Poll

I love Library Thing - I like how it is set up, the gazillion links to conversations, info, reviews, etc...And I like the community. In fairness to the other two - once I found Library Thing I pretty much stuck with them (although I have a Goodreads account, I never use it).

I've tried all 3, but I'm more comfortable here on Goodreads because the set-up fits how I like to do things when it comes to my books. I especially like the reading status update feature here, though I'm not sure if LibraryThing has that now; it didn't have one back in the early days. :p

I forgot all about Librarything and Shelfari. I used to use those, and a bunch of others that I've also forgotten about and they were all pretty good. It takes so much time to get all the books you own and have read listed. I guess I have to vote Goodreads, because it is the only one I'm actively using at the moment and I'm content with the system here.

Shelving books -- Goodreads (Shelfari sucks in combining all books and displaying one thumbnail image for various editions)
Diversity of members -- Goodreads & Shelfari
Widgets -- Shelfari
Book stats -- Goodreads
Book tagging -- Shelfari
Quality of reviews -- LibraryThing & Goodreads
Quality of comments/feedacks to reviews -- LT & Goodreads
Quality of groups -- LT (Goodreads is 2nd)
Book giveaways (international) -- everyone fails here
Interface -- LT has clean classy look, Goodreads is too cluttered but it had a strong "recent update" feature (it's the most Facebook-like group), Shelfari is nice looking but it has very limited options.

Well like Joannemarie, I've also forgot about the other books' social networks and stayed with Goodreads. Here is a short list that I've conducted once seraching for service like Goodreds when Virtual Bookshelf have closed their service: http://www.delicious.com/nahumbb/soci...

What I liked about Goodreads is the Shelving, the widget to my blog, and the integration with Facebook and twitter.

Ryan has done great comparison, more or less agree with his marks.

About Book giveaway you can check:
http://www.bookcrossing.com
you can even login with your Goodreads account and connect the two services together.

Virtual Bookshelf... I forgot about that one. I used that one, too.

I use bookcrossing a tiny bit, but it turns out I'm not very good at leaving books to their fate and I've never found one in the wild. I do, however, give out a lot of books through Bookmooch.

Didn't knew 'Bookmooch' thanks for sharing.
:)

I would've stuck with LT but when I hit the 200 limit for free accounts, I just got annoyed. and after all that work :P

Scott wrote: "GoodReads hands down. Why would you pay someone to list your own books?"
Gotta agree with you on that last statement, Scott!

I own too many books for the free LibraryThing account if I understand correctly ... I love the VISUAL that Shelfari provides ... but all-in-all, Goodreads.com just seems to be a good fit for me.

Goodreads, because LibraryThing is limited to the amount of titles you can enter (in the free version) and Shelfari wants me to make an amazon account

Still trying to make my mind up.

goodreads ... it's free number one ... i have been on the site for a while and really started using it more the last year and have come to be more consistently checking in ... saw librarything for the first time today actually and even tho it's a fairly nominal fee, i don't see what it could give me than goodreads does already and for free ...

and just found the giveaways recently ... cooooool :D

I just realized I've pretty much abandoned my Shelfari account...I like Goodreads because of the social aspects, like status updates. It is easier to connect with other readers and to be connected to new books on Goodreads. Here I find new books all the time! And others with books in common with me.

I used to be a Shelfari member...but that poor excuse of a site is the most bug-ridden and poorly designed piece of garbage I have had the misfortune of being part of.

The search engine is a joke. You can put the title and author of a book into the engine and it will NOT recognize it. I must have spent 10 minutes trying to find a Stephen King title on Shelfari before the search engine decided to pull it up. Many complaints have been made to the Powers That Be....for months upon months and they refuse to do anything to fix it.

Books I previously had on my shelf would vanish randomly. The website would constantly harass my Facebook contacts by sending them barrages of emails and notifications to join, despite me having checked the box not to bother my contacts.

