Book tracking sites?

[radiantfracture]

Advisors! Wise ones!

K. and M. and I were talking about getting back in to book-tracking, and I know just recently I saw some conversation here about the better apps for that.

(NB I need a better tracker for my DW-reading-list reading.)

I know some folks track on DW or in a spreadsheet -- I do that myself, loosely -- but as a group we'd like something a bit more sociable. (They're not active on DW.)

Do you have any suggestions for non-Goodreads apps? Notes from use?

I think what we are mainly looking for is simple -- a way to track reading and share thoughts about it with one another. I'm not looking for any broader functionality and I am particularly not looking for a site that wants me to engage with it like a social media site. That is, I understand that no site is perfect, and all stars must run on some fuel, but these features are uninteresting or anathema to me:

• Promoting things
• Having things promoted to me
• Being invited to sign up for newsletters
• Getting alerts about anything ever
• The risk of interacting with actual authors

I can do all of that elsenet.

§rf§

Comments

[dreamsrundeep]

I’ve been using StoryGraph. They recently enabled the ability to connect with friends/other readers. It might do some of the above for you. I like the visual representation of my reading data there the most!

[radiantfracture]

I like the visual representation of my reading data there the most!

I do like that part. Like the activity counter on my phone.

[ioplokon]

You could repurpose backloggery for books? But if the friends are not also Gamers, the interface might be bad.

Eta: I also use post.marks and like that a lot. It takes a little know-how to set up, but after that, people could just log in & add books/tags.

[radiantfracture]

Thanks! We have one gamer and one decidedly non-gamer.

[watersword]

I've been using literal.club, and I don't hate it, but I don't know if I would recommend it (not least because I'm really doubtful about its long-term sustainability). I tried BookWyrm, an open-source federated thing, and was not a fan, but don't remember why, sorry.

[radiantfracture]

Thanks for the thoughts! BookWyrm was one I have seen mentioned elsewhere as well.

[yarrowkat]

i use both StoryGraph and Fable. neither quite holds up to Goodreads in terms of the sheer quantity of paragraph-or-longer reviews, but they both have interesting features to reccomend them. both are small businesses owned by women of color. StoryGraph is much less of a social site (so far, for me) and might function well the way you describe. its review function is dramatically hampered by a multi-question quiz it walks you through before you can get to the "sharing thoughts" part, and unfortunately none of the parts of the quiz are useful. ymmv! but, zero of them reflect how i choose my next read, so, i am finding that part pretty annoying. it does have some cute graphs each month & year to summarize various parts of your reading experience; again although they are slightly interesting, these are not useful to me (i know how many audiobooks vs paperbacks i consume already, thanks? and which genres i read? this is... not news. i suspect i'm not the target market. too old and cranky, maybe.)

Fable is far more social if you want it to be, though you don't have to use it that way. it has a robust book club feature which i'm enjoying, and also lets you track & share info about tv and movies. it has the same problem that StoryGraph has with reviews of walking you through a rather asinine quiz before getting to the "write your review" part and it takes the steam out of wanting to write an actual review. its UX is very smooth and easy to interact with, where StoryGraph's is a bit clunky and almost as slow as the Goodreads app.

[radiantfracture]

It turns out I already have a StoryGraph account that I absolutely do *not* remember signing up for, but that definitely contains a to-read list that I would've chosen. So I think we'll do that by default, lol.

[yarrowkat]

there you go, then! i think I'm there as yarrowkat if you want to add each other. I'm tracking my reading there but not really using it socially atm.

[yhlee]

Honestly is there anything wrong with just having a group Google Doc (or Google Sheet) with headers for easy navigation?? In terms of simplicity. There might be reasons this doesn't work for y'all either.

[radiantfracture]

I think the only reasons are somewhat paradoxical – I want someone else to do some nice user interface design on my behalf, and I like the idea of seeing what people beyond my immediate circle are reading. Just not talking to them about it.

[astrogirl]

You want LibraryThing. They do have a monthly newsletter and things they can send you notifications about, but I'm pretty sure you can opt out of those. And they have pretty much zero tolerance for authors or publishers promoting stuff to members, outside of a couple of clearly defined and entirely avoidable spaces. Its whole purpose is just to be a book-cataloging site with social forums for people to talk about books if they want, not a social media site, and definitely not a marketing site for authors (again, outside of some carefully corralled spaces). The people who run it have pretty strong opinions on the matter.

[radiantfracture]

That does sound like the philosophy I am looking for!

[sabotabby]

A lot of people use Storygraph? I don't, because I already have to have Goodreads and I post my honest reviews here, and I don't need another thing to be OCD about.

[radiantfracture]

You do plenty.

Apparently I already have a StoryGraph account? I remember zero about setting it up, but judging from the to-read list it is mine.

[barbaratp]

Olá boa noite, o site switching.software tem um pequeno compilado de outros sites gratuitos que podem ser utilizados afim de substituir o GoodReads (https://switching.software/replace/amazon-goodreads/).

[radiantfracture]

Obrigado!

[haertstitch]

i was wondering why interacting
with an author would be bad
till I saw someone's comment about
them doing selling posts. that is awkward.

but I've written with folks who have written
something and found it enjoyable.
In 2 cases I found I was grateful I did
because they died not long after ..

[radiantfracture]

I also like talking to writers! I follow a bunch here, lol. But I don't want to go somewhere to track books and have my energy and attention solicited for a bunch of other things.

[haertstitch]

it seems a desperation
the marketing on line..
it is defeating their purpose

too much is dependent on larger growing numbers

oh for the older times
when book sellers had presses in the back
long long time ago

[boxofdelights]

I think Bookwyrm might be what you're looking for: https://bookwyrm.social/

[radiantfracture]

Thank you!

[juushika]

Anything I could have said about StoryGraph was said in yarrowkat's reply! I think the trope-/vibes-first approach to reviews, which is how the survey elements function, is a trend that some readers obviously like but not something I found useful re: sharing my own reactions or finding new reads. But it's probably the biggest & most intentional Goodreads competitor and perfectly adequate in that regard.

[radiantfracture]

Cheers! It turns out that at some point not that long ago I did make myself a StoryGraph account and then completely forgot about it. So I think that must be the right choice.