5 ms·

Potentially good alternative is https://literal.club/ https://literal.club/ Not affiliated, just a happy user of the site.

crossroadsguy 3y ago
I don’t think GoodReads has any real alternative. Amazon knew that. That’s why they bought it.
- manuelmoreale 3y ago
  It’s been 10 years since Amazon bought it. Maybe it’s time for alternatives to go online.
  - sidmitra 3y ago
    As others have pointed out, alternatives do exist. They just lack the network effect. I've recently moved to Bookwyrm. I was able to move import my Goodreads list, although many books were missing. Any new books i'm reading, go on Bookwyrm first. I had to add the ISBN details etc. for some. It's a bit of work initially, but atleast i feel my contribution is going to a non-walled garden. ---- https://joinbookwyrm.com/ https://joinbookwyrm.com/ - Social Reading and Reviewing, Decentralized >BookWyrm is a social network for tracking your reading, talking about books, writing reviews, and discovering what to read next. Federation allows BookWyrm users to join small, trusted communities that can connect with one another, and with other ActivityPub services like Mastodon and Pleroma.
    - gaius_baltar 3y ago
      Beware that Bookwyrm is neither Open Source (as per OSI definition) nor Free Software (per FSF definition). It is legally impossible for a lot of people to deploy it, I think it even include myself (I am employed by a company, does it counts as "laboring for myself" in my country?)
      - sidmitra 3y ago
        Doh! I went and looked at the license. https://github.com/bookwyrm-social/bookwyrm/blob/main/LICENSE.md https://github.com/bookwyrm-social/bookwyrm/blob/main/LICENS... Comment from the author. https://github.com/bookwyrm-social/bookwyrm/issues/2152 https://github.com/bookwyrm-social/bookwyrm/issues/2152
      - yankput 3y ago
        [flagged]
- pavel_lishin 3y ago
  Storygraph is _fine_, but the UX is worse. (And that's saying something, because imo the Goodreads UX is just barely serviceable.)
mighmi 3y ago
Do you know of any good forums or discussion places about books overall, or is literal good for it?
- manuelmoreale 3y ago
  Don’t know about forums unfortunately. I use literal primarily for book tracking and discovery and I have no idea if it’s any good to also discuss books with other people.
jamilton 3y ago
There's also Storygraph. Looks like both sites support exporting data from Goodreads, and Literal.club supports export from Storygraph. Storygraph is pretty good, the UI is a little wonky but I prefer it to Goodreads largely because it isn't Amazon. I use it mostly for tracking reading, not so much for recommendations, but I have gotten some good recs from it.

crossroadsguy 3y ago

I don’t think GoodReads has any real alternative. Amazon knew that. That’s why they bought it.

manuelmoreale 3y ago
It’s been 10 years since Amazon bought it. Maybe it’s time for alternatives to go online.
- sidmitra 3y ago
  As others have pointed out, alternatives do exist. They just lack the network effect. I've recently moved to Bookwyrm. I was able to move import my Goodreads list, although many books were missing. Any new books i'm reading, go on Bookwyrm first. I had to add the ISBN details etc. for some. It's a bit of work initially, but atleast i feel my contribution is going to a non-walled garden. ---- https://joinbookwyrm.com/ https://joinbookwyrm.com/ - Social Reading and Reviewing, Decentralized >BookWyrm is a social network for tracking your reading, talking about books, writing reviews, and discovering what to read next. Federation allows BookWyrm users to join small, trusted communities that can connect with one another, and with other ActivityPub services like Mastodon and Pleroma.
  - gaius_baltar 3y ago
    Beware that Bookwyrm is neither Open Source (as per OSI definition) nor Free Software (per FSF definition). It is legally impossible for a lot of people to deploy it, I think it even include myself (I am employed by a company, does it counts as "laboring for myself" in my country?)
    - sidmitra 3y ago
      Doh! I went and looked at the license. https://github.com/bookwyrm-social/bookwyrm/blob/main/LICENSE.md https://github.com/bookwyrm-social/bookwyrm/blob/main/LICENS... Comment from the author. https://github.com/bookwyrm-social/bookwyrm/issues/2152 https://github.com/bookwyrm-social/bookwyrm/issues/2152
    - yankput 3y ago
      [flagged]
pavel_lishin 3y ago
Storygraph is _fine_, but the UX is worse. (And that's saying something, because imo the Goodreads UX is just barely serviceable.)

mighmi 3y ago

Do you know of any good forums or discussion places about books overall, or is literal good for it?

manuelmoreale 3y ago
Don’t know about forums unfortunately. I use literal primarily for book tracking and discovery and I have no idea if it’s any good to also discuss books with other people.

jamilton 3y ago

There's also Storygraph. Looks like both sites support exporting data from Goodreads, and Literal.club supports export from Storygraph. Storygraph is pretty good, the UI is a little wonky but I prefer it to Goodreads largely because it isn't Amazon. I use it mostly for tracking reading, not so much for recommendations, but I have gotten some good recs from it.