Goodreads: An app for book lovers, but is it the best?
There’s something magical about reading books. I’ve always found it calming for my mind. It transports me into another world without leaving my seat. It awakens my imagination.
I likely read 10+ books every year, and I find immense joy and satisfaction in reviewing and logging each one. Every avid book reader has probably heard of and used Goodreads, and I couldn’t help but write about it.
Goodreads’ mission from their own website: To help readers discover books they love and get more out of reading.
It HAS helped me read more books - I love their annual reading challenge and setting it at the start of each year. I use it to track what I’m reading and how far along I am. I might be a power user, but I find it extremely motivating to log books into the app. I also like having shelves of books I want to read later.
Seeing what my friends are reading has also helped me discover new books/genres. I wonder if Goodreads could help me connect with new people who read similar genres to me.
It has made my journey of picking a book so much more fun! Whenever I browse books at bookstores, I read a few pages of a book I like, then ALWAYS go to Goodreads to check its average rating and whether any of my friends have read it.
And yet, despite how much value Goodreads adds to my reading life, using the app often feels surprisingly dated. In a world with 9M+ apps, all trying to increase DAU, I find it hard to understand why Goodreads hasn’t optimized its UI.
The feed is like a Facebook Feed of the early 2010s. There’s so much wasted spacing - the like and comment buttons don’t look compelling, and there are white spaces everywhere. This post could benefit from better visuals and tags/bullets related to the book to make the content more engaging.
Placing ads that don’t align with the app's mission is wasted real estate, in my view. Understanding that they are trying to make money, but I think there are other ways for them to monetize while aligning with their mission:
A subscription model like Spotify with better curated recommendations
Creating better tools for authors to advertise or write their books faster
A low-hanging fruit is having 1-click book purchases with Amazon since Goodreads is already a part of Amazon
Integrating with bookstores and having bookclubs/reading communities
Their recommendation system, in my view, could benefit from a revisit. I have rarely bought a book that Goodreads has recommended. Even though I rely heavily on Goodreads when browsing in bookstores, there is a lot of friction between when I start browsing books and when I actually pick one. Value props like “Because you enjoyed xyz” work, but can further improve with better visuals/bullets.
Goodreads still plays a meaningful role in my reading life - I wish the experience matched the level of care readers like me have for books. What do you think? Do you think you enjoy Goodreads as-is?