The community is full of trolls and mean spirited people. I have never seen such a conglomeration of snobs, pseudo-intellectuals, racists, homophobes, women-haters and all around jackasses in one place since Youtube. The mods and admins are a pack of nazis who show favoritism to particular members....its a mess.

Thank goodness for Goodreads. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!!!!! this site and its community. You guys are the best :)

Christopher wrote: "I used to be a Shelfari member...but that poor excuse of a site is the most bug-ridden and poorly designed piece of garbage I have had the misfortune of being part of.

The search engine is a joke...."

wow reading your post Christopher really makes me very thankful i stumbled upon goodreads.com instead of any of the other similar sites that all seem to get pretty waylaid by those who have left to hang out here ...

trolls and jackasses are the reason i so rarely get involved in any forums or such any more ... in the early days (i'm an old-timer who was on the old usenet and such in the 90s on dialup and it's lovely musical connection lol) it was really nice to find people with similar interests, friendly attitudes, and willing to share and help another person in their common interests ...

that didn't last too long unfortunately and now i hardly even read forums and so forth since they are so nasty and hateful ... thank god for this site ... i've found lots of great books to read and people seem to bear in mind that you can disagree and yet not have to use all that 'internet courage' to show how much smarter you are ...

good points all around chris

Yay goodreads thank you teachers!

Goodreads.
I used to be on LibraryThing and used it for a while but I found adding books to be a hassle. I was on Shelfari for all of 5 minutes but I recall not liking it. Goodreads is free, simple to use, lets me list my books when I get published and integrates easily with my blog and twitter.

Goodreads... I went to LIbraryThing and got intimidated by all the text. Goodreads' layout just seems more simple and easy to use. And I won't pay a site $10 just to get access to more books. I've heard about Shelfari, though and it seems like a pretty lousy site. Of course, I only know for sure about Goodreads because it's the only site of the three that I have an account in.

I added Goodreads recently because a couple people I know are on here, so it's nice to have the social aspect. I love how easy it is to keep track of what I'm currently reading, and I like the clean simple layout.
However, I also love LibraryThing. I love the details you can keep track of for the books, how easy it is to add your own covers and to customize your individual copy of the book. Yes, it costs if you add more than 200 books, but if you find you like it, it's just $25 for life.

I use both GR and LT.

LT makes it easier to enter your specific edition of a book and has better rating system. And I think the display looks neater. It's not free, but $25 bucks for lifetime membership isn't outrageously expensive either.

GR seems to have more fun stuff. (quizzes, polls, stuff like that.) Plus, it's free, which was why I started using it, while I saved up for a LT membership.

Never checked out Shelfari, because three seemed a bit excessive and I heard of it last.

Goodreads. I didn't know about the other choices but after reading other comments I think I will stick with Goodreads.

Goodreads! I opened LT once took a look around, didn't like it, closed it.
I also have a Shelfari (i.e. Amazon) account, but I don't use it.
I wonder whether Goodreads and Shelfari will both survive in the long run. Both belong to Amazon, and from their POV I don't see much reason in keeping them both. Maybe they'll merge one day.

I'm new to Goodreads, and I didn't know about the other sites until I came upon this poll. Still – I love Goodreads, and for all kinds of reasons, but the shelves it gives me for my books are enough of a reason. Many of my books have been packed for several years, and I've missed them so much!

Oops, I forgot to select Goodreads above. Here's my answer again: I'm new to Goodreads, and I didn't know about the other sites until I came upon this poll. Still – I love Goodreads, and for all kinds of reasons, but the shelves it gives me for my books are enough of a reason. Many of my books have been packed for several years, and I've missed them so much!

I prefer anobii although the members seem to be predominantly Italian.

I really don't like shelfari. It lists any edition that is or HAS been for sale on Amazon

I have done all three. I picked Goodreads because I am here more than a library these days. This is like a library, but without the smell of books.

