2023 ended on a very bitter note for Goodreads. In early December, an author was exposed for a review attack on another author that ultimately cost him a book contract. The scandal was horrifying, but no less surprising. Nor was it the first high-profile incident of his Goodreads review bombing, which happened last year.
Moderation issues on Amazon-owned sites have been around for years and are well-documented. But if you’ve already tracked and reviewed a ton of books, completed several reading challenges, or found a particular community of readers, it’s understandably difficult to jump to other book tracking apps. is. But, book lovers, it’s time to jump to a different and better reading app: StoryGraph. (Yes, before you ask, StoryGraph allows you to import his entire Goodreads history.)
This app, created by Nadia Odunayo, has been around since 2019. But it’s gained even more traction in recent months, with readers flocking to its cool features like fun graphs, new ways to review, and the ability to search for books. About mood, pace, etc. On January 2nd, so many people tried to sign up for his StoryGraph that the servers were down for almost the entire day.
Here’s why I love this app and haven’t looked back.
Image: Story graph with polygons
Feelings rather than evaluations
I have mixed feelings about book reviews. It’s common for a book he loves to get a low rating on his Goodreads, or a book he can’t stand to get close to 5 stars. And while I know that book reviewers’ opinions are subjective, and that these ratings don’t reflect whether or not I’ll enjoy the book, I’d like to give it a star rating, even if only temporarily. I don’t want to admit that high or low reviews affect my perception of a book. That’s why one of the biggest ways StoryGraph is improving the reading app experience is by deprioritizing ratings, which are a major source of Goodreads’ toxic culture.
On StoryGraph’s book page, the first thing listed below the title and author are helpful details like genre, pace, and atmosphere. That is, what I call the “overall atmosphere,” which includes descriptions like “adventurous,” “reflective,” “adventurous,” and “introspective.” “Dark.” Information about atmosphere and pacing is based on user reviews, and readers not only rate the book, but also consider various other factors that can help better inform future reader choices. You can also.
This does not mean that StoryGraph does not include ratings at all. In fact, the app allows you to choose between 5 and 4 stars, allowing your ratings to more accurately reflect your feelings, as opposed to having to round on Goodreads . The main difference between the two apps is that with StoryGraph, the star rating is not the center of the book’s page. Goodreads ratings show it prominently below the book’s title and author, but StoryGraph lists it at the bottom.
Image composition: Sadie Gennis/Polygon | Source image: StoryGraph, Goodreads via Polygon
To see the book’s rating, you have to scroll through a huge list of “general atmosphere” information. In reality, you can tell a lot more about a book than a 5-star rating. In addition to genre, pacing, and atmosphere, reviewers can indicate whether the book is primarily plot-driven or character-driven, and whether the cast of characters is diverse. Reviewers can add notes about the book’s themes, topics, and metaphors, which will be reflected in the app’s recommendation features. The review form also includes a dedicated section for content warnings, creating a clear place for readers to go if they want to know if a book contains content they want to avoid. This eliminates the need to scroll through her individual Goodreads reviews to see if you’re reading. still has warnings listed. And all this is written on top of a traditional prose review (though you have to click through to the book’s main page to read it).
Recommended information that is actually useful
Frankly, Goodreads’ recommendation system is complete crap. That’s why people rely heavily on other community members to find books, rather than what’s provided through the platform itself. StoryGraph, on the other hand, has developed a robust recommendation system that allows you to combine and drill down various filters to find the exact type of book that suits your mood.
Image: Story graph with polygons
StoryGraph lets you search for books using filters like mood, genre, pace, length, and even metaphor. If you want to go a step further and get recommendations, you can fill out our comprehensive reading preference form and write down the genres, metaphors, themes, and content you like, as well as the content you’d like to avoid. You can also select specific books that you want StoryGraph to refer to when generating recommendations. So if you’re looking for an all-encompassing sci-fi drama with complex political themes, fill that list with James S.A. Corey and Adrian Tchaikovsky, and StoryGraph will be looking for books with a similar vibe.
