2025-12-31
A great vehicle if you enjoy reading
Takes a few attempts to figure it out
Updating
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#4 in Top Free Apps > Books
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#11 in Top Free iPad Apps > Books
iPhone Screenshots
iPad Screenshots
Description
Discover stories that matter to you, from readers like you. Goodreads is the world's largest community of readers.
Find new and interesting books by browsing personalized recommendations based on books you've read and your favorite genres. See what your friends are reading, write book reviews, and keep track of what you want to read. Goodreads is a free service for book tracking, recommendations and reviews.
Use our barcode scanner the next time you are in a bookstore. Add the book in your hands to your "Want To Read" shelf and browse reviews before buying.
Features:
• Get personalized recommendations and discover new books based on your tastes.
• Goodreads Choice Awards: vote for your favorite books of the year and see the winners!
• Participate in the Reading Challenge!
• Book cover and barcode scanner!
• Keep a want-to-read list.
• See book reviews and updates from your friends.
• Discover new books and explore popular book lists.
• Rate and review books you read.
• Share notes and progress updates as you read.
• Recommend books to friends.
• Join online book clubs and connect with other readers.
By using this app, you agree to Goodreads’s Terms of Use (https://www.goodreads.com/about/terms) and Privacy Policy (https://www.goodreads.com/about/privacy).
What's New in Version 4.31.0
This release contains several bug fixes and improvements.
Seller
Name
Goodreads, Inc
Information
Developer
Categories
Version
4.31.0
Size
86.7 MB
Game Center
No
VPP Device Licensing
Yes
Rating
Rated 12+ for the following:
Infrequent/Mild Sexual Content and Nudity
Compatibility
iOS 16.0 or later
Devices
iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone SE, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X, iPhone XR, iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone 11 Pro Max, iPhone SE (2nd generation), iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 12 Pro Max, iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Pro, iPhone 13 Pro Max, iPhone 13 mini, iPhone SE (3rd generation), iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 14 Pro Max, iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, iPhone 16 Pro Max, iPhone 16e, iPhone 17, iPhone 17Pro, iPhone 17ProMax, iPhone Air, iPad (5th Generation) Wi-Fi, iPad (5th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (6th generation) Wi-Fi, iPad (6th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro, iPad Pro (Cellular), iPad Pro (9.7-inch), iPad Pro (9.7-inch) (Cellular), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (2nd generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (2nd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro (10.5-inch), iPad Pro (10.5-inch) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro (11-inch), iPad Pro (11-inch) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air, iPad Air (Cellular), iPad Air 2, iPad Air 2 (Cellular), iPad Air (3rd generation), iPad Air (3rd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad mini Retina, iPad mini Retina (Cellular), iPad mini 3, iPad mini 3 (Cellular), iPad mini 4, iPad mini 4 (Cellular), iPad mini (5th Generation), iPad mini (5th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (7th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 11-inch (2nd generation), iPad Pro 11-inch (2nd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (4th generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (4th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air (4th Generation) (Wi-Fi), iPad Air (4th Generation) (Wi-Fi + Cellular), iPad (8th generation) Wi-Fi, iPad (8th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 11-inch (3rd generation), iPad Pro 11-inch (3rd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (5th Generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (5th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (9th Generation), iPad (9th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad mini (6th Generation), iPad mini (6th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air (5th generation), iPad Air (5th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 11-inch (4th generation), iPad Pro 11-inch (4th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (6th generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (6th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (10th generation), iPad (10th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air 11-inch (M2) Wi-Fi, iPad Air 13-inch (M2) Wi-Fi, iPad Air 13-inch (M2) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 11-inch (M4) Wi-Fi, iPad Pro 11-inch (M4) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 13-inch (M4) Wi-Fi, iPad Pro 13-inch (M4) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad mini (A17 Pro) Wi-Fi, iPad mini (A17 Pro) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (A16) Wi-Fi, iPad (A16) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air 11-inch (M3) Wi-Fi, iPad Air 11-inch (M3) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air 13-inch (M3) Wi-Fi, iPad Air 13-inch (M3) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro11M5, iPad Pro11M5Cellular, iPad Pro13M5, iPad Pro13M5Cellular, iPod touch (6th Generation), iPod touch (7th generation)
Languages
English
App Store: Customer Ratings
Ratings & Reviews
4.8 of 5 (82,453 Ratings)
App Store: Customer Reviews
2025-12-27
Finally some book organisation
Until I used this app I had lists all over the place, it’s great to have my want to read and read all in one place.
I’m really disappointed in the change to the yearly challenge. It’s morphed into something for nursery school kids with book mark awards.
2025-12-23
eh it’s alright
.5 star? Would make it so much better
2025-12-20
So ugly and inefficient
Too many bugs
2025-12-11
Bit clunky
Time for a refresh. Interface is clunky and very outdated. However goodreads is awesome as a social platform.
