There are so many books out there for us to read as book lovers. A famous saying by Frank Zappa comes to mind, “So many books, so little time.” Most readers resonate with this phrase because it’s true. We have countless books we can choose to read from. In fact, we have too many books we look forward to reading that we will probably never get to because we don’t have the time. That’s why it’s crucial for readers to pick up books that fit their reading taste. We can’t afford to waste time reading books that we aren’t interested in. This is where Readerly comes in.
Readerly is a new independent book recommendation app for readers. It acts as an alternative to Goodreads, similar to the book platform Storygraph. Readerly’s goal is to help users recommend books to like-minded readers. Readerly wants users to find books that fit their interests and not books that aren’t a part of their reading taste. This allows readers to have the best chance of choosing a book they will actually enjoy. To know if Readerly is an app you should check out, here’s what you need to know about it.
Readerly’s Features
- Gists – Readerly has a feature called Gists. Gists are a way readers can review the books they have read in a short digestible way, like a combination between book reviews and Tweets. Users have a 200-character limit to say what they like about the book and the important takeaways from it. Instead of writing a long book review, Readerly wants users to write a short synopsis of the book and their thoughts on it. This feature gives people who are gauging if they should read the book an opportunity to know the most important information about the book
- Top Lists – Top Lists show the most recommended books on Readerly. Users can filter between genres if they only want to see books from certain genres. With many users on Readerly, the recommendations are varied between bestsellers, classics, and everything in between.
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- Tracking – Like Goodreads and Storygraph, Readerly lets users track the books they have read and their ratings. Unlike Goodreads and Storygraph, Readerly does not do star ratings. They do not take the average book rating among users. Instead, Readerly shows a percentage of readers who recommend the book who have similar taste to you.
- Stats – Users will get stats from all the books they have read over all the years of reading they have done. Stats include genres, topics, time periods, and more.
Readerly Pros
- Gists Are a Great Feature – I personally love the Gists feature. Nowadays, most people don’t have the attention span to read long, drawn-out book reviews. Gists only allowing users 200 words to say what they really want about a book is helpful. Readers don’t have to spend a lot of time reading one book review. With a 200-word limit, users can read multiple book reviews in a matter of minutes to find out if a book is right for them.
- Easy-to-Use App – When using new apps, it is sometimes hard to adapt to some of them, especially if they have a learning curve. But Readerly’s app is easy to use, with no learning curve needed. It is also a beautiful app that looks modern and up to date. It fits in with the Instagram aesthetic we have grown accustomed to.
- Content Warnings – Users have the chance to include content warnings of the books they have just read to prepare readers who may be triggered by the content. This feature is appreciated because it warns users of books they maybe shouldn’t read if it has content that may upset them.
- Hide Books You Don’t Want to See – If a book is constantly being recommended to a user, they can choose to hide the book and never have it recommended again. They can always go into their settings and find the book. But hiding allows users to receive new recommendations that don’t include books they don’t want to read.
Readerly Cons
- No Rating System – I like the reason behind why Readerly doesn’t do star ratings. They believe that readers see any rating that is below 4 stars as bad or a book they shouldn’t give a chance. I agree with this sentiment. I do think readers see a certain number rating and won’t read a book because of it. But getting rid of the entire rating system is extreme. I think it would be better to have an option where readers can choose if they want to see the rating system or not. Giving readers a choice would be better than completely getting rid of star ratings.
- Desktop Website – Readerly works best when using its app. You can access Readerly through its desktop website, but it doesn’t translate as smoothly as you would want it to. The website could use some work for users who want to use it on their computer or laptop. Right now, Readerly works best if you download and use the app.
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- Little Database Information – If you are looking to find specific information about a book, like who the publisher is, when was the book released, and the page count, you won’t find it on Readerly. At this time, all you can find about a book is the synopsis and a short bio about the author. Hopefully, Readerly add this database information for its books soon.
- Readerly+ – Readerly has a subscription service called Readerly+. Users can purchase the subscription for $2.99 a month. The purchase gives them extra benefits over free users, like starting a private friend group to discuss books with. It is understandable why Readerly has a subscription service. They are independent and don’t run ads, so they need to make money in some way. But some users may not feel like they are missing out on great features because they aren’t paying for the app. It’s something to keep in mind if you decide to use Readerly.
Verdict
With Readerly being a new book platform, it makes sense that it has a good amount of pros and cons. There is obvious potential for the app to become a mainstay among the biggest book platforms, like Goodreads. There are issues with Readerly that need to be worked on and resolved. But there are no major problems with Readerly that should keep users away from the app. Readerly won’t be the book platform to overtake Goodreads, at least not any time soon, but it is still a formidable app. For users interested in getting good book recommendations, there’s no reason not to check Readerly out and see if it’s the right app for you.