I used to use Shelfari, but when Amazon bought them, my entire account was wiped clean! Everything gone, all of my books, I wasn't a memember of my groups anymore, everything. It was like I was a new member starting from scratch. I had a Goodreads account I didn't use, so I figured if I have to start from the beginning anyway, might as well try a new website. Best choice I ever made.

I've only ever read and used goodreads. Has, will, always.

Rise wrote: "Shelving books -- Goodreads (Shelfari sucks in combining all books and displaying one thumbnail image for various editions)
Diversity of members -- Goodreads & Shelfari
Widgets -- Shelfari
Book sta..."

Rise wrote: "Shelving books -- Goodreads (Shelfari sucks in combining all books and displaying one thumbnail image for various editions)
Diversity of members -- Goodreads & Shelfari
Widgets -- Shelfari
Book sta..."

I'd like to add Shelfari has really good book recommendations and suggestions for what to read next. Goodread's reco sucks and I never ever use it.

I have accounts with the other two, as well as a couple of other book sites, but I rarely use them. Goodreads has some fun features and I like the lay-out the best.

I think Shelfari is better, but Amazon seem determined to run it into the ground...and this question is only posted on Goodreads, obviously most Goodreads users will prefer Goodreads , and Amazon will probably use this biased poll as evidence people prefer Goodreads.

Shelfari is mega slow to load, for one, and I've been waiting a while to get approved as the author of my books there, in order to get author status. Goodreads seems so comprehensive, efficient and well-thought through. The whole system works better for me.

Definitely Goodreads. I tried librarything, and did not like it.

Definitely goodreads I haven't tried anything else for winning books.

goodreads is awesome because of the discussions, polls and book reviews. shelfari does not have a comprehensive discussion forum which is active.LT has a horrible layout and none of the groups and forums work actively.

I think this is an unfair poll as everyone on goodreads will vote for this. This is a very biased polling.

I agree that this poll is unfair and biased. I think there are probably more people here that only have a GoodReads account than people that have accounts on two or more social book sites and as such the results will be largely skewed towards GoodReads. Chances are you'd probably see the same kind of bias if you posted a poll like this on LT or Shelfari.

Anyway I have accounts on all three sites and there are things I like and dislike about all of them.

With LT I like their shelving system the best as it is the most customizable. I liked the site enough after using up the 200 book slot to shell out the $25 for a lifetime membership. However the site appearance isn't my favorite and out of the three sites I like the way their groups are set up the least so I don't actually participate in any of the groups there. In essence I mostly use it as a backup site, but I still feel it was worth the membership price.

With GoodReads I like the group setup the best, but I like the shelving system the least. I find the shelving system not at all pleasing to look at and at times it is awkward to use. It's also a big peeve of mine that I can't make "Read" a non-exclusive shelf as I'd like to be able to choose "Read" at the same time as either "To Read" or "Currently Reading" for when I'm re-reading or planning to re-read books. I know I could make a couple of custom exclusive shelves for those purposes, but then it would mess up my stat numbers.

Shelfari I think is my overall favorite of the three sites and I really haven't had the negative experiences that other people have had with the site. I like the site appearance the best and I really like the graphical virtual shelves. I would say that I like the actual shelving system second best after LT and the group system second best after GoodReads. Despite not liking the group setup as much as GoodReads, I'm active in more groups there than on GoodReads, but that's probably just due to the fact that I've been a member there longer. So as a combination of all of these things is why I voted for Shelfari.

I've also been using BookLikes and I do like it a lot and I've been there since before the recent exodus of GoodReads members there. The site is still new so some things are awkward and buggy, but they are constantly making improvements and each Thursday they come out with some new feature or bug fix. The staff is also very friendly and open to what members have to say and have added a lot of features based on popular demand.

