I don't mind a goodreads alternative, but regarding the UI from 2005, I am not sure I care. It works and people are used to it. I am not a supporter of "let's try build a new interface using shiny new technology" for the sake of new.
Goodreads does indeed suck in many ways, but I am in favor of a 5 star system! I think oftentimes we need to commit to one rating or another and not waffle around with this "4.12425/5" type reviews :)
I would love a simple feature where I can get suggestions based on what's on my shelf. I'd even love to explore other shelves and see how people stack their books.
Is there a way to import your Goodreads library after profile creation? I skipped it because I couldn't get it to download on mobile, but will probably only use the site if I can import it later when I'm at my desk.
No offense, but you're completely missing why Goodreads is still relevant.
People aren't sticking around for shiny features or slick UI—they stay because Goodreads has a critical mass of users and reviews.
The value isn't in half-stars or fancy shelves; it's in the network effects. Unless you have a way to bring over millions of active reviewers (and their reviews), you're just building another pretty ghost town.
It looks nice but like any social network the value is in the user base. I saw one book on your site (the order of time), and searched for it on Goodreads to see more reviews.
I do like the look, though GoodReads' UI doesn't bother me.
What will make a site like this useful though is:
1) How many people use it — for this usage needs to be as frictionless as possible. You might want to consider at least being able to view it (though perhaps not post reviews, to avoid spam), without signing up for an account.
2) The quality of the reviews. If they're Amazon product level garbage, they become useless. One thing that might help is being able to filter by range of reviews — i.e., see 2-4 star reviews only; or filter by books with an average rating computed _without_ taking 1 and 5 star reviews into account.
3) Not sure about 10-star rating system. I think that's harder for users to keep in their head. I'd suggest 5-star but allow 1/2 star ratings.
The best part of Goodreads for me is the communities. You can join a group with monthly book reads, and participate in their forums. Do you have any plans to do something similar?
I dream of a good recommendation system because Goodreads is completely terrible. I just want to know two things: which books are similar and which books I would like, beyond typical recommendations. Something akin to what platforms like VOD, YouTube, and Netflix offer. For me, this is the most important killer feature.
DNF seems useful to me. The other deficiencies you mention don't matter much to me, though the Goodreads UI is bad. (Don't care if it looks old, but right-clicking on things often doesn't work because they're stupid JS link, and it's way too focused on being a social feed.)
As far as features, the things I value about Goodreads / would like from replacements:
* I can see what my friends have read and rated books. (I specifically care about a tiny handful of friends who I know have similar tastes to my own.)
Obviously, this will be very hard for you to replicate.
Note that I do not care about the social feed. It doesn't matter that my friend is currently reading xyz. All that matters is that when I look at book X, I can see that [friend with very similar taste] read it (don't care when!) and whether they rated it highly or poorly.
* Goodreads recommendations are bad.
Related to the above point. Goodread's "Reads also enjoy" wavers from "moderately useful" to "fundamentally broken". Lists are okay, but broad lists are dominated by super-popular books that came out post-Goodreads, and there aren't enough specific lists (or not specific in a useful way; so many pointless lists for "books with an X on the cover".)
After importing my Goodreads books to Kaguya, and checking the recs on my latest read, you have roughly the same issue that Goodreads has with obscure books: the "similar books" are…other recent books I recently read. (On Goodreads I'll see this when my brother and I read an obscure scifi novel and something 100% unrelated. He and I will dominate the data set for that book.)
I recently discover that LibraryThing's similar books system is actually much better than anything on Goodreads for finding similar books. That's the thing to beat. I suspect they're able to do better because they've built up a large dataset from deep tagging similar to what you're planning. A tagging system isn't enough; you'll have to tag things! That requires a lot of users, copying an existing data set, or some clever LLM use. (Maybe not so clever; it's probably been trained on a lot of these books.)
* Libby integration
I have a Chrome extension (Available Reads) that will hit the Libby API for each book on a page. This lets me quickly see which books on my To Read list are currently available as ebooks or audiobooks at my local library. It's useful enough that I open up Chrome (not my primary browser) just to use that extension from time to time.
