It's a new year and seems like a good time to make some changes. One of the changes I have wanted to make for a while is to move my repository of reading stats off Goodreads and onto the new platform StoryGraph. There are a few reasons for this change. I want to minimize my engagement with Amazon companies as much as I can, and it seems silly for me to make my reviews available for Goodreads (and therefore) Amazon to productize. The Goodreads site functionality is so dated, has been so ignored for ages, so much so that it is clunky and fundamentally not a good user experience. I understand that it is free for the user, but again, by putting information into the system, I am helping Amazon's data mining while not getting any new or better benefits after years.
When I heard about the StoryGraph team, I was immediately curious. I signed up for their beta site and was able to import my Goodreads data. Immediately, fun stats were available to me to review. I was quite impressed from the first moment. Upon clicking around, I loved the Reading Challenges sections where I could join challenges, and see an automatic tracker that will update my progress as I go. It is so simple to add books or review books that were already included in the challenge. I submitted a request for progress tracker per book and was immediately impressed with the communication experience and how quickly it was prioritized and added. I assume I wasn't the only one asking for that functionality. I love their communication to end users via emails and also their social media presence.
As I was thinking about moving, I also missed having my own hub where I could put my ideas and little reviews. When I started a BookTube channel for Hardcover Hearts, I came to an almost immediate stop to the blog while I learned all the ins and outs of video production. I think now is a good time to come back to blogging a bit. What I like about this site is the hub aspect where all my reading and social media conversations will be collected in one place.
Welcome and I hope you find a book that you end up loving from this site!
