Good morning! Today, I have an exciting subject to cover. It’s about a new website that recently exited beta status. If you’re an avid reader, you likely have a certain way to keep track of every book you read. Most tech-savvy bookworms use Goodreads.com for that purpose. It’s a quasi-social networking site where users can sign up to search for and catalog books. Goodreads first launched in 2006. It was independent, until Amazon.com bought the site in 2013. They wasted no time integrating Goodreads into their Kindle e-readers after that.
Many users who loved Goodreads (as well as some authors) weren’t pleased when Amazon acquired it. Critics argue that the acquisition made Amazon even more of a book industry monopoly than it already was. Others say that the move served to prevent Goodreads from establishing its own online bookstore, or direct readers to one that’s not Amazon. Personally, the acquisition didn’t bother me much. I liked Goodreads as it was, and wouldn’t want it to become a bookstore. All I wanted it for was to track my ever-growing book collection.
ENTER THE STORYGRAPH: A NEW AND MODERN BOOK CATALOGING SITE
Like it or not, Goodreads has remained mostly unchallenged the entire time it’s existed. Thankfully, bookworms have a new alternative that launched at the beginning of this year. It’s called The StoryGraph. This new book cataloging site exited beta in January 2021 after two years of testing. The StoryGraph has most of the features Goodreads offers, and adds a fair bit more. Signing up is easy and free (though there is an optional paid subscription). You can do it at this link.
One of the most frequent criticisms against Goodreads is that it’s stagnated. We’re in 2021 and Amazon still hasn’t given it any updates. Goodreads’ age also shows, what with its dated look. I’ve used it for nine years and it’s had the same look the whole time. In contrast, The StoryGraph has a pleasing, simple-yet-modern, and easy to use interface. The website’s white-and-pastel-gray color scheme not only looks good, but works well. There are four headers with straightforward labels. The main page is titled “Find A Book”. It shows personalized recommendations, your reading list, the book(s) you’re currently reading, and a list of miscellaneous titles.
If you’re a Goodreads user, you would be wondering if you can move your book collection to The StoryGraph. The answer is yes, and it’s super easy! You need only to follow the instructions here. I opened an account at The StoryGraph in early February. After saving my book collection to a CSV file, importing it was a cinch. For me, the process didn’t last much longer than about a half hour. The StoryGraph managed to import every single one of the 788 titles I had in my Read and Want To Read shelves at the time (together, those two make up a given reader’s complete library). Quite a few editions are missing, like those with different cover art, but at least The StoryGraph had all my books.
SHARING YOUR READING TASTES WITH THE STORYGRAPH
After signing up for TS, you get a quiz. A few of the questions are mandatory. Finishing this will let the site know your reading preferences. TS will then be able to give you tailored book recommendations. Answering the questions as honestly as you can will of course yield more accurate results. You’re also able to tell TS every genre that you don’t want to read. This makes it so you won't ever see any books you will not be interested in. Goodreads doesn’t have anything like this, so it’s a boon.
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| The first half of The StoryGraph's new user quiz |
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| The remaining questions of the new user quiz |
Once you’ve finished the quiz, you won’t have to wait long to see your book recommendations. The site’s main page displays a few of them. Clicking on the “Explore” button will let you see more suggestions. Other users of TS have claimed that its recommendation engine is leagues ahead of the one Goodreads uses. After several weeks since I switched, I have to agree. The book suggestions Goodreads shows me are often a tad off the mark. I rely a lot more on book bloggers and bookstores to find new reading material. With TS, I now have an easier way to discover new books that match my personal tastes.
WHAT FEATURES DOES THE STORYGRAPH OFFER?
If you’re familiar with Goodreads, you’ll have little trouble adjusting to TS. Its “Find A Book” landing page is a tad less busy-looking than Goodreads’ “Home” page. Your personal page (under the “Your StoryGraph” tab) follows the same example. It doesn’t have spaces for your birthday, location, or a small bio. This lets TS focus on being a book cataloging site rather than try to be a sort of Facebook for avid readers.
There’s a small box on the top right that displays a summary of your preferences. For me, this section was on the mark. TS uses your reading history to generate this summary. This box also has a button that leads to your Stats page. Bookworms who love visual data will be thrilled with this page. It shows a variety of charts and graphs measuring aspects of your reading habits. You can adjust this data to show stats by month, by year, and even compare two different time periods.
Lower down on the page, you’ll see boxes that display your most recent reads, a sample of your to-read list, some of your five-star reviews, and a small selection of your tagged books. Tags are The StoryGraph’s equivalent of Goodreads’ shelves. If you imported data from Goodreads, TS will automatically convert your shelves to tags. This saves you a great deal of time. While TS didn’t put any of my books into incorrect tags, several of them were the wrong edition. A lot of my titles even showed as audiobooks, which I don’t have any of. I don’t listen to books, I much prefer to read them. It didn’t take me too long to switch my books to the correct editions, though.