* Filters and sorting on genre
I have a big "want to read" list. When I want to pick my next book to read, I usually am thinking "I want to read scifi" or "I want to read about history" or whatever. In Goodreads, my Want To Read list doesn't even let me filter or sort fiction from non-fiction.
What would be cool would be if I could filter "1980s scifi that I haven't read that my brother has read and rated at least four stars". Or "middle-grades scifi that I read 10+ years ago and rated 4+ stars" for when I want a nostalgic read.
The "more stats" I think could be interesting, albeit not particularly useful. I do like the "date read / date published" graph on Goodreads stats. (The "date published" axes gets squashed to uselessness if you read "The Odyssey", though.)
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28 Comments
vasanthk1125
Tech Stack
noveltyaccount
Where are you sourcing book metadata?
If this site takes off, you'll need a moderation strategy. Goodreads has been plagued by extortionary negative reviews.
https://www.npr.org/2023/12/17/1219599404/goodreads-review-b…
sega_sai
I don't mind a goodreads alternative, but regarding the UI from 2005, I am not sure I care. It works and people are used to it. I am not a supporter of "let's try build a new interface using shiny new technology" for the sake of new.
pier25
How do you add a book to the database?
The book I'm currently reading does not appear when searching.
roland35
Goodreads does indeed suck in many ways, but I am in favor of a 5 star system! I think oftentimes we need to commit to one rating or another and not waffle around with this "4.12425/5" type reviews :)
amanaplanacanal
I think most people looking for an alternative to Goodreads are using Storygraph.
chilipepperhott
How does this compare to https://www.thestorygraph.com/ ?
Svoka
Honestly, Goodreads is bothering me since it is Amazon. Was looking for some simple service to track books I'm reading. This is nice!
magicalhippo
> 10-star rating system (More nuance than 5 stars)
Does one really get anything meaningful out of saying this was a 6-star book vs a 7-star book?
Personally I think 4 levels is sufficient. Either it's rather bad, not bad but not good, good but not great or it's great.
Anything beyond that will have to be written in words.
costcofries
I would love a simple feature where I can get suggestions based on what's on my shelf. I'd even love to explore other shelves and see how people stack their books.
NAHWheatCracker
I like it. Very clean UI. I don't think "UI still looks like it's from 2005." is a bad thing (nor do I know if that's true).
I'm working on importing my library from a simple checklist app I made years ago. I posted one review.
Any idea why The Metabarons (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metabarons) isn't in the library? I guess comic books aren't in the data source.
darkoob12
I like the interface its easier to use compared to goodreads.
bloomingkales
Your site is down. What is the starter kit for sharing your website here with it exploding?
equinoxnemesis
I'm curious about the origin of the name. Kaguya-hime no monogatari? Kaguya-sama?
ta45636rfgj
Off topic perhaps, but what annoys me about Goodreads is that the rating system just doesn't work. Everything seems to be 4-5 stars.
You're relying on a whole mix of people, from tweens to teens to old goats, who may, or likely don't, have similar tastes.
A pointless exercise imo. Similar to going to reddit for reviews. It's not what you really want.
moultano
Is there a way to import your Goodreads library after profile creation? I skipped it because I couldn't get it to download on mobile, but will probably only use the site if I can import it later when I'm at my desk.
zkiihne
I would be much more interested in a Goodreads alternative that focuses on articles/substacks/newsletters etc.
There isn't a good way of sorting through all the stuff out there and I feel like I am missing a bunch of content worth reading as a result.
Out of curiosity how did you initially populate your site?
rglullis
Your competition is not Goodreads, but https://joinbookwyrm.com/
tsunego
No offense, but you're completely missing why Goodreads is still relevant.
People aren't sticking around for shiny features or slick UI—they stay because Goodreads has a critical mass of users and reviews.
The value isn't in half-stars or fancy shelves; it's in the network effects. Unless you have a way to bring over millions of active reviewers (and their reviews), you're just building another pretty ghost town.
dwedge
It looks nice but like any social network the value is in the user base. I saw one book on your site (the order of time), and searched for it on Goodreads to see more reviews.
insane_dreamer
I do like the look, though GoodReads' UI doesn't bother me.
