HACKER Q&A
📣 helghardt

Alternatives to Goodreads?


I find Goodreads very useful, especially following avid readers to get good book suggestions. I also reading the reviews and comments. One annoying thing is how to manage your bookshelf. I don’t know how, but it feels like it could be done better. Some ideas:

1. Rank what to read next 2. Opt out of the strict top level shelves/categories: Want to read, Read, Currently reading. I want to make my own high-level shelves. 3. It is bit annoying managing shelves in Kindle and on Goodreads. I have not found a way to keep things synced.

I think blending reviews/samples/shelving/prioritizing/note taking/buying the book/etc. could be done differently. Any ideas to expand on?

  👤 _hzw Accepted Answer ✓
Build your own tool if there isn't one. I used to think it's impossible as I barely know web dev, but in 2023, with the help of ChatGPT, I managed to build my own private Goodreads alternative in less than two months.
👤 bwb
Yep, there are a lot for book tracking. Most people don't like Goodreads for anything except book tracking; I've interviewed a ton of readers for my website and haven't found anyone positive about the book suggestions yet...

I think the best for replacing Goodreads book tracking functions are: https://hardcover.app/ https://app.thestorygraph.com/

Story Graph is the lending contender as they are quite popular.

I'd love a tool to help me manage my Kindle books directly. I am sure Amazon makes that near impossible when I looked into it.