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StoryGraph is an excellent tool and I continue to use it daily. I’ve also found Hardcover.app, which I quite like. It has an API and a slightly more refined UI

StoryGraph is an excellent tool and I continue to use it daily. I’ve also found Hardcover.app, which I quite like. It has an API and a slightly more refined UI, but it’s clearly more than one person working on it. Of course, if your focus is book clubs, Fable is likely the app for you

magnio 2y ago
I also use Hardcover.app, but the community there is tiny compared to Goodreads, with the only possible exception being fantasy readers.
- bwb 2y ago
  It will get there, its growing :)
- HardcoverJeff 2y ago
  GR claims 125 million+ users. StoryGraph now claims over 3 million. Hardcover currently has 20K - and yes, a lot of those are fantasy based readers. That just means it is easier for other readers to come in and potentially become the new largest user group. :)
ryangs 2y ago
Excited to hear about Hardcover! I like StoryGraph but the lack of API frustrates me - I want to be able to sync back to my general notes store (Obsidian). Hopefully Hardcover works better with that.
- northrup 2y ago
  Which is funny, StoryGraph is a Ruby on Rails app, exposing an API is a doable thing, which leads me to believe it is not a priority or a purposeful design decision.
  - phildenhoff 2y ago
    Yeah Hardcover seems to have a GraphQL API they use for their UI, which they expose. There’s not a lot of extra polish for third party devs — it feels like “this is the API we use, use it or not, things may break”. On the other hand, StoryGraph does server-side rendering and so it doesn’t have an API already. So adding one would be a decent amount of work
    - HardcoverJeff 2y ago
      To be clear, Hardcover also does server-side rendering. GR ditching their API was one of the primary motivations for Adam Fortuna (Hardcover's founder and Lead Dev) to even think about trying to create a competitor, so when he did create one, having an API available to others was a primary focus. Note: Hardcover is also working towards open sourcing at some level, hopefully in 2025.
  - burkaman 2y ago
    It is on the long-term roadmap https://roadmap.thestorygraph.com/features/posts/an-api https://roadmap.thestorygraph.com/features/posts/an-api
- andrewmutz 2y ago
  I’m going to guess most of their users aren’t asking for an API
  - HardcoverJeff 2y ago
    Right now we get a lot of tech/ dev oriented users, and many of those are looking for an API :)
phildenhoff 2y ago
Solidifying my dislike of Goodreads, I got my “year in books” email from them today and the first thing that loaded, at the top of the email, is an ad. For pillow cases. Folks, don’t do that
- roughly 2y ago
  Goodreads is owned by Amazon, and Amazon does not make products - Amazon makes product purchasing pipelines. Welcome to the funnel.
- p3rls 2y ago
  Once you're #1 on Google searches for half of the published corpus of humanity you stop caring about little things like that... Surprised storygraph even has that many users when they're nowhere on Google when I search books.
  - Grimblewald 2y ago
    well, books and book related stuff tend to propagate more through word of mouth than direct search or advertisement.
    - p3rls 2y ago
      I mean I'd bet 90% of goodreads users are just googling quotes but yeah this girl got her timing right, Amazon bought goodreads and then just sat on it for like a decade... Storygraph would never ever be able to compete with goodreads on search, so they sorta had to pivot to winning on social and stickiness.
      - rafram 2y ago
        > this girl Seriously think about whether you’d refer to an adult male startup founder as a “boy.”
        p3rls 2y ago
HardcoverJeff 2y ago
One point of note: Nadia has a couple of people working with her as well - Rob does some stuff, and Abby is their Head Librarian (or whatever similar title, she's effectively an all-around assistant that runs their Librarian Corps in addition to doing a few other things). Hardcover is similarly a 3 person team - one primary Dev (Adam, Founder and Lead Dev), one primary UI/ UX guy (Ste, Lead Designer), and one primary data guy (myself, Head Librarian, also runs our Librarian Corps). Nadia is awesome, don't get me wrong. What they've done over there is truly impressive and you'll never hear me say otherwise. Hell, I'm a paying supporter and librarian over there, I think they do such great work. But I do think that what we've got going on at Hardcover is even better, and I'll stand by that too. :)

magnio 2y ago

I also use Hardcover.app, but the community there is tiny compared to Goodreads, with the only possible exception being fantasy readers.

