Track Your Reading and Get Book Recommendations with The StoryGraph
If you like to set up yearly reading challenges or have ever searched for a quote online, you are probably familiar with Goodreads. Despite its MySpace-era clunky interface, Goodreads is the go-to for readers who track their books. But for those who value supporting small businesses, Goodreads, which is owned by Amazon, seems a bit incongruous. Enter The StoryGraph, an independently-owned website designed to help readers track their reading and discover their next book.
The StoryGraph was founded by Nadia Odunayo, a software engineer and avid reader. She launched the site in January 2021 and continues to use social media to get feedback from users, aiming to build the site into a product that keeps up with readers’ needs. Although the site is launched and ready to go, receiving feedback and developing new features are still large parts of the process for Odunayo.
Since it’s new, The StoryGraph does not have Goodreads’ venerable backlog of data, which includes books, groups, and lists created over fourteen years by a staggering 90 million members. That said, Goodreads users are able to transfer their data over to The StoryGraph so they don’t lose years of recorded reading progress. That’s a relief, especially if years of history is what’s been keeping you married to Amazon.
Those nerds who relish a good old fashioned, colour-coded chart will find that The StoryGraph’s beautiful diagrams spark joy. While Goodreads tracks the number of books and pages read per year, The StoryGraph takes it a few steps further and charts your reading by mood (e.g., tense, funny, lighthearted, and informative), pace (slow, medium, fast), length, and genre. Each one of these elements is recorded on a chart or graph that develops as you read. The StoryGraph also invites readers to set reading challenges or join challenges set by other users, fostering a sense of community.
100%!
— The StoryGraph (@thestorygraph) May 24, 2021
Our recommendations and filter menus can help you find the next perfect book for you! ☺️ pic.twitter.com/jaoudOEzIU
Recommendations on Goodreads have become more commercialized in that publishers pay to have their books recommended on the site. Meanwhile, The StoryGraph creates personalized book recommendations based on your mood and topics of interest and currently does not host ads.
Provided prompts about a book’s mood and pace help users write informative reviews. With fiction, prompts can include helpful questions, such as “Is the story plot- or character-driven?” and “Are the characters diverse?”, as a starting point for reflection. Don’t love reading a six paragraph-long rant in the comments? These prompts, along with sections for content warnings, comments, and a star rating, allow for a quick and digestible rundown of a book.
To support an indie, Black-owned company, ditch Amazon, and try a new way of finding book recommendations, see for yourself what The StoryGraph is all about.
Erica Osko
lives in Edmonton, A.B. with her cat. She studied English in university, but that was a little while ago, so she's excited to get back into writing! She is a theatre nerd who could break into song at any moment, and her latest favourite reading genre is biographies of historical women. She organizes her books by colour, and she's sorry if you find that offensive.