What I find particularly helpful is applying these filters to my to-read list. When I was using Goodreads, I always seemed to get excited about a book that my friend was raving about, only to find out that I had added it to his TBR list a long time ago. I realized that I had completely forgotten about it. Well, my first go-to when I don’t know what to read is StoryGraph. So, search within your boyfriend’s TBR list to find books that you already know he’s interested in and that also match his current mood.
All of these recommendations and filters mean you can not only find books that people in your circle are excited about and enjoy, but also discover books you might not have known about otherwise (or have forgotten about). Masu. And if there’s a book that piques your interest, but you can’t get it right now, just add it to your “Next” list. This feature allows him to line up five books that he wants to read right away.
graph
Besides a literal desire to find an alternative to Goodreads, what first drew me to StoryGraph were the graphs. My love for organizations and data is a key tenet of mine (if you ever meet me, ask me how I logged my entire closet) ignorance-Style App), finding StoryGraph was a dream come true.
Image: Story graph with polygons
As you read and review titles, StoryGraph converts that information into graphs and pie charts to help you visualize your reading habits and preferences. See a breakdown of the books you read in a specific time period based on mood, pace, page length, genre, author, and more. These visualizations are not only beautiful to look at, but they’re also an easy way to understand your habits at a glance. I love comparing this year’s charts to last year’s charts and find it interesting to see how my preferences change over time. Looking back, it’s clear that in 2020 my desire for escapism turned to reading more digestible fantasy, including a ton of YA books and a surprising amount of Sarah J. Maas books. In comparison, my boyfriend’s 2023 habits include far more of his science fiction books (lots of Unlecky!) and tense stories than I could handle three years ago. Ta.
And for those who do an annual reading challenge, tracking the books and pages read each month on a line chart is a great way to see how your reading habits are doing this year. It’s another way to keep track of your reading pace. goal.
But this might be the best part of it all. On the first day of every year, StoryGraph automatically turns all this information into a fun annual summary, including statistics, graphs, and a beautiful collage of every book cover you’ve ever purchased. read. (Goodreads users, on the other hand, had to hack their own sites to create year-end summaries, because the platform didn’t bother to provide this feature even though the community wanted it .That’s for you to understand.)
growing community
When I talk to friends about why I still use Goodreads, the main reason is that I love the community and social network I’ve built there over the past 10 years. It’s hard to move away from it, as many people who still use X (formerly Twitter) can attest. And while StoryGraph probably can’t replicate his Goodreads’ greatest strengths, the app still feels like it’s more focused on fostering a safe and fun community than the Amazon-owned platform.
In addition to basic friend features like seeing what your connections are reading and how they rate books, StoryGraph also offers the ability to perform Buddy Reads and Readallongs. The former essentially allows you to create a closed book club, allowing friends to read and discuss books asynchronously. During a Buddy Read, users leave comments and page numbers they are referring to, all of which remain hidden until other readers reach the same part of the book. At that point, the comment will be published and users can respond. Readalongs, on the other hand, is his StoryGraph version of the forum, where you can join community book clubs and leave comments on various threads, including threads for specific chapters or individual characters.
At the moment, both of these features are a bit difficult to use, and StoryGraph’s user base is still relatively small, so the Readalong forums are sparsely populated. My hope is that as StoryGraph grows, we’ll be able to build and improve features for those looking for more community space. In fact, I can currently see all the ways StoryGraph is doing just that.
Any user can view the app’s public roadmap to see what’s currently in progress, what’s coming next, and what the mid- to long-term projects are. Odunayo is very active in this area, responding to user suggestions in the comments and building a collaborative atmosphere. StoryGraph’s founders are excited to actively engage with users and implement their feedback to improve current features, add new features, and create a better user experience for everyone. It’s a heartwarming experience to watch.
So StoryGraph may still not be able to recreate some of the community features that Goodreads users love, but even if they can, that’s fine with me. Because rather than selling books or gamifying the industry, StoryGraph provides readers with a fun space to discover, celebrate, track, and connect with the books they love (and sometimes don’t). Because they seem to be purely focused on what they want to do. How can I win it?
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