Recap:
I’m ditching Goodreads for reasons, so I tried a dozen other reading trackers, and ultimately, I found five fantastic alternatives to Goodreads.
Today, we’re talking about Hardcover!
Hardcover
You might be soulmates if:
💙 You’ve been on Goodreads for over a decade.
💙 You want to create lots of custom reading goals.
💙 Science fiction and fantasy are your main genres.
💙 You’d like help tracking series you’re reading.
Green Flags
The Hardcover app offers half star ratings, content warnings, and journal entries for current reads. You can track series you’re working through (which could be especially helpful if you, unlike me, are willing to read series before all the books are out). Like StoryGraph, Hardcover also allows you to track your reading by mood. You can create a limitless number of custom reading goals, including audiobook-specific goals, sorting by authors of specific identities, etc.
My absolute favorite feature was the ability to view “lifetime” stats. Because I uploaded 15 years of Goodreads data, I was able to see stats about how much I’ve read since 2011. I wish I could take the time and update which ones were audiobooks to get even more exact data, but I don’t care enough to edit 1500+ books one by one. (P.S. “Inspired Reads” here means others have saved or read books through my profile on this app. IRL I hope that number is higher because if not I fail at my job as a librarian!)
The coolest data points for me were seeing how many different authors I’ve read in that span of time (848) and how much of my TBR I’ve actually read through over the years (82.7%). I think the latter gave me way too much credit, but it’s energizing me to keep tackling my neverending TBR.
Hardcover supports imports from Goodreads, StoryGraph, and CSV files. My Goodreads import only missed 3 books. Pro plan doesn’t seem too exclusive (in other words, the free version doesn’t feel like a cast-off…Bookly should take note), but just adds adds additional reading stats, priority support, librarian edits, Discord access, and supporter flair.
The home screen of the Hardcover app gives immediate access to update your progress on your reads (something I clearly never bother with) and add journal entries.
Scrolling further down brings you to some basic stats, a feed solely of the users you follow (absolutely glorious, I miss when social media was like that), and your progress on your annual reading goal.
The app is clean and easy to navigate. I appreciated how easy it is to find all my written reviews in one distinct area, and that on my custom lists, I could see not only how many are on the list, but also how many I’ve read on the list. Additionally, changing reading status and book ratings is incredibly user-friendly with a simple dropdown.
The Explore tab has some good avenues for finding book recommendations. The Lists option shares awards lists (predominantly science fiction and fantasy awards) and how many you’ve read from each list. The Prompts option yields some unique recommendations from other users and allows you to give your input by upvoting or adding titles.
The app developers seem to be continually adding new features and refining the app in response to users’ requests, which is always a great sign! I think this reading tracker will just get better and better with time.
Beige Flags
Books outside of the science fiction and fantasy genres seem to have significantly fewer reviews. If you exclusively read science fiction and fantasy, you won’t notice. This is also reflected on the Trending tab, which is dominated by science fiction and fantasy books. The SFF lean will no doubt shift to a more balanced offering with more time and users!
The app and website are slightly sluggish at times. I survived dial-up internet, so I don’t particularly care, but it might bother others.
Is Hardcover the One?
Hardcover is a nice reading tracker with a lot of great things going for it, but it’s not the right fit for me. The app skews heavily towards the science fiction and fantasy genres. I love these genres, but I read across genres and would like to have an app with a larger volume of reviews and recommendations in every genre. I’ll probably join it again someday to check in on my lifetime stats and see how they’ve evolved with time.
Just like with Fable, I’m planning to delete Hardcover right after I hit “Publish” on this post before I move on to…oops, I almost spoiled the happy ending again!
I think Hardcover is the perfect reading tracker for goal-oriented readers, sci-fi/fantasy afficionados, and those who want to analyze years of reading tracker data.
Join me tomorrow to celebrate another of the five reading trackers I recommend over Goodreads: StoryGraph.
Disclaimer: I was not compensated by anyone for my opinions, nor am I affiliated with any of these reading trackers except as another reader/user. Information in this post is true to the best of my knowledge at the time of posting. If I have incorrect information, whether due to human error or an app update, please feel free to correct me in the comments!
paige in the library 