BookLikes is a bit different from the other three sites in that it's mostly a blog format with a virtual bookshelf added in. It pretty much looks like if Tumblr and GoodReads had a baby. I'm really enjoying the blogging aspect of the site. The shelving system I'm not so fond of. It looks like they really modeled their shelving system after GoodReads so a lot of the things I don't like about the GoodReads shelving system also apply to BookLikes. However on your blog page they also have graphical shelves which I like very much even if they aren't quite as nice as the ones Shelfari has. They just recently added groups so they are still a bit awkward but are better than they were when they were first introduced.

At this point it's hard to say definitively how well I like BookLikes compared to the other three. As stated above there are things I like and dislike, but only time will tell how that site turns out.

Shelfari 100%

I prefer Shelfari over Goodreads because of the page design and discussion group format. Goodreads is to monotone and I find it hard to find/organize my books.

I use Goodreads and Shelfari.But I use Shelfari EVERYDAY. Shelfari is much easier and quicker.Goodreads is too chopped up and has too many steps to accomplish the same end result.I alos have difficulty getting results when searching fro a book,seldom happens on Shelfari. I prefer Shelfari.After downloading my entire 2000 books from shelfari last year,I am still editing each book, Goodreads just marked ALLLL of them read. I will never get it done. I agree with others that this poll is very biased. Amamazon is doing a lousy job of maintaining Shelfari,don't expect them to do much for Goodreads.

I have an account on all 3 sites and I admittedly haven't explored Librarything much at all so I can't say much about it. I prefer the group settings on Shelfari, much easier to navigate and participate in. I also love my Shelfari emails and updates (when they're working and I actually get them, of course) which make it easier for me to stay in contact without having to log on all the time. Makes it easy to stay connected when I'm at work.

I love Shelfari. I love the way the shelves look, but I think tagging is easier here. The groups on Shelfari are my favorite thing. I don't care for the way the threads in groups are setup here it's too confusing. I check here every few days but I use Shelfari everyday, sometimes several times a day.

The maintenance of this site is far better than Shelfari, but because of the many, many friends I've made at Shelfari that is my go to site.

I don't know what they are going to get out of this pol. I would say the vast majority of people who will answer it are Goodread people and they like the set-up. Most people who use Shelfari aren't here.

I'm a member of all three, but prefer Shelfari for the book discussion format.

The main reason I participate in such on-line sites is to discuss books and I just like Shelfari's format better than GoodReads.

I'm a member of Shelfari and Goodreads but prefer Shelfari for a long list of reasons. It's easier to use, navigate, easier to contribute to and even more visually attractive.

I am a member of all three but Shelfari is my go-to site, I am active on there multiple times a day.

Why?

The group discussion format on Shelfari is far superior to any other site. You can actually respond to a post and have your response nested beneath the original post so that conversations are easy to follow and participate in. I do not understand why it is so difficult for other book review websites to institute something similar.

I do like that you can search other member's shelves as well as your own on GoodReads (I have given up asking Shelfari to make that common sense change).

I am not very active on LT for a very superficial reason: I do not like the layout nor do I find it visually pleasing/stimulating.

I agree with others that I do not know what the purpose of this poll is but it is obviously going to be highly skewed toward people who use and enjoy GoodReads. I think GoodReads has many positive aspects but it not even close to my preferred site.

Apologies to all my Shelfari friends but I picked GroupReads. I like the way the shelves are set up, I like the review format, I like that you can put a picture in a discussion.

I only go on Shelfari for the group discussions.

I only go on LibraryThing for the free books.

I regard Shelfari as my primary book shelf and use Goodreads as a back-up. The group discussion format on Shelfari is far superior. I am more likely to purchase books on recommendations from Shelfari friends than from any list on Goodreads.

I've been using Shelfari for years. I'm familiar with it, I'm comfortable with it, and the groups discussion options there are superior. GoodReads became a backup because a lot of my FB friends use it and I like being able to exchange info that way. I do like the way Goodreads has the ability to update reading progress; my list-obsessed brain finds it fascinating. But if I had to choose only one site to use from today onward, it would be Shelfari without a second thought.