Goodreads
The most recommended of 6 book trackers
People recommend it for finding books, tracking reading, and joining a large community of readers, though many say its ratings and recommendations are unreliable.
People recommend it for finding books, tracking reading, and joining a large community of readers, though many say its ratings and recommendations are unreliable.
50 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 17
- criticize it
- 33
- approval share
- 34%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 17 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 8 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Large community of active readers
“It's good if you are part of that community which was built around specific shared interests”
Comment from 7 Jul 2026 in “Craig Mod built his own Good Reads” “But it is huge, passionate forum for active readers of all stripes.”
Comment from 12 Apr 2026 in “The Life and Death of the Book Review” Tracks reading progress and library
“Use goodreads to track progress and add my friends who are readers to provide motivation and goal visualization.”
Comment from 10 Nov 2025 in “You can just read 25 books” “I do enjoy that it syncs my reading progress / library with Goodreads”
Comment from 31 Aug 2026 in “Rakuten Kobo returns to U.S. retail as sales double” Good for finding related books
“You can go to the page for a representative book and then start browsing the "readers also enjoyed" list.”
Comment from 27 Mar 2026 in “Ask HN: How do you get recommendations for books that are up your alley?” “barely more effective than a keyword author search, but for all its failings thats still going to have better book discovery”
Comment from 7 Jul 2026 in “Craig Mod built his own Good Reads”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Ratings and recommendations are unreliable
“I've been burned too many times by highly rated books that weren't that good.”
Comment from 6 Nov 2025 in “Show HN: I scraped 3B Goodreads reviews to train a better recommendation model” “A random sampling of books that a random group thinks are good isnt a good recommendation engine.”
Comment from 7 Jul 2026 in “Craig Mod built his own Good Reads” “I just recently read a really mediocre book with a 4.7/5 rating on Goodreads”
Comment from 23 Jul 2026 in “Quality non-fiction books are the antithesis of AI slop” - Comment from 7 Jul 2026 in “Craig Mod built his own Good Reads”
Owned by Amazon, quality declined
“Goodreads is owned by Amazon.”
Comment from 1 Sep 2026 in “Rakuten Kobo returns to U.S. retail as sales double” “Goodreads is now an amazon marketing website filled with astroturf and review bombing.”
Comment from 12 Apr 2026 in “The Life and Death of the Book Review” “Goodreads used to be great, but have gone down hill since Amazon bought them.”
Comment from 2 Aug 2026 in “Generative AI floods and dilutes the market for books” Reading challenge pressures readers
“The chase of more and more books because of my Goodreads friends' goals is what got me reading 70 books a year, and abhorring the experience.”
Comment from 13 Jul 2026 in “How to Read More Books” “My biggest pet peeve is the Goodreads reading challenge, I cringe at it every year.”
Comment from 3 Jan 2026 in “Reading is a vice: US student reading abilities and habits are declining” Little development, dated technology
“Goodreads is declining because its old tech was less attractive to younger readers”
Comment from 31 Aug 2026 in “Rakuten Kobo returns to U.S. retail as sales double” “Goodreads seems to be get so little development attention these days”
Comment from 7 Jul 2026 in “Craig Mod built his own Good Reads”
Other book trackers people recommend
The four most recommended other book trackers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GoodreadsThis page | 17 | 33 | 34% | 8 | — | — |
| Shelvy Books | 9 | 1 | 90% | 2 | — | — |
| Hardcover | 8 | 0 | 100% | 7 | — | — |
| LibraryThing | 6 | 1 | 86% | 5 | — | — |
| StoryGraph | 5 | 3 | 63% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
40 of the 53 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“it does a good job of describing books and series of books”
“don't let Amazon do what it did to Goodreads here”
“Goodreads is owned by Amazon.”
“Goodreads is declining because its old tech was less attractive to younger readers”
“I do enjoy that it syncs my reading progress / library with Goodreads”
“but it is mostly for books”
“Goodreads used to be great, but have gone down hill since Amazon bought them.”
“Good reads is too heavy on the social aspect for my taste.”
“I just recently read a really mediocre book with a 4.7/5 rating on Goodreads”
“As does Goodreads and reviewing, for myself, every book I read.”
“The chase of more and more books because of my Goodreads friends' goals is what got me reading 70 books a year, and abhorring the experience.”
“Goodreads is flawed but the fix isnt to deliver it without any features.”
“It's good if you are part of that community which was built around specific shared interests”
“barely more effective than a keyword author search, but for all its failings thats still going to have better book discovery”
“A random sampling of books that a random group thinks are good isnt a good recommendation engine.”
“goodreads sucks at book recommendations”
“Goodreads seems to be get so little development attention these days”
“you can filter them by lenght in goodreads, storygraph, etc.”
“keep them alive in a terrible state like Goodreads, Imdb, BoxOfficeMojo”
“it's not always clear as I'm more critical than the average person”
“Goodreads is now an amazon marketing website filled with astroturf and review bombing.”
“But it is huge, passionate forum for active readers of all stripes.”
“You can go to the page for a representative book and then start browsing the "readers also enjoyed" list.”
“Sites like Goodreads and Rotten Tomatoes are targeted by marketing firms.”
“Goodreads' user base appears to have a pretty narrow demographic”
“I got tired of the gamification and social elements of Goodreads”
“something better than what Goodreads & Co provides. Something actually useful.”
“I'm hoping Goodreads and Anna's Archive will help fill in the gaps”
“a 4.2 or above rating on Goodreads to be a fairly accurate indicator of whether a book Wil be a pleasurable read”
“My biggest pet peeve is the Goodreads reading challenge, I cringe at it every year.”
“It really liked to hallucinate goodreads URLs with the book title in them but an invalid ID”
“neither Goodreads, IMDB nor Letterboxd have proper export APIs”
“Use goodreads to track progress and add my friends who are readers to provide motivation and goal visualization.”
“I'll most probably use your site over Goodreads.”
“Few people that read classical books log in Goodreads (I don't)”
“Goodreads does not tell people this but these lists include private users.”
“I despise Goodreads but continue to use it, because there are no real alternatives.”
“that largely sums up my experience with goodreads anyway”
“GR is also great if you are into academic nonfiction, Classics, poetry, etc.”
“I've been burned too many times by highly rated books that weren't that good.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.