bwb 2y ago
It will get there, its growing :)
HardcoverJeff 2y ago
GR claims 125 million+ users. StoryGraph now claims over 3 million. Hardcover currently has 20K - and yes, a lot of those are fantasy based readers. That just means it is easier for other readers to come in and potentially become the new largest user group. :)

ryangs 2y ago

Excited to hear about Hardcover! I like StoryGraph but the lack of API frustrates me - I want to be able to sync back to my general notes store (Obsidian). Hopefully Hardcover works better with that.

northrup 2y ago
Which is funny, StoryGraph is a Ruby on Rails app, exposing an API is a doable thing, which leads me to believe it is not a priority or a purposeful design decision.
- phildenhoff 2y ago
  Yeah Hardcover seems to have a GraphQL API they use for their UI, which they expose. There’s not a lot of extra polish for third party devs — it feels like “this is the API we use, use it or not, things may break”. On the other hand, StoryGraph does server-side rendering and so it doesn’t have an API already. So adding one would be a decent amount of work
  - HardcoverJeff 2y ago
    To be clear, Hardcover also does server-side rendering. GR ditching their API was one of the primary motivations for Adam Fortuna (Hardcover's founder and Lead Dev) to even think about trying to create a competitor, so when he did create one, having an API available to others was a primary focus. Note: Hardcover is also working towards open sourcing at some level, hopefully in 2025.
- burkaman 2y ago
  It is on the long-term roadmap https://roadmap.thestorygraph.com/features/posts/an-api https://roadmap.thestorygraph.com/features/posts/an-api
andrewmutz 2y ago
I’m going to guess most of their users aren’t asking for an API
- HardcoverJeff 2y ago
  Right now we get a lot of tech/ dev oriented users, and many of those are looking for an API :)

phildenhoff 2y ago

Solidifying my dislike of Goodreads, I got my “year in books” email from them today and the first thing that loaded, at the top of the email, is an ad. For pillow cases. Folks, don’t do that

roughly 2y ago
Goodreads is owned by Amazon, and Amazon does not make products - Amazon makes product purchasing pipelines. Welcome to the funnel.
p3rls 2y ago
Once you're #1 on Google searches for half of the published corpus of humanity you stop caring about little things like that... Surprised storygraph even has that many users when they're nowhere on Google when I search books.
- Grimblewald 2y ago
  well, books and book related stuff tend to propagate more through word of mouth than direct search or advertisement.
  - p3rls 2y ago
    I mean I'd bet 90% of goodreads users are just googling quotes but yeah this girl got her timing right, Amazon bought goodreads and then just sat on it for like a decade... Storygraph would never ever be able to compete with goodreads on search, so they sorta had to pivot to winning on social and stickiness.
    - rafram 2y ago
      > this girl Seriously think about whether you’d refer to an adult male startup founder as a “boy.”
      - p3rls 2y ago

HardcoverJeff 2y ago

One point of note: Nadia has a couple of people working with her as well - Rob does some stuff, and Abby is their Head Librarian (or whatever similar title, she's effectively an all-around assistant that runs their Librarian Corps in addition to doing a few other things). Hardcover is similarly a 3 person team - one primary Dev (Adam, Founder and Lead Dev), one primary UI/ UX guy (Ste, Lead Designer), and one primary data guy (myself, Head Librarian, also runs our Librarian Corps). Nadia is awesome, don't get me wrong. What they've done over there is truly impressive and you'll never hear me say otherwise. Hell, I'm a paying supporter and librarian over there, I think they do such great work. But I do think that what we've got going on at Hardcover is even better, and I'll stand by that too. :)