Poll

I use Goodreads and Shelfari. I knew that Shelfari was Amazon, but only recently learned that Goodreads was also. I don't do heavy reviews, so that whole "argument" I've read about today in another post is over my head. I like how Shelfari helps with finding the book when you start typing it in. Saves time, especially when beginning and having so many to enter. However, I just made an account for my husband and put his books into a Goodreads account! We read totally different things, so it didn't help to "add" from my account. I also like Shelfari's tags, but I guess I never go back to look at them. Also, I'm not adding anything else to "want to read". I find it difficult to get it to change when I get around to reading the book. I'll keep a list on my notes in my phone! :)

Clara wrote: "...Also, I'm not adding anything else to "want to read". I find it difficult to get it to change when I get around to reading the book...."

is that using the app or on the regular computer?
i don't really use these on my phone so i don't know about how they work on the mobile sites.

but on the regular computer it really is quite simple to change from plan to read on both Goodreads and Shelfari.

on Goodreads when you put it on your READ shelf it automatically takes it off your WANT TO READ shelf.
you just click on the books beside the green bar that states WANT TO READ or you rate the book and it moves it to the READ shelf.

on Shelfari you have to unclick PLAN TO READ because it lets you have the same book on more than one shelf. (that is one of things i like about it.)
one of things you can do to quickly see if a book is on both shelves is to list your books on your WANT TO READ shelf by star rating. if you have rated the book, it is most likely on both shelves. also on Shelfari when you scroll your mouse over the book cover, the stars and edit button appear. a lil grey arrow also appears to the right of the edit button and that is a quick way to move books from one shelf to another (i just learned this recently).


hope this helps!

Thanks! I mostly use the laptop for entering new books, however I do have the GR app I my phone and refer to it when at the library or bookstore. I keep checking for a shelfari app.
I show more books read on GR, so I must have forgotten to enter a few on Shelfari.

Clara wrote: "Thanks! I mostly use the laptop for entering new books, however I do have the GR app I my phone and refer to it when at the library or bookstore. I keep checking for a shelfari app.
I show more boo..."

i don't think shelfari has an app. but you can see their website on a mobile device. it's just smaller. i have over 3,000 books on my TBR list. it's awesome. i'll never read them all but i always can find a book to read for a book club that fits the category for the month. ;-)

I like Goodreads the best. It seems to be the most organized.

Shelfari takes too long too load.

LibraryThing has the best display of books for me.

I also found two other sites, but still prefer Goodreads overall. Booklikes and Riffle.

Great question.

Giveaways going on at my blog if anyone wants to stop by.

http://silversolara.blogspot.com

To be honest, since I'm an aficionado of old books (pre-ISBN) I thing LibraryThing has an edge for history buffs.

I haven't yet explored Shelfari, but I should. Going on my to-do list.

Goodreads is the 300 pound gorilla of Social Literature sites, but could stand to improve. Just today, a fellow author had their profile pulled from Goodreads as he could not get a helpful response to the problem of his upcoming book receiving negative star ratings... to a book that is not released yet! He's being slandered by one-day-old accounts and Goodreads simply says they are not violating the terms of service.

Sorry for hopping on the soap box but it's fresh on my mind.

Goodreads reader and author,
Lori Holuta

I really like Goodreads. I visit several times per day. I tried Shelfari but didn't care for their setup.

Shelfari looked fine to me... I'm just a bit sad about the tumbleweeds blowing down the rows of books. It seems empty of people there. I did set up an account after all, but I'm not finding the social aspect yet.

Lori wrote: "Shelfari looked fine to me... I'm just a bit sad about the tumbleweeds blowing down the rows of books. It seems empty of people there. I did set up an account after all, but I'm not finding the so..."

i don't socialize much on Shelfari even though i prefer it to GR. i am in groups but i rarely comment. i use because of the format and style;it is easier for me to keep my book lists. i also like the privacy feature so i can make books i want to read or have read for my eyes only. still haven't figured out how to do that on GR. plus my huge list of books won't import correctly into GR.

Lori wrote: "Shelfari looked fine to me... I'm just a bit sad about the tumbleweeds blowing down the rows of books. It seems empty of people there. I did set up an account after all, but I'm not finding the so..."

Lori, have you joined any groups? That's where I find most of the socializing goes on. (And there are some very busy groups!) Once you get to know people in groups, you might find more socializing via profile and/or personal notes and such, as well.

I use Librarything and Goodreads. Never used Shelfari. My primary use is tracking my reading and for that, Library Thing is the winner because you can enter multiple dates for each book. People have been asking for that feature on Goodreads for years.

LibraryThing is more book- and collection-oriented. I can search just my personal library or their whole system. Their UI is more text- based for better and worse. Batch edits are possible but not always easy. The tagging system makes it easy to view your library in different ways - I.e. "how many history books did I read in 2011". Their newish collections are like GRs shelves. I leave reviews on LT, since I track my reading there. LT has no real mobile app

Goodreads is good for its ubiquity (it's used in many mobile apps) and its recommendations. When deciding between 2 books or looking up information on a book, I use GR. I don't use forums or groups much. I only leave ratings on GR to support recommendations. GR has a more polished interface.

