Goodreads is the Only Site for Book Lovers - au contraire!

​Before, I shared 5 reasons to spend time on Goodreads, but is Goodreads the only site for book lovers? Au contraire, it is not! It may be the most well-known, but there are alternatives.

In the "olden" days, you had to go with what was available in the library or on the shelves of your bookstore. Harder still was finding like-minded people who shared your reading passion. You either had to start a book club or find a local one. Nowadays, it's exponentially easier to find both new titles and book clubs. There are now a myriad of websites available to book lovers where they can find titles and share their thoughts about the books they've read, or get insights and read reviews about the books they want to read.

One of such sites is Goodreads. Established in 2007, Goodreads is a social media site where passionate book lovers go to find new books to pursue. You can also find new releases and join “organically occurring” online book clubs for every topic under the sun. But Goodreads is just one of the many sites that targets bibliophiles. There are others that operate on a social network capacity, mainly to provide a community for book lovers. This makes it easier for people with similar tastes in books to find one another and forge a connection.

Here are a few of them:

LibraryThing 
LibraryThing boasts over 2,000,000 members and is an old faithful when it comes to cataloging and title management. Similar to Goodreads, LibraryThing helps you manage your book lists. It also connects you to people who have similar book interests. You may choose to keep your lists private or display your libraries. Either way, this site helps keep you organized. It not only helps you curate your books, but also catalogs your movies and music as well.

If you find that you can’t commit to a title just yet, LibraryThing will give you information about the book you're are eyeing. Each time you add a book to your library, LibraryThing will display an image of the cover, the publication date, the ISBN, and the list of other editions - for starters. LibraryThing can also tell you where you can buy copies of that book online.

It lets you check out the recommendations from other users and peek into their libraries. Here’s how LibraryThing builds their book lovers community. When someone shares the same interests in books as you do, you can personally request a book recommendation or a review from them. Get all the information you need about what your next book conquest will be with related book suggestions and user reviews.

Booklikes
While LibraryThing is akin to a social media platform for curating books and sharing your thoughts, Booklikes functions as a blog platform for book lovers. Similar to Goodreads and LibraryThing, Booklikes also lets you discover new titles by leading you to “book blogs”. You can also create shelves and organize your books into titles or reading status. Similarly, you can read and share reviews, post quotes, and post photos of your favorite authors.

One feature of Booklikes that none of the other sites mentioned have is the ability to create your own timeline. You can see when you've finished a book, add your favorite quote, and mark it as a milestone. This is especially useful to see what  you have been reading at a particular time in your life.

ReadGeek
Just like the first two, ReadGeek is also a social network for book lovers. ReadGeek is focused mainly on finding the next book for you. Algorithms are at work here, so you have to first rate the books you've read in order for ReadGeek to get to know your preferences. ReadGeek gives you recommendations based on your book tastes and lets you see what other members liked. It also lets you create a wishlist of books you’ve been dying to read and shows you where you can get them online.

One neat feature of ReadGeek is the rating flexibility. ReadGeek has a 10-star rating system that gives you more range in rating books than most book rating systems, which are usually just 5 stars.

What Should I Read Next 
What Should I Read Next is a site that generates recommendations based on your favorite titles or authors. It's pretty straightforward. You type in the title or author of a book you've read and What Should I Read Next will generate a list of titles for you to explore. It’s fun to discover what other titles are available under your favorite genre.

There are a lot of sites devoted to book lovers and there are millions of members on these sites. Explore them! And don't let anybody tell you that nobody reads books anymore or that books are dead.

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