If you’re the kind of reader who enjoys annual challenges, you won’t have to give that up after switching from Goodreads. TS has its own yearly Reading Goal. You can commit to reading however many books you want to. I set 48 books this year because for myself, that number is easily attainable. TS will track your progress as you finish books. Unfortunately, what you aren’t able to do is import past Reading Challenges from Goodreads. That would have been a nice feature. I’ve been using Goodreads since 2013. At least it’s not a hassle to keep my account active to remember my annual reading goals.
A FEW DIFFERENCES IN POSTING BOOK REVIEWS
No book cataloging site would be complete without the ability to critique books. This is a crucial feature that lets other readers see whether a book is up their street. In TS, you can both review books and rate them. Unlike Goodreads, though, TS’s star ratings have increments of 0.25. This is a huge deal. For instance, when you want to award 4.5 stars to a book on Goodreads, you have to decide whether to round up to 5 or down to 4. There is a world of difference in these ratings. I don’t award 5 stars lightly. Increments of 0.5 are enough for me, but it’s good that TS offers 0.25 for readers that want them.
TS also goes a lot further with book reviews. Goodreads only provides a blank box where you can leave a written review. I’m not a professional reviewer, so that’s sufficed for me all these years. TS has a few extra features. In addition to written reviews, it also asks you some questions about every book you read. Here’s a screenshot:
Answering those questions is optional. If all you want to do is rate the book and submit a brief review, you can do that. The extra questions are meant to be a way to tell potential readers what a book is like. The top section seems especially important, as I think it is what TS uses for customized recommendations. I answer the other questions if they are easy. The last question is the one I tend to leave blank. I don’t understand what it means whether a protagonist’s flaws are the main focus of the book. Does it mean that if the character is a kleptomaniac or promiscuous, the author constantly shows them stealing stuff or having affairs?
OTHER REMARKS AND MY OVERALL VERDICT
So far, The StoryGraph has proven to be an excellent alternative to Goodreads. It has all the features I need (and some I like) from a book cataloging site, and looks good doing it. The design could use some improvements, but it’s still superior to Goodreads. And unless you have rare, very obscure books, you’d be hard-pressed to find TS's database lacking. Migrating from Goodreads is also butter-smooth, as I mentioned earlier.
Now, there are a few things I didn’t like about TS. First, the site’s search function yields better results than Goodreads, but it still looks like a work in progress. Goodreads may have trouble understanding your search query, but at least it gives you a preview of the results. The search bar in TS doesn’t show any previews (I’m using Microsoft Edge with no extensions that block TS’s functionality). You have to type a partial or full query and then press Enter to get to the search results. It’s not a hassle by any stretch, but having search previews would be nice.
Another small issue is with TS’s database. It has every book in my collection, but not every edition. Some of my books have cover art that doesn't show up when browsing the editions TS has. It appears any user can add a missing edition manually, which I've done a couple of times. This is possible even if the book doesn't have an ISBN, like if it's self-published. Given that I'm able to add new editions, it appears TS doesn't have an equivalent of Goodreads' Librarian status.
The way TS displays your books could also use some improvement. For example, when you click on a Tag, the page displays the books in list format. It includes the cover art, at least, but the look seems rudimentary. I would like TS to incorporate a grid view. I suspect the developers haven’t done this to avoid messing up the mobile app format.
This brings me to my last small complaint. TS’s mobile app isn’t a full-fledged mobile app. By this, I mean that you can’t find it on the App Store or Play Store. No, to install the TS app, you have to first log in to the website on your mobile browser. After that, you have to follow a short procedure to add the TS site to your home screen. TS calls it a “progressive web app”. One big advantage of this is that the TS “app” is exactly the same as its desktop website. It only gets smaller to accommodate your phone screen.
Despite its few shortcomings, I really like The StoryGraph. After a few months of using it, it’s highly possible I’m staying permanently. TS is already an excellent alternative to Goodreads. The UI is sleek and functional, and the book recommendations are considerably better. TS may not have direct integration with the Kindle, but that doesn’t hurt it. It’s not at all bothersome to lift my phone and mark a book as “Currently Reading” or “Read” on the TS web app. After all, that’s what I do with print books (and what I did on Goodreads before it gained Kindle integration). So, should you switch to The StoryGraph? I would say definitely. As an avid reader, TS has everything I could want from a book cataloging site. And TS is free, so it costs nothing to try it out. I'm satisfied with this site, and you may be as well.
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