Goodreads: Been a member since 2009 and really liked it back then. Has the most comprehensive functionality for everything I need to organize my stuff. The only problem I see is that recommendations focus immensely on new releases, whereas I prefer to read series that are finished - I hate waiting for the next book in a series. Also has loading issues sometimes, but nothing unbearable. #bookstodon#goodreads
StoryGraph: Was really excited for this a couple of years ago, but back then the functionality was very bare-bones and I still don't quite get the structure of the site. Tried again and I feel it is still bare bones and can be really slow.
The stats are really good. The recommendations seem really good too, and are not at all biased towards new releases. I don't like that it has premium features and I can't really tell if paying $5 a month would be of any use for this site. #storygraph
literal.club: This site seems bare-bones at a glance, but it emulates the structure of goodreads more closely than StoryGraph, and seems to try to be a modernized version of it. The site is blazingly fast. As far as I understand, there are only ever two recommendations at a time that can't be refreshed, or maybe I just didn't find them (which would be bad usability). #bookstodon#literalclub
So to summarize, goodreads still has the most functionality, but obviously they sold their soul years ago and now try to shove new releases down your throat. I will continue to use goodreads to organize my reads, but I will probably occasionally check StoryGraph for recommendations (not that I need any, with my to-read shelves having over 60 books)... #bookstodon#goodreads#storygraph#literalclub
LibraryThing: This site looks straight from the 00s and reminds me a lot of boardgamegeek. Allover it has seemingly the best functionality aside from goodreads, large database, and recommendations seem really good. Not very many social features, which can be good though IMHO.
bookwyrm.social: The fediverse alternative! I want to like it, and it looks a lot like goodreads, but the functionality is bare-bones as there are only basic shelves, it didn't import 7% of my books, it didn't import my custom shelves, and the database needs some cleaning (duplicate authors, etc). No recommendations based on my shelves. Sadly, not good enough (yet).
@adastra bookwyrm.social is one instance of #BookWyrm, there are many other instances. You can create whatever shelves you want, and these can also be set to private. For import I think you would need to create any none standard book shelves first before doing the import. BookWyrm does not have access to publisher and ISBN agency databases. They are proprietary data and not open. So book data is a challenge. But users can add books and edit book details, and that way improve the database for all
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