StoryGraph

Early last year, I finally caved and created a Goodreads account. At the time, I thought I would find many likeminded readers there, especially fellow alumni of English Literature, to list and exchange book ideas. As it turned out, several friends used Goodreads, but more of them used StoryGraph. As soon as I'd created a Goodreads account, I was asked why I wouldn't join StoryGraph instead. Now, after a year of Goodreads, I moved over and joined StoryGraph.

But why is StoryGraph any better than Goodreads? They're both sites/apps that let you record the books you've read, file reviews, and get recommendations. How much more can there be to it?

Well, one of the biggest draws can be found on the bottom of StoryGraph's homepage, where it says "A fully-featured Amazon-free alternative to Goodreads". Goodreads is owned by Amazon. This means it generally only contains books you can buy on Amazon (which does not include a lot of the Dutch non-fiction I read last year). Also, in the 'recommendations' list, I've never found a book I was actually interested in reading or that was even close to my interests. Instead, the 'recommendations' lists are full of currently popular titles, especially BookTok trends, that Amazon is interested in selling. They use Goodreads to push their sales, not to point readers towards a hidden gem they might find in a second-hand bookstore.

StoryGraph is different in a couple of ways. One of my favourite things is that I as a user can add editions of a book, or change details. So when I wanted to add the pretty obscure Dutch cheese-making book I'd read, I realised there was no page count or publisher information available yet. I was able to edit this myself, adding to a more complete database. These are publications details, but you can also add reviews to a book that go beyond the standard 1-5 stars and written text. All users can enter the 'moods' of books (for example; adventurous, dark, funny, mysterious), whether it is fast or slow-paced, plot or character-driven, etcetera. The app will tell you the percentages, so for Astonish me, 77% found it 'emotional', 22% 'dark' and just 1% 'relaxing'. 55% thinks the book is character-driven, just 5% think it is plot-driven (myself included) and the rest think it's a mix. When you're looking for a particular type of book to read, these stats can come in pretty handy.

Furtheremore, based on these reviews, the recommentations on there are actually recommendations. I answered a short survey on my likes and dislikes, which generated a list of 20 titles the StoryGraph algorithm thought I might like. 18 of those books I'd already read. StoryGraph couldn't know that of course, since my historical reading data is only from 2023 and 2024, but it only goes to show that the recommendations acutally fit my preferences and also include books that were published decades ago and are not currently hip and happening. 

Finally, as the name already tells you, StoryGraph is full of graphs. And stats. And they're free to use, not hidden behind a 'plus' pay wall like on Goodreads. The stats will tell you the basics; how many books and how many pages, but also fiction/non-fiction, genres, languages, particular writers, and much more. Below is the overview of the books and pages I read in various months of 2023, with the November dip due to NaNoWriMo clearly visible. 

Books and pages read in 2023.

This will make my end-of-year overviews so much easier to compile!

So overall, I am much happier on StoryGraph than I ever was on Goodreads. It's already led me to some books I'd never thought to read before and it made me look afresh at books I have already read. The app does have some unexpected quirks and does not always work the way you'd expect, but there are probably only a handful of people working on it, rather than the hundreds Amazon can throw at Goodreads. 

In short, I am very happy to have made the switch and hope to find many more friends and books there in the future!