek once in a blue moon, and mosey along. Then tried (might still try) to do just my own little ole thing, but I’m a novice (huge emphasis) and not a designer or programmer. I would loooove to see what you could do because everything I’ve seen so far is 1) user friendly, 2) good on the eye, 3) SMART. Good luck!
Yeah, you’re right about Goodreads feeling busy. I feel like I’m drawn to something super simple, but I guess there are other people out there who do use all/more of Goodreads’ features than I do.
I’ve looked for a replacement for GR a while back, but I didn’t found one that was right for me, so I stick with it. For what it’s worth, if you would make a site like that, I’d totally switch to yours!
I also experiment a lot with other sites, but to be honest nothing really convinced me. I stick to Goodreads. I like it and I never had any drama there, so why would I go somewhere else? Also, I’ve been on goodreads for so long, I have so many books there so many reviews. Going to another side would be a PIA! Again, I hear many people complain – yet I never had problems!
Me too Dani, I’ve never had issues with drama on Goodreads. A few people had problems and suddenly everyone feels like they need to jump ship. Anyway, there are always two sides to every story, I think we forget that sometimes.
I have tried other sites for like a couple days and none of them fit me. I like goodreads and it is almost perfect in my eyes. For my needs anyways. That would be cool if you tried out your own site. I would be into that.
I stick with Goodreads. I’ve tried multiple other sites but they never did what I liked. I love the combination of reviews, book information and community on Goodreads. The only reason I ever considered switching is that their support is getting pretty crappy, and that drama of removing reviews and more importantly, not making site-wide announcements…
I’ve tried several sites but since gr I haven’t looked again. I have a love/hate relationship with them. They shut down way too often among other annoying things. But… like you said it has everything I’m looking for. I didn’t know about the deleting the reviews thing.
If you venture out I’ll follow.
Excellent post.
EEP didn’t know there were so many book cataloging websites out there! I’ve stuck with Goodreads since Day One, in fact that’s where my book blogging took off so I do feel a certain fondness towards Goodreads. Just… Just one thing though:
The search function sucks.
It can’t show ANYTHING unless the words you key in are the exact match. Why?!! I mean, I’m not a coding genius (oh dear can’t write a single thing) and for all I know displaying the closest results is extremely tough. But it’s been bugging me ;-;
I’m super in awe with the amazing things you’ve done for the book blogging community, and I’m sure many feel the same. If creating a book review/cataloging website is a challenge you want to take on, we’ll all be behind you! =)
I totally agree! To be honest, I only have one gripe with the search function: If you include the word “by” it doesn’t work. So if I type: “Free to Fall by Lauren Miller” zero results. But if I type “Free to Fall Lauren Miller” then I get the result I need.
From a coding perspective, it wouldn’t be at all difficult to strip out the word ” by ” from all searches.
I kinda wish everyone would stick to Goodreads. Every few months it seems all my friends disappear for a bit, then come back. Plus if we all stick to it then maybe someday they can fix the search engine so it actually works.
I totally agree with Nathan. Goodreads is the best place out there, and every time something new comes along and *tries* to improve on Goodreads, it just feels sad to me. I personally will never have the time or desire to switch to another site after all the years of work I’ve put in on that site.
I went through this whole let’s-try-to-replace-Goodreads funk, too, and it really amounted to nothing because I ended up returning to Goodreads again. I’ve tried only three of the other book catalog sites you mentioned here — Literally, BookLikes, and LibraryThing. I actually used both my LT and GR accounts when I first started blogging, posting reviews and updating statuses on both sites, but then like you, I shifted over to GR and just ditched LT for no reason at all! To be honest, though, I don’t like their layout much, compared to GR’s. Goodreads is just so much cleaner and easier to navigate. I just never knew where to go on LT!
Literally looked like it had the potential to become more, but it was really inconvenient to move through it because it didn’t have a searchbar and you had to keep clicking on “Books” in order to update your lists or whatever. A lot of my friends seem to like it though, so I’m probably in the minority. The only thing it has going is the badges feature, tbh!
I think the urge to wander in and out of several book cataloging websites has passed for me, or maybe it’s because I’ve just got no time to waste on the internet, lol. But I think sticking to Goodreads would be a better choice because it’s something we’re familiar with and everyone uses, so it’s super convenient as well. So what I’m trying to say is, I guess, that I’m happy with GR, despite all the drama and negativity. It’s a huge community, and doesn’t feel empty like Literally or LibraryThing. And I think Goodreads is also pretty much the reason why new book cataloging websites won’t be able to take off that successfully.
