Goodreads an app to Log, Review & Rate Books from more than 140 million Books
by Paul Wilks
Feb 21, 2012 1:34 PM –
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Goodreads is the Android client for goodreads.com, a hugely popular social network for book lovers. The app let’s you search for any book of the 140 million titles they have listed and exchange ratings and reviews with over 5 million members. If you’re a keen reader or avid bibliophile, Goodreads is a great solution to that perennial question “What should I read next?”.
Price: Free
Tested on: HTC Desire HD
Content Rating: Everyone
Pros & Cons:
Pros
- Search, review and rate books from millions of titles!
- Access to groups, friends and your site profile!
- Recreate your own library via barcode scans!
- Nice user interface!
- Easy to use!
Cons
- No reader (which might put some people off).
- Could do with a couple more features, such as a recommendation tool or the means to manually enter books.
Features:
Goodreads is a great social network for people who like reading. You can rate and review lots of books you have already devoured, as well as search for new titles, engage with specific online groups and follow what friends are reading. The app brings as much of this as possible to your Android device.
I am a big reader and the stand out feature for me was the ability the scan in your library into the service using the barcode scanner. It’s great to see your library take shape on the app and on the web interface too. It allows you to place the books into different ‘shelves’ and great different groups. So for example, I’m a big fan of dystopian novels such as 1984 and Brave New World, and have collected quite a variety of novels in this genre. With the Goodreads app I can put all those books onto a ‘dystopia’ shelf.
In addition to your own library, you have access to millions of books, reviews and ratings via the online community. There’s no actual ‘reader’ in the app although you can also search for book prices in-app, which is useful if you’re looking to make a purchase. The ratings are usually very accurate and reviews are especially honest. It’s a shame, however, that there is not a recommendation tool included which would perhaps scan your books and make suggestions based on your library, or specific titles. Even just a ‘Similar’ tab would be quite useful.
While you cannot add groups in-app, if you have added yourself to any through the web interface you can access the latest group posts within the Goodreads client. You can also find friends and follow their reads, reviews and ratings which really adds to the social network feel of the service.
It is a good, stable and solid app for what is a very popular website. I think it could do with some more features, perhaps such as those mentioned here, but all-in-all it’s a great resource and well worth checking out if you enjoy reading.
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Goodreads – Main menu
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Goodreads – Read list
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Goodreads – Recent updates
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Goodreads – Recently reviewed books
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Goodreads – Browse your own book shelf by title etc
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Goodreads – Book profile, description and review access
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Goodreads – Choose the way your sort
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Goodreads – Barcode scan your own library
Usefulness:
Useful for many reasons, Goodreads helps you log your own library, review and rate books from a growing list of 140M+ titles in addition to interacting with a busy and popular social network especially for readers.
Ease of Use:
The app is incredibly easy to use. I think it could be improved on if more options and features were added, but it is a simple and effective tool regardless.
Frequently Used:
Depending on how much you read, this is an app you might use on a daily basis or perhaps weekly. I personally find myself checking it out a couple of times a week.
Interface:
The interface is great, very polished and smooth. It’s great to interact with. It’s perhaps not the very best in the Android Market in terms of beauty, but it looks good and works very well.