Hello, fellow bibliophiles!
I've been on the hunt for a decent Goodreads alternative for a few years now and was curious as to what the fine folks of the Lemmyverse thought of Bookwyrm.
There are so many GR alternatives that are clearly trying to be "The New Goodreads", though the whole reason I wanted an alternative is because I'm sick of GR and its devolution into a commercialized, biased, and messy shithole. Like, if I wanted recommendations and feckless reviews straight from the putrid inner bowels of Tiktok, I'd go to Tiktok. And most of these alternatives seem to quickly turn into the same thing. I refuse to believe that GR and its copycats are our only viable option.
Bookwyrm seems promising. It's been a bit clunky and I'm still figuring it out, but I'm enjoying the utter lack of sponsored or "pushed" content. So, thoughts? Opinions? Suggestions?
I am on GR but don't rely on it much, just to keep track of read books, and a wishlist.
I used it to pick the best rated Daniel Silva book and was disappointed as o didn't like it. I'd agree that reviews on GR ale not reliable, most people have different taste. What's most annoying is how most reviews there start by summarizing the book which inflates the bloat you have to go through before you get to the review.
I only just checked out bookwyrm now, but i can't find the book I'm currently reading there (the poet by Michael Connelly). It doesn't look like it has as much content.
So true about the long-winded reviews nowadays. I feel like they're one of three templates lately: grade school book report ; "omg yas best book ever" with descriptive gifs ; or pure vitriol. I miss when GR reviews were actually helpful.
As for Bookwyrm, that was one of the main reasons I made this post, because it didn't seem like there were many users, but the app itself is slowly growing on me.