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Sunday, May 29, 2011

Goodreads VS Shelfari


VS


Before I started blogging, I used Shelfari.com on a daily basis. I thought it was the coolest thing in the world. And then somehow I heard about Goodreads, and I made an account, but it seemed difficult to navigate, and I was happy with my Shelfari shelf.

And then when I started blogging, I noticed Goodreads was the general consensus as an online book shelf. So, I logged back on and started messing around, updating all my shelves and personalizing my profile… and I fell in love. Now, I’m on Goodreads every day, and Shelfari maybe once a week.

For one thing, I actually find Goodreads easier to use, and more user friendly once you take the time to actually get to know it. But, I LOVE that Shelfari actually put your books on a shelf. I think it’s cute, and it’s a little easier to navigate for me. It's easier to add and find books on a shelf that actually looks like a real shelf, I think.


Goodreads has that ‘Facebook style’ newsfeed, which is useful and informative, especially when new reviews are posted. 


The winning aspect for me, the one that makes Goodreads better for my experience, is that Goodreads allows you to make your own shelves. That is a genius idea, and I love it. I can categorized books however I want, which definitely helps for reading challenges and such. 

What are your thoughts on the two? Do you prefer one over the other? Why? 

18 comments:

  1. I'm a Goodreads girl. I hadn't actually heard of Shelfari until recently, so I went on over there and created an account (hoping to help get my name out there as a YA author!!) but I haven't quite got the hang of it yet. You're right though, it is cool that you can actually put your books on a shelf!
    Hope you're having a great weekend!
    Best wishes
    Suzy Turner
    http://suzyturner.com

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  2. When I started blogging four years ago, I used a site called Library Thing, which seemed really cool to me at the time. But after awhile I just didn't really see the point of entering all those bar codes, and I never really met or socialized with other users on that site. Can you tell me what the purpose or point of Goodreads is?

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  3. I use LibraryThing and love it. I know goodreads is the most popular among bloggers, but I really don't think I have time for ANOTHER feed full of reviews. I have enough trouble getting through all the blogs that I follow. I started using LibraryThing WAY before I started blogging, and it contains every book I've read since I started using it, so that's my "definitive" guide to books I have read.

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  4. I absolutely LOVE Goodreads. I find it so easy to use and there are so many different things you can do on it!
    I personally have never used Shelfari but this summer I may check it out and see how it works. I noticed that more bloggers use Goodreads so I find it easier to 'get in the know' with what they're reading and their reviews...

    -Lexi @ The YA Book Nook
    www.theyabooknook.blogspot.com

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  5. I like Shelfari in part because the shelf makes it very easy to find what I'm looking for.

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  6. I actually haven't heard of Shelfari before! Though the shelf feature seems right up my alley! I often wish I could view my Goodreads books that way. I don't have a book blog (but love to read them!)so my Goodreads profile is my only way of keeping track of what I have read, which is important to me. I love the giveaways, the reading challenge feature and checking out my most read authors! (Meg Cabot, btw ;) )

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  7. Goodreads is my favorite social book site. The thing that makes it better than all of the other ones for me is the community aspect. There are online groups and book clubs, and I love interacting with all of the awesome people on there and getting recommendations from them. I've made a lot of friends on Goodreads and some of us started our blogs together. I do like LibraryThing's Early Reviewer Program better than Goodreads First Reads, though. Shelfari has always seemed kinda pointless to me, especially since I already use Goodreads and LibraryThing.

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  8. I have never really heard of shelfari or LibraryThing. I only got Goodreads. And a similar norwegian page :)

    But I will take a look at the others. Though probably not making a profile, right now. Since I don´t got time for all thouse pages.

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  9. GoodReads all the way! The Shelfari look is nice, but if you View > Covers in GoodReads, it's more or less the same.

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  10. I use both Goodreads and Shelfari but I do prefer Shelfari, I just think it's cuter and cleaner. The Goodreads filing system can get very awkward.

    ComaCalm's Corner

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  11. I have an account for both but I mostly use Goodreads. It was the first I discovered and I think it's easier to discuss books on Goodreads than Shelfari. They only thing I like about Shelfari is the nice view you have of your bookshelf. I just log in Shelfari from time to time to update my books.

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  12. Well, I've had shelfari since 2009 and every single time I see a review or an author who posts her favourite review that she found, it's almost always from Goodreads. It's more popular and as such has more members, which results in more reviews.

    I "imported" my list from Shelfari to Goodreads and set up and account. I was so completely frustrated by the end of it that I cancelled my account with GR and stuck with Shelari. This all happened in the same day approximately a month or so ago. Obviously I don't have much patience.

    So, I've been sticking with Shelfari up until 2 days ago when I once again opened up an account with GR and imported my lsit. Very frustrating again, but I tried to have as much patience as possible. Finally today I finished setting up my list and I think I've got it almost under control now so the frustrating part is over. It's going to take me a bit of getting used to because I don't know my way around too well yet but I'm sure I'll be more familiar with time.

    I still really like the look of Shelfari above all of the other places but I just think that GR seems to have a lot more traffic and a lot more authors.

    I can't really give an opinion on GR yet because I've only been on there are few times in the past 2 days but this is the 2nd time that I've created an account there and transferred all my books so there must be something that's drawing me to them.

    So far I'm finding it a little easier to find books on Shelfari but that just may be my lack of time on GR. Shelfari is prettier but GR is more informative. I see a lot of people posting that GR is more user friendly but I find Shelfari more user friendly. Again, that may be my lack of experience on the site.

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  13. I have accounts in both Goodreads and Shelfari, and I like goodreads more. :D

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  14. in goodreads you cannot (as an ordinary user) merge duplicate books. This creates problems.

    Either you enter only one of the duplicates - but then you don't get to see reviews, info, and similar tastes from people who actually have the same book. Or else you add both, but then it looks as if you've read twice as many books as you have.

    Apart from this issue, goodreads seems nice.

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  15. Eivin
    GR have GR librarians group and you can always ask GR librarian to merge duplicate book for you. And if you wish you can became librarian.

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  16. I use both Shelfari and Goodreads. I started using Shelfari first. I do like the way it has the bookshelf.

    Sometime later I found Goodreads. I used the export function in Shelfari to help populate Goodreads. They have different formats, though, so it involves a bit of work to convert everything. And, not all of the information exported from Shelfari.

    The thing I like least about Shelfari is the isbn lookup. In Goodreads, I can use isbn-10 or isbn-13. Shelfari only seems to have isbn-10.

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  17. I've been using Shelfari for years and I love the shelf system and the way you can join different groups and have discussions on books. It's easy to use and now you can link your account to your amazon account to keep track of what you bought. The only thing I wish they had is a way to group the books on your shelf into your own groups, but other than that I think I'll still use Shelfari.

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  18. I have been a member of Shelfari since 2007. I later tried GR also. But I like Shelfari very much. Its bookshelf feature is cool and very easy to navigate. I rarely use GR.

    Also they have a widget of bookshelf which can be embedded on to your blog.

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