What will make a site like this useful though is:
1) How many people use it — for this usage needs to be as frictionless as possible. You might want to consider at least being able to view it (though perhaps not post reviews, to avoid spam), without signing up for an account.
2) The quality of the reviews. If they're Amazon product level garbage, they become useless. One thing that might help is being able to filter by range of reviews — i.e., see 2-4 star reviews only; or filter by books with an average rating computed _without_ taking 1 and 5 star reviews into account.
3) Not sure about 10-star rating system. I think that's harder for users to keep in their head. I'd suggest 5-star but allow 1/2 star ratings.
Malazath
Small bit I noticed: when signing up you can import from goodreads or story graph.
Its probably my device specifically, but the way the screen rendered, it wasn't immediately obvious I could scroll to see a skip button
n4r9
The best part of Goodreads for me is the communities. You can join a group with monthly book reads, and participate in their forums. Do you have any plans to do something similar?
sentimentscan
I dream of a good recommendation system because Goodreads is completely terrible. I just want to know two things: which books are similar and which books I would like, beyond typical recommendations. Something akin to what platforms like VOD, YouTube, and Netflix offer. For me, this is the most important killer feature.
xanderlewis
> UI still looks like it's from 2005.
Are you sure this is a problem?
lkbm
DNF seems useful to me. The other deficiencies you mention don't matter much to me, though the Goodreads UI is bad. (Don't care if it looks old, but right-clicking on things often doesn't work because they're stupid JS link, and it's way too focused on being a social feed.)
As far as features, the things I value about Goodreads / would like from replacements:
* I can see what my friends have read and rated books. (I specifically care about a tiny handful of friends who I know have similar tastes to my own.)
Obviously, this will be very hard for you to replicate.
Note that I do not care about the social feed. It doesn't matter that my friend is currently reading xyz. All that matters is that when I look at book X, I can see that [friend with very similar taste] read it (don't care when!) and whether they rated it highly or poorly.
* Goodreads recommendations are bad.
Related to the above point. Goodread's "Reads also enjoy" wavers from "moderately useful" to "fundamentally broken". Lists are okay, but broad lists are dominated by super-popular books that came out post-Goodreads, and there aren't enough specific lists (or not specific in a useful way; so many pointless lists for "books with an X on the cover".)
After importing my Goodreads books to Kaguya, and checking the recs on my latest read, you have roughly the same issue that Goodreads has with obscure books: the "similar books" are…other recent books I recently read. (On Goodreads I'll see this when my brother and I read an obscure scifi novel and something 100% unrelated. He and I will dominate the data set for that book.)
I recently discover that LibraryThing's similar books system is actually much better than anything on Goodreads for finding similar books. That's the thing to beat. I suspect they're able to do better because they've built up a large dataset from deep tagging similar to what you're planning. A tagging system isn't enough; you'll have to tag things! That requires a lot of users, copying an existing data set, or some clever LLM use. (Maybe not so clever; it's probably been trained on a lot of these books.)
* Libby integration
I have a Chrome extension (Available Reads) that will hit the Libby API for each book on a page. This lets me quickly see which books on my To Read list are currently available as ebooks or audiobooks at my local library. It's useful enough that I open up Chrome (not my primary browser) just to use that extension from time to time.
* Filters and sorting on genre
I have a big "want to read" list. When I want to pick my next book to read, I usually am thinking "I want to read scifi" or "I want to read about history" or whatever. In Goodreads, my Want To Read list doesn't even let me filter or sort fiction from non-fiction.
What would be cool would be if I could filter "1980s scifi that I haven't read that my brother has read and rated at least four stars". Or "middle-grades scifi that I read 10+ years ago and rated 4+ stars" for when I want a nostalgic read.
The "more stats" I think could be interesting, albeit not particularly useful. I do like the "date read / date published" graph on Goodreads stats. (The "date published" axes gets squashed to uselessness if you read "The Odyssey", though.)
myko
I adore this. Thanks for sharing!
acrophiliac
Am I asking too much to request a way to preview the site without establishing an account? A short demo video? Even just screenshots?