2025-12-10
No edition changes
Loved this app until they removed the feature that allowed us to change ‘Editions’. Bring it back, please! 😩
2025-12-10
Great platform for reviews
I enjoy reviewing on Goodreads. It gives you a choice to help authors With reviewing a book. 10/10
2025-12-09
I Will Always Recommend This App!
This app is so good. It makes it easy to manage the books you are reading, the ones you want to read and even the ones you have finished. I will always recommend this app for anyone that loves to read and to keep track of it!
2025-12-06
Basic in functionality
I think the developers could do more with the app to personalise it for the users. I open the app and on the home page I’m faced with book suggestions that I’m not interested in and I can’t delete or swipe left against if they’re not my thing, which you would think would help an algorithm tailor its suggestions. As someone who doesn’t read a 100 books a year and barely 10, it’s going to take a long time to feel like the app is personalised for my tastes. I click the Discover tab in the app and its suggestions again are not ones I’m interested. Because I read an autobiography on one sports person it now suggests I read every other autobiography by sports people in the same sport and even in the same team. I don’t and I can’t stop it suggesting those books.
When I walk into Waterstones there’s so many books I glance at and want to read and they don’t know what I’ve read yet this app can’t seem recommend good books despite knowing a few dozen books I’ve read.
2025-12-04
New update
New update is awful. Really annoying not being able to change an edition of a book you are currently reading. Please restore - was so much better before
2025-12-02
Functional but could be better
I enjoy using Goodreads and it’s a great way to track my reading but it is looking incredibly dated now.
The interface is slow and not intuitive at all.
It was always frustrating not being able to filter within editions to get the one I’m reading but now the editions feature seems to have disappeared completely, which is very disappointing.
Still using but partly because I have so many books logged to it now and don’t want to restart with another app.
2025-12-02
Messages :(
Please bring back private messages. Thanks
2025-11-27
Love it
I really love it and it’s usefull to know what books people love so it gives me an insight about each and every book so I know if I want to read it or not
2025-11-27
Date fix please
The app works really well. BUT I’d like to be able to change the date format. Currently I see the date of my read books as MM/DD/YYYY. I want to be able to change that to DD/MM/YYYY for example.
Because the majority of the world does not use the MM/DD/YYYY format
2025-11-27
Can’t change editions
Amazon appear to have broken this app as I can no longer change rage edition of the book I am reading. Thanks for that Jeff.
2025-11-25
The best book app but not without its flaws
This is the absolute best app for finding new books, tracking TBR, reading & leaving reviews/ratings, and marking off the books you have read. However I do agree with some other reviews that say the app could do with an update. It almost feels like it’s a mix of old and new currently.
The tabs along the bottom feel sleek, but elements such as creating a new shelf are not. I created a shelf called “TBR: Standalone Books, which auto changed to “tbr-standalone-books” so I just deleted it and stuck with the tag option I’d already created, but it has the exact same word formatting.
Finally, the book club feature could really do with a clean up. When you search for your book it has a ‘facebook groups’ feel to it, because anyone can create a club, even if there are 10 already. Clubs like “swiftie nation” (🙄) clog up the search. Personally (and humbly) I think it would be much better if there was 1 club per book, accessible on the book info page, that way there would meaningful, consistent commentary, similarly to how the reviews work.
I only leave this review because I really like this app and would love to see it get even better
2025-11-23
Requires additions
There needs features to report errors in listings, such as date of publication and also to report books that shouldn’t be listed due to prohibitions, such as hate speech
2025-11-19
Just why
Could be such a better experience since Amazon bought it… however they decided to buy it and do absolutely nothing with it! It’s so boring but sadly still the most used app… I’m using fable and story graph more each day because goodreads constantly breaking
2025-11-16
Almost perfect
Half star ratings to be added and option for private shelves!!
2025-11-13
☹️
I got logged out, and it won’t let me back into my account. I have been using Goodreads for 2 years and this is the first time I’ve been logged out. I tried to access my account, I even changed the password, and it still just comes up saying wrong email of password even though I know both of them are correct as I had just changed the password.
2025-11-13
It’s true
The best app in the world!
2025-11-03
We need half stars!
Please let me do half stars I love you so much !
2025-11-02
WE NEED HALF STARS AND 4 FAVES
I came from letterboxd, the same app essentially but for films, and it is superior in every day. PLEASE give us half stars and allow us to choose/display our 4 faves.
2025-10-31
A place to keep my reads
Goodreads is a great app, I use it for keeping a record of the books I’ve read, the books I want to read, the books I’ve bought ready to read….
I like to read the reviews for books I’m about to start. Never with spoilers though!
Find it a very useful app to have.
2025-10-31
Feels broken
This app feels half made and broken. It could be so much better with a little tlc.
