Find, get, and share books you love on Goodreads, the world’s largest site for readers and book recommendations. More than 75 million members have added more than 2.2 billion books to their shelves.
Goodreads is a free service.
FIND & GET BOOKS
• Scan book covers to instantly read reviews and save it on your Want to Read shelf.
• Get personalized recommendations based on your tastes.
• Browse featured books and genres to discover more books you’ll love.
• See what your friends are reading.
• Buy or borrow books with our convenient links.
TRACK & SHARE BOOKS
• Search, rate, and review any book in our catalog.
• Keep track of books you want to read and have read.
• Add status updates for books you’re currently reading.
• Join the Reading Challenge to help you read more.
• Discuss books through messages, reviews, and groups.
• Recommend books to friends.
They removed the option to view the current year’s books (like the end of the year one but you could see it as you added to it). I can only see it on the browser now so what even is the point of this app. Thinking of deleting it as I’m using storygraph now too and the app is much smoother and has more features that are pretty cool. Update: storygraph has the end of year wrapup thing too and it’s much more robust. Think I’ll start using that and encourage others to try it out!
While the website is great, the Android app is annoyingly buggy. For months now, I’ve been unable to sort my “read books” by date started or finished. This is because the entered dates don’t show up as having been entered–except when you go into the area where you enter them. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the app, but it didn’t help. Goodreads, PLEASE, fix this bug!
I pretty much use the app to make a book I’m currently reading and look up a review when I’m in the library or a book store. The rest (writing reviews, etc) I just do on the website. That’s because the app is buggy and clunky. I’ve found books marked as Read instead of Currently reading. And recently Reviews don’t show up at all under the books I look up. The most convenient thing is the scanner to look up a book to add to my list. That’s it. The last update caused the bugs.
This app can be extremely annoying. It often fails to update when I move a book to another shelf or I update the number of pages I’ve read; I have to exit the app and restart it to see the correct info. And there is an infuriating bug if you use an external keyboard to write a review, pressing one of the arrow keys throws away everything you’ve typed and takes you to another screen. Now there’s a new bug, if you click on an item on the currently reading shelf it shows as read.
Don’t bother with this app just use the browser. An app should be more convenient than the browser and this definitely falls very short. The discover page is lacking. When you click an article to read from the discover page that is showing a list of books to recommend, then click on a book, then click back to get back to the list you are instead taken to the front page of the app. You have to click on the article again and find your way back down the list to where you left off. Very annoying.
The app is mostly a wrapper for a website. It does its job okay. I can keep track of books and look at reviews. But it doesn’t have a dark mode, has very few settings, a lot of the pages are pretty basic, and the fact that a lot of the app is just a website has its own annoying problems.
Good Reading App but I wish it had a dark mode still. I don’t care for the book recs because it seems to never update or be accurate towards books that I like or have read. Example is the recommendations has children’s books in the fiction section. I would understand it if I had read children’s books lately but I haven’t. The best thing is the reading challenge.
I used to like this app to keep track of where I left off on a book (since I tend to take long pauses between sections) placing notes along my currently reading feed. All of a sudden, the feed began getting periodically wiped and what page I left on along with the notes to remind myself of the previous sections I read disappeared completely. It’s still fine to track what books you read and want to read, just use a regular notebook or a note application to keep currently-in-progress book notes.
Having a dark mode option would be great. Also I have noticed the app freezes after scanning the barcode of a book, I have to force close it and reopen it to have it work or type the name in manually. Can we also be able to search by username or email to follow someone like apple users of the app can do. Update 12/9/22 home page keeps giving error message saying its unable to load.
I have a few problems with this app. First of all, I think that the page isn’t very customizable/free. For example, you can’t do .5 stars, you can’t put your lists in a custom order, etc… Secondly, the rating system is just broken sometimes. For example, ‘Turtles all the Way Down’ has 43,000 reviews, but when I click on the button to see all of them, it only shows me one. Idk, might be an android problem but it’s just broken.
Too many bugs! If I try to enter a giveaway, it puts the books in my “read” section instead of the “want to read” section. It also happens when I put something from want to read into any other shelf. Very frustrating to have to keep fixing it every time it does it! I had to spend an hour after an update removing books from the “read” section after they randomly showed up in there. And the app crashes every few minutes!
I want to love this app and would except that finding and adding friends is unreasonably difficult. You click the +, but then only have the options to find contacts, find Facebook friends, or share the app. It never finds my friends via contacts’ phone numbers and there is no option to search by email or Goodreads user ID. The whole point is connecting with friends and colleagues who share a love for books, and it is not user friendly at all to find them.
