Tracking your reading progress via the internet is a growing phenomenon, not just because its online format appeals to the ever-increasing ‘social media generation’, but it’s also proved itself to be just the ticket for getting out of a ‘reading slump.’ That is, BookTok’s term for the feeling you get when you just seem to have lost interest in picking up anything, even from your favourite author or genre. In short, it’s the reader’s version of writer’s block. I often fall victim to the reading slump, particularly when I’ve got important things to focus on like exams, or even just when I’ve finished a particularly good book and feel like nothing can really top it. But I have found that the best solution is just at my fingertips, in the form of an app through which I can track my reading progress and share it with friends, giving me the motivation to return to my old reading rhythms.
The basic premise of a reading tracker – whether it be in the form of a website or an app – is that it offers the user an all-encompassing database of all published fiction and non-fiction. With this, they can save and thus keep track of the books they have finished or want to read, and track their progress on books they are currently reading. From here, any additional features can be added, and indeed the two most popular reading trackers at present – Goodreads, and a relative newcomer, Storygraph – have opted for a strongly social-media-influenced format for both their websites and apps; both allow the user to add ‘Friends’ and interact with the posts they see on their feed.
So which is better, Goodreads or Storygraph? Check out the breakdown below:
Ease of Use
- Goodreads
★★★
Both the website and app are moderately simple to navigate, with all the sections helpfully labelled. That said, the homepage is chock-full of extra features that make it all a bit confusing. What’s more, Goodreads is owned by Amazon, and so its users can sync their current reads from a Kindle device or the Kindle app for Goodreads to track automatically.
- Storygraph
★★★★
Storygraph’s interface is definitely much more stripped back, making it just that little bit easier to use. The homepage hosts just the main things you want to see when you log in: current reads, recommendations, to-read pile, and currently trending books. From there, users can easily find the website’s or app’s additional features via just a few clicks.
Accuracy of recommendations
- Goodreads
★★★★
Goodreads’ recommendations have rarely disappointed me, and I like that you get suggestions based on not only your current reads, but also what you have in your to-read pile. However, on Goodreads I often find the same three or four books resurfacing again and again that I’ve also seen recommended incessantly on TikTok, but this lack of originality is the only hindrance to a five-star rating in my view.
- Storygraph
★★★★★
Now don’t get me wrong, I think Goodreads’ recommendations are great, but there’s something special about just how niche you can be on Storygraph. When a user first joins, they can type in absolutely any keywords to personalise their recommendations, and Storygraph also lets you say what genres or themes you don’t want to see, as well as those which you do.
Aesthetics
- Goodreads
★★★★
Goodreads definitely has a more coherent style, and I find its muted colour scheme appealing. At the end of each year, Goodreads presents its users with a page of their ‘Year in Books’ stats, and I think this feature is a perfect paradigm of the company’s overall togetherness when it comes to presentation.
- Storygraph
★★
Storygraph feels a lot more clunky, even if the soft pastel colours used on the stats page are pleasing to the eye. Although it’s clear that Storygraph has – pardon the pun – taken a leaf out of Goodreads’ book with the figures available on its end-of-year wrap-up, it fails to replicate its sleek layout.
Standout features
- Goodreads
★★
Goodreads offers its users the chance to take quizzes and vote in regular polls of varying importance, from choosing the ‘Best Books of 2021’ to testing your Harry Potter knowledge. However, besides this and a rather lacklustre ‘reading stats’ page that offers little different from Storygraph’s, Goodreads falls rather flat once again in terms of originality.
- Storygraph
★★★★★
Storygraph’s additional features are indisputably the best thing about it. A relatively new feature is the ‘buddy read’, which allows group reading tracking and comments, bringing book clubs into the virtual world. And speaking of the virtual world, Storygraph also lets its users note whether they are reading a physical book or listening to an audiobook. When reviewing books, as well as providing a star-rating that allows half and quarter stars, users can tick boxes to let others know whether a book:
- Is slow, medium or fast paced
- Is plot or character driven
- Has strong character development
- Has loveable, diverse and/or flawed characters
- Is ‘adventurous’, ‘dark’, ‘emotional’, ‘inspiring’, or another from a whole host of possible ‘moods’
- Has any content that could potentially be triggering (such as portrayals of drug abuse, sexual violence, etc.)
As Storygraph is relatively new, some books may not have been uploaded to its database yet, but both the website and app allow users to add books themselves, so it’s no problem at all. What’s more, if you’ve already been using Goodreads and want to switch over to Storygraph, you can import your whole library from Goodreads in just a few easy steps.
For me, Storygraph is the superior reading tracker, but the question still stands for the rest of you: which do you prefer?