Honestly, for finding new books I use Amazon's recommendations the most. LT and GR have good recommendation systems, too.

For cataloguing my physical library, I use a program called Book Collector. If it supported multiple read dates I would use it almost exclusively.

The only aspect of Shelfari that I prefer more is the way discussion threads are set up. Other than that... =/

I use GoodReads only because it's the only one I was aware of until today. I will check out some others before I dismiss them out of hand. Shelfari looks good and I'll become a member and have a go at using it before I make up my mind on which social book site to use.

GoodReads for the cataloguing aspect and BookLikes for the blogging aspect. I spend all day on both of them. I log into the sites in the morning and then log out just before bed 14 or 16 hours later.

I prefer LT. I had an account years back with a facebook app. (do they even do apps like that on facebook anymore?) where i added loads of books. Then they decided to discontinue the service to "focus on other exciting areas i would love". They gave me 30 days to download my information which i could then upload to goodreads. I was not happy. I did upload to goodreads but i lost so much info in the process that would all have to be manually added again that i completely lost heart. I loved that facebok app. If i had found GR or LB thing first i might have still been adding books today... Only this month have i tried again, but it seems its just not the same anymore for me. And there'w this lingering fear it will happen again and all will be in vain.

I think that experience put me off GR a bit, plus i just seem to like the more serious feel of LT.

Ryan 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..."
For giveaways you can visit bookbub.com

Goodreads. Didn't know the others existed!

I like Shelfari best, but I use Goodreads to enter the giveaways. Shelfari is the best fit for me and what I am looking for in a social book site.

Gina wrote: "I like Shelfari best, but I use Goodreads to enter the giveaways. Shelfari is the best fit for me and what I am looking for in a social book site."

I've never won a giveaway!

I like both sights and continue to records the books in both.

Clara Baker wrote: "I've never won a giveaway!

I like ..."

me either! i don't know anyone who has...or if they have they aren't telling anybody.

Well, even if I don't win, it's still nice I have a chance and it's a good way for me to find new poetry books.

Stumbled upon this topic by googling "shelfari vs goodreads".
Thank God I made the best choice at the start, if a few years late to accurately date a lot of great books read.

I have looked at both Shelfari and LibraryThing and think Goodreads works the best for me. I like Goodreads set up, format, and layout.

"Amazon owned two services that served the same purpose - at some point it makes sense to get rid of one of them." That, from a reddit user. Basically true. Personally, my grudge is I think Amazon should have consulted its users and discuss what best suited them. Anyways, mine opinion. Hopefully before the 15th of February 2016 readcomend will launch. It is a social platform for book lovers to recommend their fave books to their friends and family. I am sure you will find it useful. Thanks

Here's a link if you want to be notified of its launch
http://readcomend.launchrock.com/

Disclaimer: I am founder and CEO

I vastly prefer Shelfari, but it is sadly not an option any longer. I am really going to miss everything about it but the neglect it received from the owners...who decided to neglect it out of business.

Booknblues wrote: "I vastly prefer Shelfari, but it is sadly not an option any longer. I am really going to miss everything about it but the neglect it received from the owners...who decided to neglect it out of busi..."

me too. i knew when Amazon bought Shelfari and didn't make any improvements they would do this. and i think it's wrong. why do we even have monopoly laws???!!!!

they also own almost half of LibraryThing. the founder of LibraryThing, Tim Spalding is the majority shareholder but he sold part of it to Abebooks. Amazon bought Abebooks. again that shouldn't have been legal cuz of monopoly laws but apparently those are a joke. .

i don't trust Amazon not to mess with Goodreads and because unlike Shelfari you cannot make some books private i have imported my shelves to LibraryThing and to
http://booklikes.com/
http://www.anobii.com
i also am a member of http://www.bookvibe.com which is connected to your twitter account.
None of these do i really keep up with since i used Shelfari.
my Goodreads is not up to date since i can't make some books private.
oh well it was a free service.

here's a few old articles that have most of the sites i use and others i don't.

http://blog.thirdscribe.com/2013/03/3...

http://dearauthor.com/features/indust...

I mainly use Librarything. I prefer the groups and it works well for me.

Honestly, I got good reads so I could track what books I had read. But it is SOOOO SLOOOOOW to do anything. I mean, if the Android app even works, it has to re-load my shelves every time I go into a shelf or out of a book? Really? I was just on the shelf, the app knows I just clicked on a book, and then clicked to go back. EXACTLY when COULD I HAVE EVEN changed my shelves?

Same with looking at books - If i want to update how much of a book I've read, I need to spend 5 minutes fighting with the app to even do that. If I want to move a book from to read to currently reading, 3-5 minutes.

It makes me want to scream.