As others have said, it’s just plain buggy. I’ve always found the app lacking compared to the site, but now functionality is making it useless. I’m currently stuck in a loop where I foolishly tried to add a book to my “currently reading” section, but it won’t let me update progress because it’s glitching and showing up in the “read” section. Also, the inability to select the version of the book you’re reading (Kindle, Hardcover, etc) from the app is a stupid limitation.
I enjoy this app when it works, but it has a lot of bugs! It’s fun and informative to be able to read reviews and see what my friends and favorite authors are reading. A lot of times books I add to a list (i.e read, reading, to be read, etc.) mysteriously vanish from that list, and are either gone completely or reappear on the wrong list. This is SO frustrating!
A decent place to find niche books and uncensored reviews for them, but the app itself has a lot of bugs. You cannot remove a book from any of your lists, so I had to go straight to the website on my phone’s browser to do so. And one of the books I have set to “want to read” is showing up in my “read” section instead, and no, it wasn’t a misclick. I’ve tried editing it, but it’s still glitched; it’s the only book I’ve personally noticed it’s done it to (book in question is Spider’s Mate Bound).
The app is hilariously lacking, compared to the desktop site. It’s missing very basic features- even the ability to rename your own tags and shelves. 30% of books show 1 or 0 reviews even when they have 1000s visible on the desktop site. I have many more examples of things like this. And it’s not really just a few bugs… it’s the way the app has been for years and years. Pathetic considering Amazon, who bought it in 2013, absolutely has the resources to fix it in a day.
I used to love this app but now it’s got major problems. I might go back to keeping a log of what I read in my journals because this app has been so wonky the past week. It won’t updated what I’m reading, it says a book is on read no matter how many times I change it to currently reading, and when I am able to update a page it reads that there’s an error and I have to get out of the page on the app to have it correct itself. It’s a nightmare. If it doesn’t change in a month I’m dropping this ap
It’s no longer intuitively user friendly. You can’t recommend books to friends. The scan feature using your device camera takes a long time and often times out failing to add the book. The ability to track the books you own has been removed. The feature could have been improved by allowing you to fill in the information or better yet auto fill since Goodreads was bought by Amazon, so everytime you buy a book from Amazon the purchase info is added automatically. You can’t use older editions.
I hate the navigation of this app. It’s clunky, poorly organized, and not programmed for easy user mobility. If you are looking to use this app as a means of finding titles you might like to read, you’re in for some major frustration. You can only see info about the book if you click on the title, but don’t dare hit the back button! It takes you back to the generic search page. Hate it. I will use the website until I find something better.
God forbid you want to reread a book. Well, it’s in you your ‘currently reading’ it’s just still marked as read and won’t let you update the progress. Or trying to remove a book from your list. Or the amount of doubled books I randomly have in my “to read” area. This app is so functionally idiotic. You can’t change editions or see the genres in the app version. There are so many bugs in this app. It’s ridiculous.
I actively dislike when apps don’t offer the same functionality between the app and the website. For example: I’ve been seeing random people that I DON’T FOLLOW in my feed. I’ve double checked everything in the account, I’m definitely not following these people. Turns out of one of my friends likes something in their feed, that book shows in mine. Ok fine I’ll edit my feed. Nope can’t do that through the app. Only on desktop. Fix this and I’ll update my review.
Been a GR member for years desktop and app. As of late, there are lots of change for the worse happening in both places. All the negative reviews, believe them! It’s not user friendly. Not only are books being placed on wrong shelves, you can’t remove books from shelves. Constant crashes makes for an unpleasant experience. Lots of very unhappy users. So if you want an app to only track books, this is the app for you because you won’t be able to do much else!!
I want to like this app but between the buggy connection issues and whole areas that drop out for a minute and were unavailable I don’t know what to say. Even the mobile web version is horrible. I know we’re all book lovers but come on guys, get your tech on. I boosted my review to 2 stars because of the ability to integrate accounts but it couldn’t handle that all the well either.
Seriously disappointed! I have been using this app for years. All of a sudden when I try to log in after it logged me out on its own I have to have a OTP sent and it’s sent to an email address I no longer use or have access too! It says I have to recreate an account. I’m going to loose all the data I have saved. I have read over 1000 books and used this app to keep track of series and what I have read! Everything is just lost now. Why is there no other way to get a password sent like via text?
I love having a social place to share books. Buuuut… Why not make it as good as the desktop version? The mobile app has many flaws, including things like: being on a Goodreads post and clicking on a book, but when you click back it takes you all the way back to the discover page. Or not having the compare books with friends option. Mobile goodreads blows. Update: got a new photo but the app is still awful 😖
Absolutely garbage. Looking at a list and want to click on the book to see what it’s about? Good luck getting back to the list. It’ll take you back to the main screen. Want to see recent releases and currently popular books? Nah. Can’t do it. Want to sort results? Uhuh. It’s infuriating to try and find anything on this app and I hate that, as I’ve been using Goodreads for YEARS.