I totally agree with you about LT. LT looks like it was made in the 1990s. It’s so dated and the navigation is kind of confusing.
I think I would like Literally if it had reviews/ratings. But without those, I just have no reason to use it. 🙁
Have you ever tried out Leafmarks? I think it was created out of the same idea you have. I think it’s pretty enough and it really functions similarly to Goodreads, so that’s nice. The only thing I don’t like is why it was created. It’s for people who want to be able to have freedom with reviews and ratings – meaning people can give books 1-star just because they don’t like the author or say horribly mean things about an author in the review. I don’t really approve of that. But if you’re interested, it’s still a little community.
I don’t like the idea of being able to rate books you haven’t even read, but I will check it out! Thanks!
But you can do that on GR too. It’s always annoyed me, trying to sort out legitimate ARC reviews from the 5-star-ZOMG-I-CAN’T-WAIT-FOR-THIS-TO-COME-OUT “reviews.”
Yeah, I just meant I don’t like how that was one of the core reasons for founding the site. 🙂
That’s very true, but I think being-excited-about-a-book fake ratings and i-just-hate-the-author fake ratings are different. Not that you shouldn’t be allowed to be negative on GR, but they’re very different sentiments.
I think I just don’t like it because I often use the average rating to determine whether or not I should read a book. But if people give a book 5 stars because they’re “excited” but haven’t read it, or if people give a book 1 star because they “hate the author”, then it skews the average. Then the average rating is no longer a representation of the book, but a mixture of anticipation, author hate, and reviews. But I prefer it to just be based on how good the individual book is, because ultimately that’s what I want to use to decide if I should read it or not.
When I started, I basically had to choose between GoodReads and Babelio. Living in Canada, GoodReads was a sort of obvious choice, but my friends use Babelio in France. I decided to use GoodReads anyway because 1) the interface of GR is so much clearer and 2) I’m reading more and more in English.
The only thing that GR could really improve is their interface. Oh my THAT IS UGLY. The app is another possible improvement. It is slow and impractical.
Away from that, I’m super happy with GR!
I update and post star ratings on Goodreads, LibraryThing, and BookLikes, but I don’t post reviews anywhere but my blog anymore. After that whole fiasco with GR (which was really just the last straw, I’d been getting more and more annoyed with them for a while), I dialed my participation on the site way back. I miss when it was a community for readers to connect with other readers, and I just don’t feel that way about it anymore. I think it has the best utility and is the most user-friendly… I appreciate having friends’ reviews listed first on the book page, and I LOVE the “compare books” feature and use it all the time.
That’s the thing, though, I USE it. I used to think of GR as a site that I visited, that I spent time on, that I was invested in… now it’s just a tool that I use. A useful tool… but it used to be so much more.
I use Goodreads and nothing else. I realized that I have to limit my time with all this social media stuff and I can’t do them all. Nor do I want to. I thought about BookLikes but yes, I already have a blog why do that?
Exactly! I see BookLikes as like a small step you take before you decide you want to take blogging seriously. But then once you decide you want to become a book blogger (rather than a reader who sometimes posts about books), you “upgrade” and get your own blog.
But if you’re already a book blogger, why do you need BookLikes, whose core feature is the blogging/posting aspect?
I enjoyed your post and have felt the same way. I have tried Goodreads, LibraryThing, Riffle, BookLikes & Shelfari. In the end, I came back to Goodreads for the sense of an active community. If you made your own, I would certainly try it. I honestly can’t say I would leave Goodreads for it, but I promise to try it out. Thanks for a good conversation starter.
If you put a site together, I’d use it! I like how you make things pretty, but still easy to navigate!
I’m pretty much in a monogamous relationship with GoodReads as far as cataloging and discovering new books. I do post my reviews to BookLikes, but that’s about the extent of my use there. And I do my reading progress updates from Literally, since it’ll tweet every one and not just the ones that fall 30 minutes apart. I also like comparing how much I read each day.
Hahaha, I do this kind of thing as well. I’m always looking for the next best thing. Goodreads is pretty awesome though. I know I’m not utilizing it to it’s full potential though.
Ugh, yes! I use Shelfari, Booklikes, and Goodreads! My problem is that not one of them has everything I want and all of them have something I do want. Can I say – the ability to autocross post reviews would be flipping amazing! Every Saturday I crosslist my reviews for the week on Goodreads, Shelfari, Booklikes, Amazon, B&N and when appropriate/I can – Netgalley, Edelweiss, Audiobook Jukebox, Audible, and Smashwords. I have a system and its not so bad, but a way to automatically do that would be amazing.