Even the web site on my computer is clunky. Library thing at least is fast. But I never started putting books in there because of the limit on the free accounts. I do like the groups, especially because most of my books are now Folio Society or e-books, neither are simple (for me anyway) to do on GoodReads. It seems GoodReads has only heard of the most recent, most mainstream editions. GRRR.

If LibraryThing imported goodreads and had a much better app (and this shouldn't be hard really, it's 95% TEXT - should be snappy over DIAL UP), I'd pay today.

♥Belleza★✰ wrote: "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 Shelf..."

groupreads?? is that a new one or did you mean Good reads.


i just found out about Leafmarks. i might try that if you can have private books and reviews. https://www.leafmarks.com/lm/

guiltlessreader wrote: "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"

Yes, the same...

Guillermo wrote: "guiltlessreader wrote: "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"

Yes, the same..."

hmm there is a limit? i imported my Shelfari to LT and i have over 6000 books on that list (my TBR list is ridiculously long.)

Shelfari all the way, just for visual appeal alone, not even factoring in how much smoother it was in functionality, Shelfari all the way, I'm so pissed I have to be on goodreads now.

Ace wrote: "Shelfari all the way, just for visual appeal alone, not even factoring in how much smoother it was in functionality, Shelfari all the way, I'm so pissed I have to be on goodreads now."

i miss shelfari. it's just not as easy or Private on the other platforms. sigh. my reading list is definitely not up to date now.

Well, obviously I chose GoodReads. After all, the poll is posted here on GoodReads where I have an account. ;)

As for interactive, I only ever tried goodreads, but had a look at librarything once.
As for just managing my personal book collection or monitoring reading progress, I prefer two apps: bookcatalogue and book tracker.

I know this is old, but I miss Shelfari. It was better than goodreads. Goodreads is better than Library Thing.
Everyone I know from Shelfari misses the the group setup and the bookshelf. Being forced to goodreads didn't help. Now that goodreads search books is having issues and the site is now so slow, is also frustrating and makes me dislike goodreads more than before. =/

Mel wrote: "I know this is old, but I miss Shelfari. It was better than goodreads. Goodreads is better than Library Thing.
Everyone I know from Shelfari misses the the group setup and the bookshelf. Being for..."

I still really miss Shelfari as well. They were my favorite both for the groups and for shelving. I would agree that GoodReads has a better group setup than LibraryThing, but I actually much prefer LibraryThing over GoodReads for shelving. It might have a bit of a learning curve to it, but once I got the hang of it, I found it offered me more of the customization options I was looking for that GoodReads didn't have. They've also been talking about overhauling the site design to make it more intuitive to new users and more functional on Mobile. Yeah LibraryThing requires a membership fee to add unlimited books but it's a negligible one time fee for lifetime membership, and they actually have events multiple times a year where it's pretty easy to win a lifetime membership for free. It's sort of like a website treasure hunt with clues and you only have to find 5 out of around 15 pages from the treasure hunt in order to get the lifetime membership. I think they made it too easy, but I'm sure no one that's gotten memberships that way would complain.

I use LibraryThing and Goodreads. I find LibraryThing to be better for cataloguing my books but I tend to find the reviews more helpful on Goodreads.

Kythe42 wrote: "Mel wrote: "I know this is old, but I miss Shelfari. It was better than goodreads. Goodreads is better than Library Thing.
Everyone I know from Shelfari misses the the group setup and the bookshel..."

Thank you for the reply and the info. =)

I've always liked LT better than GR, although GR looks nicer. But, as Kythe mentioned, they are doing an overhaul, and from the little bit I've looked at, I think it'll be pretty nice!

ETA: No one has a better group setup than shelfari had. No one even matches what shelfari had. *sniff

Also I am one who mourns Shelfari’s murder.

GR is only a vehicle for Amazon to promote their sales. They don't care what the reader wants. (all right, no more complaining. Shelfari won't be back.) Let the wounds heal.

I actually prefer LT and spend time there. I have one group here that I am still active in. I probably am 50% in both places. If I didn't help moderate the one group here, I might be gone altogether.

Kristel wrote: "I actually prefer LT and spend time there. I have one group here that I am still active in. I probably am 50% in both places. If I didn't help moderate the one group here, I might be gone altogether."

I also have one group that migrated here that I co-admin, so I am here, mainly for that one group.

LibraryCin wrote: "ETA: No one has a better group setup than shelfari had. No one even matches what shelfari had. *sniff"

agree. i miss it so.

Kristel wrote: "GR is only a vehicle for Amazon to promote their sales. They don't care what the reader wants. (all right, no more complaining. Shelfari won't be back.) Let the wounds heal."

i try and then somebody reminds me of shelfari by posting on here. ;-)

Kay Dee wrote: "Kristel wrote: "GR is only a vehicle for Amazon to promote their sales. They don't care what the reader wants. (all right, no more complaining. Shelfari won't be back.) Let the wounds heal."

i try..."
True

I use goodreads for revies and lists. But, I use fantastic fiction for publication dates.

I chose Goodreads cuz I have no idea what the others are.