I’ve used this app for years and loved it. However, the latest update is buggy. My main complaint is that its no longer auto-filling in the start/finished dates. Having to go back and make sure books are reported correctly for the reading challenge isn’t ideal.
Books I’ve marked as read showing up in my want to read list still. No dark mode option. Algorithm used to suggest books could use some updating- it seems to look back at every book I’ve ever marked as read instead of my more recent reading habits. I’ve used this app for about 10 yrs & my reading habits now are drastically different now. The lists don’t include synopsis of the books & the back option from the books doesn’t return to lists.
Turned insanely glitchy this summer. Books don’t go to the shelf I mark them to. And it used to move my books into the reading challenge, but suddenly changed into that I have to go BACK into the book to edit and create the start/read dates. After 120 books, just stopped counting them. 3 stars because at least I can track books. But for how much longer?
The scan books feature is a good concept, however it still needs work. My rating is due to the frustration of a high failure rate to scan book covers or ISBN correctly. A 60% success rate – less if you include being given a list of books after scanning for you to pick the correct book – isn’t good if you want to scan in your home library. And some features don’t flow through the entire system, such as create a :new shelf’, or ‘remove a book’. This is on some, but not all, books. Good luck devs
I’ve had GR for years, as both the app and the website, but lately it’s been going down hill. For example, a book will show as “currently reading” online, but “read” in the drop down through the app (even as it shows on the “currently reading” shelf in the app). Also, a book will show read, count for my challenge, but not show up on the “read” shelf despite all the others showing up fine. It’s frustrating and makes no sense!
My only complaint is that I can’t see the shelves on a book’s page That’s one of the best features of Goodreads as far as I’m concerned since it gives you an idea of what the book is beyond the blurb. But for some reason you can only see them if you’re on a desktop, so inevitably I wind up waiting until I can check there to decide if I’ll get a book or not, making the app good for little more than keeping track of books to look at again later.
It’s an okay app, but it behaves strangely sometimes. I’m not sure if it’s that the data just isn’t refreshing properly or what. As an example, when I add a new book into my “Currently Reading” shelf, it will show as Read in certain views, but Currently Reading in others. And then because of that, I can’t actually update the reading progress of the book. I often have to go to the website to get things synced up properly again.
No way to change your review to a specific edition of a book. No way (that I can find) to search only your shelves. No way to view previous years’ reading challenges. You have to go to the desktop website, not even the mobile version, to do these things. The app is stable but its functionality is sorely lacking. The developer has responded saying that they would like to “add” the features. But these things were possible in previous versions of the app. At some point they were taken out.
I like this app to keep track of books, but the news feed is useless. It’s all “so and so so is now friends with” and “so and so liked this review”. I don’t see books my friends are reading/want to read. Nor am I seeing trending books anymore. I actually wanted to see those. So, the tracking books is good, but the social aspect is totally useless because of the inability to filter news feeds.
I love that I can set a goal for the year and update my progress. I wish that I could edit the page numbers for the book I’m reading though. Some editions have a different number of pages than what goodreads has programmed. And finding an alternative cover is not a common solution. If I want an accurate progress report, I have to use a calculator to find the proper percentage to enter. It’s pretty annoying. Also, you can’t search for people unless you are friends on a separate platform like FB
It’s Great, But.. The app had all the books I was looking for, but at a price. It gave a sample piece then asked if you would like to go purchase the book or continue reading it on Kindle. I do not have any sort of an Amazon account, I just wanted free books and nothing more. Defininetly one of the better reading apps I’ve come across, but left with a sort of disappointed feeling.
Great app for sharing and reviewing books. I often use it to get others opinions and I can connect with authors through their pages. I even had a couple comment on my reviews and friend me, definitely a plus. Sometimes the date read feature glitches out and I have some books in the wrong order, which can be frustrating. I will sometimes find books I just read at the end of the list, and I can’t figure out how to fix them. That’s the only negative thing I can think of.
I’ve used the website for ages and it’s perfectly serviceable. I like the app for the convenience of being able to add books wherever/whenever, or I would if it functioned a little better. It feel like it’s just gotten worse lately. anytime I use the app anymore it doesn’t do what I want and I give up and try to remember to do whatever it was next time I have access to a computer. The interface is clunky and just doesn’t work.
I love this app. It’s pretty good aside from one thorn: the loading times are abhorrent. It takes at least 10 seconds to load each book when I tap on it, and ten seconds more to select which shelf I want it on, and 15-20 seconds to rate a book. Waaay too long. And I’m quite sure it’s not on my end. I’m getting connection speeds of 50mbps or more up and down, and I have no apps running in the background. It got to be on the developer/server end. Please fix it. Thanks.