Here’s what I like about Goodreads, Shelfari, and Booklikes that the others don’t have.
Goodreads – best way to read other peoples reviews, better ability to customize shelves, list who recommended book to you (but why must it be just 1 person?!?!), while reading updates (sort of… Wish it were set up better for audio updates), reading challenge tells me if I’m behind, largest community
Shelfari – I like the way I can view my reading timeline right there on the main shelf and switch what book I’m reading so easily, I read some books multiple times and it lets me write the end dates for each time I read (goodreads does the start date, which I love over shelfari, but you can’t track multiple reads beyond how many times you read)
Booklikes – its prettier!, I like the ability to use half stars, its better for status updates on audios but I really wish it already knew how long my book was (audio or otherwise)
so that was a really long comment – sorry! But this is a BIG deal to me. My biggest issue with all of then is the way they do audio books – they never list how long the audio book is, they don’t do go lod updates, and often I have to add the audiobook format… Which then takes forever to get merged with the main book and series (if it ever does).
So yeah it would make my dreams come true if someone created a system that merged what I love and fixed what’s missing.
Thanks so much for all your comments! It would definitely be cool to create a site that combines all those. 🙂
I have only ever used Goodreads, and have never really looked for an alternative. I like everything that GR has, and wasn’t affected by any of the changes or drama, and so have disregarded all other sites since they only appear to be fads, while GR seems to be a long term option.
I only do Goodreads (I’ve never even heard of the other ones you’ve listed). I use it to keep track of my book lists and that’s about it. I’d totally be up for something different though, if you do decide to go ahead and make something down the road. But yeah-that would be a massive project!
I’ve looked at other sites, but they all paled in comparison to Goodreads. It has everything I need: shelves, ratings, many reviews, lists, recommendations, etc.
Some of my friends who left GoodReads say good things about LeafMarks. Have you tried it? The interface looks similar to GR; I think some of the programmers are the same. I didn’t try it – I use BookLikes because I like the blogging aspect, and GR for the cataloging system.
Someone else mentioned it above and that was the first I’d heard of it. 🙂 I might check it out. But yeah, the interface does look very similar!
I’ve always stuck with Goodreads. I’ve heard of those other sites, but I just can’t bring myself to make the switch. It feels like it would just be one more thing to maintain and I don’t want that. I’ll wait it out and see if another site becomes REALLY popular and then maybe make the switch. I’m lazy that way. 🙂
Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction
I’m more than happy to stick with Goodreads. It’s still THE website where I find all the books, where I keep lists and where I’m up to date about my friends reviews and stuff. I like the interface, so I don’t feel the need to go somewhere else. I use Literally as something extra. I like winning those achievements and being able to see how many pages I read every week 🙂
Ashley – I absolutely agree with everything you’ve mentioned here! Every Goodreads alternative has – more or less – something I don’t necessarily enjoy about it, and I’m always left thinking “WHY am I looking for a Goodreads alternative in the first place? Do I really need it?” That inner-monologue always ends with my conclusion that Goodreads has everything I need on it, so I don’t necessarily need an alternative. There hasn’t been any more drama from the developers since The Incident That Shall Not Be Named, so I’m perfectly fine sticking with Goodreads unless some more drama comes up.
Anyhow, thank you for sharing this Ashley! I think it’s a really fascinating post, so thanks for taking the time to put it together!
P.S. If you made a book cataloging site, I’d DEFINITELY use it! 😀
Thank you Zoe!
It’s comforting to know that there’s someone else out there feeling the same way! I keep trying to think about what I don’t like about Goodreads currently and come up blank (except perhaps that their design could use an overhaul).
I’ve been looking for Goodreads alternatives because I also have a bad taste in my mouth and just worry that they’ll keep screwing up in the future. My probably with Literally originally was the lack of an iOS app, but now that you point out the seeing friends’ reviews thing, that just isn’t going to work.
On the side of making your own and then making a phone app for it, you could possibly use Unity since it is C# and cross-platform including both Android and iOS. I just recently went through the App Store submission process for an app I made in Unity, so it’s on my mind 😉
Yeah I feel like my dream website is:
* Something simple
* Reading stats
* Book database
* Shelves/tags
* Average ratings
* Friend reviews
* Reading challenges
* Maybe even book bloggers only.. is that elitist? lol
Is Unity just for mobile games?
Nope, Unity compiles to Mac and windows as well. It’s really for 3D games, but I flattened it to 2d and it worked well.
Yeah, I just mean it looks like specifically a gaming engine, rather than something that could be used for a database/web-driven mobile app.
