Goodreads versus the StoryGraph

versus a pile of paper scraps in a shoebox

OK, it never got as bad as a shoebox. But before smartphones and, let’s face it, even before the internet, countless scraps of paper would float around in my desk drawer as reminders of books that friends and book reviews and bookstore browsing had recommended to me. For awhile, some of these scraps were tucked into the kind of datebook you could buy at Woolworth’s.

This was never the best way to keep track of books I wanted to read, so when Goodreads came along in 2007, I thought it was an excellent use of technology. A computer shouldn’t have been required to keep my book recs organized, but computers shouldn’t be required to do a lot of things we’ve now farmed out to them (think: datebook). In any case, I was an early adapter of Goodreads, and for many years I enjoyed it. I especially liked reading on occasion with a book club called Classics and the Western Canon. Goodreads made it possible for lots of readers to find each other and find good books.

In 2019, a viable competitor named the StoryGraph showed up. Founded by Nadia Odunayo, the Storygraph looked and behaved differently, and I liked elements of both platforms, so for several years I used them in tandem. But entering the books you want to read and have read into two different platforms starts to become less useful and efficient than—well, a shoebox full of paper scraps. So, eventually I decided I had to choose one.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with one or both of these book sites, let me back up.

Goodreads was founded by two book lovers, Otis Chandler and Elizabeth Khuri Chandler. As of 2022, it had more than 125 million users. Some people complain that its interface is old and clunky, but it doesn’t really feel that way to me because I’ve been on it since the beginning.

On Goodreads, you can search for books you want to add to your virtual shelves, which you can name, so whenever you’re looking for your next read, it’s all nicely organized, with cover images and blurbs and reader reviews (which are, I find, less than helpful). Many authors have their own pages, where you can learn more about them and, sometimes, even interact with them. At the same time, you enter in the books you’re currently reading and the books you’ve finished. You can write a review if you want to and rate a book on a five-star system (not my favorite practice, for its lack of subtlety). You can connect with other readers as “friends” and get recommendations from them and follow what they’re reading. There are hundreds of active groups that read together. You can set yourself reading goals for the year, and Goodreads will let you know how you’re doing and whether you’re where you should be if you’re going to meet your year-end goal. Of course, there are algorithms to suggest new books to you, based on what you’ve read. The platform does a big “best of” vote at the end of the year for 15 categories, so you can vote and also find out what the best dozen or so books of the year were in every category, according to Goodreads readers. There are book giveaways, too. After Amazon bought the site in 2013, Goodreads also started selling books. There’s no fee to participate.

As I list all these attributes, I’m thinking once again: wow, this is pretty amazing!

Why another book lovers’ site might try to break in when Goodreads was already doing all of this might seem like a bit of a mystery, but that’s exactly what the StoryGraph did. It has become my preferred site.

Last year, as I was realizing I didn’t want to keep maintaining accounts on both sites, I made a video on my YouTube channel doing a side-by-side comparison of the two. For the full rundown, you can watch that here. (I also have separate videos on both Goodreads and the StoryGraph, if you want to learn how to navigate either of them.)

The reasons I’ve finally decided to jump ship for the StoryGraph are fourfold:

• StoryGraph gives me more reader-generated information on each book, such as whether other readers found it a fast, medium, or slow read; what its major themes and qualities are; and trigger warnings, to name a few. Some of this information isn’t that helpful, but it does tell me a lot more than a starred review will. (StoryGraph gives you an option to give a book stars, but you don’t have to in order to write a review.)

• The analytics on my own reading help me become a more self-aware reader and help me to choose new books that I know fit into my profile as a reader—as well as challenge myself to read outside the box. For example, a bar graph gives me a breakdown of the types of books I’ve read so far that year and therefore allows me to quickly see neglected categories I might like to dip into, such as science or biography.

• Once I’d used it for awhile, the StoryGraph gave me more unusual recommendations. I could theorize about why that is, but I don’t know for sure. I’ll just point out that because it’s not selling books, the StoryGraph has no commercial incentive for recommending a particular book to me.

• Goodreads is owned by Amazon. If you don’t know why Amazon is bad for booksellers (and other businesses)—well, I was going to give you a link, but there are so many... I only buy a book on Amazon if I’ve exhausted all other possibilities.

• I will share a link to this piece, on how destructive AI has become on Goodreads, from my favorite industry writer, Jane Friedman. The StoryGraph is probably too small to be victimized in this way (fingers crossed)—though not too small to function as a giant conference of readers.

The StoryGraph also offers a function called “buddy reads,” which supposedly makes it easier to read with a friend or a group. I haven’t tried that yet, but please let me know if you have. I’d be interested to hear how you like it. I also noticed today that they have a beta version of giveaways—a function that previously only Goodreads had. Like Goodreads, the StoryGraph is free, but for $4.99 a month you can purchase a Plus membership, which appears to be the site’s only source of income. I’m considering joining now, in order to support it so it can continue to exist.

I would be remiss if I didn’t also mention the newest site for book lovers, which operates a bit differently than both Goodreads and the StoryGraph, but which I think is well worth checking out: Shepherd. I did a quick post on Shepherd here last January and shared my video interview with Shepherd’s founder, Ben Fox. Since then, Ben has made more improvements to the site.

I can imagine lots of ways in which all of these platforms could help book clubs:

• keep in touch between meetings

• organize your decisionmaking about upcoming reads

• keep track of the books you’ve read together

• compare members’ reviews of books you’ve read

• collect data on your group reads

• and so on

I don’t hang out on the StoryGraph socially, but I have thought of encouraging my reading friends to join me there and using it more broadly. If you click the Community tab, you can search for me at kathycz. As you use the site more, it will also start suggesting other readers whose tastes are similar to yours.

If you already use one of these reading platforms, please share your own thoughts about them and ideas about how we could all use them in the comments below!

Photo by Wolfgang Hasselmann on Unsplash. Why? Because who could resist those giraffes?