“Bye, Bezos: People Are Leaving Amazon’s Goodreads For A New Book-Reading App.” That HuffPost headline recently caught my eye. What memo did I miss? Why were people jumping ship from Goodreads to something else? And where were they going?
Apparently, it’s part of a quiet protest against Jeff Bezos and entities he owns, like Amazon and The Washington Post. It started when Bezos prohibited The Washington Post from endorsing either Donald Trump or Kamala Harris for president. That pissed a lot of people off, especially Harris fans. To the point that 250,000 people canceled their subscriptions.
But when Trump won and Bezos congratulated him, that really rubbed Harris supporters wrong. Understandably. Never Trumpers just saw their worst fears realized with the election results.
Plus, Trump has been vicious toward Bezos. In addition to Trump using his National Enquirer connections to try and blackmail Bezos, Trump has griped that Amazon gets too many tax breaks and has often “lovingly” referred to as Jeff “Bozo.” (You know, in that special way he has of belittling people, bless his heart.)
Bezos had the gall to reward that with a congratulatory gesture? Yeah. Makes sense people were so disgusted with Bezos cowing to Trump that they wanted to make a gesture of their own.
Bye, Bye Goodreads, Hello, StoryGraph
So, in addition to canceling their newspaper subscriptions if they had one and not shopping on Amazon, book lovers decided to snub Goodreads, which Amazon bought in 2013. The HuffPost article focused specifically on one book-reading app these folks were opting for instead: StoryGraph. Making their decision that much more satisfying, they’re happily supporting a Black woman-owned company.
I haven’t checked out StoryGraph yet, but according to the HuffPost article, it’s similar to Goodreads, yet it’s also its own unique experience. StoryGraph users like the review process better and that you can rate reads with half stars. It also offers content and trigger warnings.
But even though leaving reviews is easier, reading other people’s apparently isn’t as easy as it is on Goodreads. And the StoryGraph community aspect is still a work in progress, whereas it’s more established on Goodreads.
Fable
But shortly after reading the HuffPost article about the Goodreads boycott, I learned about Fable, thanks to a PBS email about their Film Club.
I was curious about that, since it was free and I love movies and TV shows as much as books. In fact, I probably loved movies and TV shows more there for a while. Until the last few years when I rediscovered my love of reading.
Anyway, FOMO made me sign up for Fable and I was instantly smitten. You can make personal posts, like you can on Goodreads or other social media accounts. But between all the Clubs, and the fact you can track both what you watch and read all in one place too? Totally digging it!
Even better, you can import your Kindle books and Goodreads lists. You can even set a yearly reading goal like you do on Goodreads!
I’m still pretty much in Operation No Social Media mode, with a few Instagram exceptions here and there when I get a hair to post. And my friend Jade encouraged me to give Threads another try, so I did re-load that on my phone recently too.
But Fable is the first thing to really get me excited in a long time. I’m looking forward to giving it a whirl, not so much in protest of Bezos, and I don’t want to ditch Goodreads, but I’m totally feeling its vibe.
Huh. Maybe that’s been the trouble all this time. I just hadn’t found the right social media space yet. Excited to see if Fable will be my Goldilocks happy ending.
Your Turn
What book-reading apps do you use?