Oh yes! Sorry misunderstood 😉 it’s definitely a game engine at heart but I found I was happier coopting it than learning to deal with objective c >.>
I had no idea you had a website for book blogging. I love it!!! Thank you and I can’t wait to check it out. 🙂
I`m a Goodreads Girl. Only because I really got bored with LibraryThing and Goodreads is just easier to use and more widely used by others. I tried a few others, got frustrated or had lack of interest after signing up so just use Goodreads.
I think I was like you… looking for something else only because of that issue that came up. In the end I didn`t find anything that was user friendly for me and I just have no patience to learn a new site or take care of another place to update.
Hmm, I get why some people were upset with Goodreads, but for me that whole issue was never a dealbreaker. The thing is, Goodreads is just the accepted standard. An alternative site has to have a BIG differentiator that adds a LOT of value for people to switch (i.e. think Facebook taking over from Myspace). A lot of the value in Goodreads is the size of the community, and many “good idea” alternatives will never take off because the utility for people is lower without the community in place. I think most sites that have popped up so far just haven’t even matched what Goodreads is offering in terms of features, interface, and design – so obviously people aren’t switching.
I think it’d be cool if you started your own site – as an active reader/blogger/social network user, you obviously have a lot of knowledge on what are must have and nice to have features – and clearly design and interface would be no problem for you. But indeed, it would be a lot of work with potentially little pay off. So I think you should only do it if you have an idea of something BIG and important that Goodreads is lacking that you will provide. Because, unfortunately, most people won’t switch from Goodreads just because a site ISN’T Goodreads – many aren’t bothered by the policies enough to change and abandon their established networks there just on principle. It’s sad and frustrating, maybe, but true.
Yeah you’re exactly right. I don’t even know why I’m so convinced that I need to find an alternative because the Goodreads drama never really concerned me in the first place. So why do I keep trying to move?
And you’re right about the community. A book-related site would be dead if the community wasn’t there, and there are tons and tons of people who will have no desire to ever leave Goodreads because it works.
I think we maybe feel pressured to move to different sites because of vocal Goodreads opposers in the community? I felt it a bit as well, when it first blew up in September. I wrote a post about not leaving Goodreads (while others posted about deleting their GR accounts), because of the community there, and I did get some serious judgement on that. (“You should stand up for freedom of speech! Principles! Wah!”) Trust me though, if a site pops up with everything GR has to offer + something new and different that would make my life easier + friends start moving there, then I will go! I’m not that attached to GR (more to my network there), but the alternatives so far are all just lacking something or other. 🙁
I like this post though 🙂 It’s something I frequently have thought about as well – though I take this more realistic business-like approach. I think that while among bloggers there is this pretty harsh GR criticism off and on, a lot of GR users just don’t even know about it at all! In the rare cases that they do (how many would? 10%? Probably even less!), there’s also a large part that doesn’t care.
I like Goodreads. It meets my needs well. I tried Literally and ended up quitting for many of the same reasons. The only thing I liked about Literally was the ability to mark rereads.
Goodreads does exactly what I need/want it to do: (1) track my reading, and (2) catalog my books. I don’t use it to socialize (I mainly use Twitter for that). I tried out some of the other sites that came out as well, and like you, found they didn’t offer anything more than Goodreads does. Plus, a lot of my friends are still on Goodreads, which helps when I’m debating on whether or not to read a book.
I have GoodReads, Leafmarks, and Literally that I actively use. Really I only tried Leafmarks and Literally because everyone said GoodReads is bad. I like goodreads the most though. Not enough people are using Leafmarks for me to be active and Literally doesn’t have enough development for what I need. I do love their stat tracking.
If you started a cataloging site I’d definitely check it out and use it. A book cataloging site made by a book lover for book lovers? Yes, please!
I depend on Goodreads for everything! I’m sure that if you came up with something better the whole world would follow! If anyone can do it Ashley, you can 🙂
Thank you Liza! I’m starting to do some preliminary research and it’s looking tough… the hardest part is getting a good source of book data. That’s looking to be almost impossible. 🙁
Yes, I would imagine this is a huge undertaking!
I would totally help you with this. And I also happen to know someone who does Mobile Apps — my brother has created them for all the major mobile platforms. 🙂
Ohh awesome! I’ll let you know. I’m doing some preliminary research and it looks REALLY expensive to get a book data feed. So I’m hoping I’ll be able to find an option that isn’t $18,000 a year (yes, I got a quote for that).
There’s also Leafmarks!
https://www.leafmarks.com/lm/#/books/10261