2025-10-29
Clunky and dated
If you were designing a book review app in 2010, it would feel like this. I hate to say it, because Goodreads intentions are spot on, but so much of it is challenging to navigate, such as finding people I know to befriend them on here, finding people I have already friended, finding my bookshelf, finding reviews I’ve written and, as an author, it is so difficult to find out when someone leaves a review of my books.
2025-10-27
Great appt
I keep it to, log all my books to save me from buying doubles.
2025-10-27
great!
really recommend this!
qualities: easy to navigate, you can look at peoples reviews for the book to know if it’s good, there is a folder of books that you want to read, mark your progress with current books
needs changing: the design to make it modern, be able to add books that you read a long time ago before you get the app and before the current year so that it knows you’ve read it at some point
2025-10-23
What about terribly confusing app
If they could make it easy to do things on this app like add a book that would be great.
2025-10-18
Awesome
Great way to keep track of all the books I read, don’t finish, want to read!
2025-10-12
Worst app I have ever used
Every so often kicks you out, won’t let you sign back in with your current password, loses years worth of information and data and unable to help you retrieve it. Hopeless
2025-10-07
Old
It’s fine for if u just want something so say if your reading or if it’s on you TBR but most books have the page count wrong
I’m reading the hero of ages and i can’t mark that on there because it’s saying it has 200pages less
I’ve had this happen a few times aswell and it’s acc rly annoying im switching to fable
It has more things u can do w it but I don’t do all of that I still just log my books but it’s acc accurate :)
Defo needs an update if they did I would’ve stayed
2025-10-06
It’s ok but lacks functionality
It’s ok if you just want to keep track of your “books i want to read” and how many books you read a year but it’s not that great for more in depth stats, there are no trigger warnings and oftentimes it’s useless in determining whether the book is right for you or not. I mean, nearly every book out there will have their own audience who will tell you how amazing the book was - it doesn’t really summarise the mood, tropes, pace, etc.
I downloaded StoryGraph almost a year ago and I have realised today that I have barely ever used Goodreads since… just not enough functionality… most likely will delete it…
2025-10-05
The star ratings can be a pain
The app is great and I use it religiously but they really need to implement half star or quarter star ratings because sometimes you end up having to rate a book higher or lower than you truly feel which can be misleading to other readers
2025-09-28
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
love love love this app so so much !! the only thing I would ever want to change - is when you want to reread a book, you have to manually create a separate book / reading for rereading, but just like ‘I want to read’ or ‘read’ lists there should be an option for re-read lists, where it works towards the final reading challenge you have instead of just changing the book from read, reading, etc. just a little personal ick, but I think it would really improve for many !! 🙏🤍🧣
2025-09-24
Goodreads
I know it’s supposed to be a book review app but please can you also make it an ebook app just cause it’s the best app I’ve found but I can’t read the books and yea can you just also make it an ebook app if that’s ok.
2025-09-19
Such a great app for readers
Such a great and easy-to-use app for readers! Highly recommend
2025-09-17
A Must For Book Lovers
Such a great app my own little library in one place. When I think have I read a book I can just scroll down my personal reading list to check. Plus any new books I see people raving about on social media , rather than take endless photos to remind me I can just add to this app. Brilliant.
2025-09-07
Excellent app
I was a voracious reader through most of my life and found the stress and anxiety of this social media age put a stop to it for a good few years. Good Reads has helped me to get back into reading and feeling joyful about books again!
2025-09-06
Soul Cry, by Gary Roe
What a treasure of a month I have had reading Soul Cry as a daily devotional journal.
By reading Gary’s words, listening to his prayers and the Scriptures he points to, then writing from my heart, a feeling of deep peace has entered my heart.
This work has been very transformative for me and I am looking forward to the next two months daily reading and writing, with this book as guidance..
Thank you Gary for your Good Works.
2025-09-04
Add black theme and notification about new book releases
Add black theme. It’s ridiculous at this point. Add notifications about new book releases for users who added them to “want to read”. Add notifications for release for users who are subscribed to the author. What’s the point of these subscriptions anyways?
2025-09-04
Works at surface level
Goodreads app feels like it was a website compressed into an app that works for some things but doesn’t work when you want to manage other things and I wish I could manage our book club on the Goodreads app.. technically you can but the text goes tiny and up into the right corner.. why can’t we have a nice refurb on the app so it works on mobile seemlessly
2025-08-30
AI
Recently found out Goodreads has AI features and have been completely put off. AI is ruining the artistic world including literature so an app that centres literature has no place with so called “AI features”.
2025-08-27
Good app but not amazing
I always use this app but it really needs an update epically for mobile users
2025-08-25
Does the job
Good app - hard to get the hang of needs a run through option
2025-08-21
One update NEEDS to be made! Otherwise pretty perfect!
We definitely NEED half stars at this point, even if it’s the only update we get to the app for a while. Plenty of other things could be tweaked to enhance the aesthetics of GoodReads overall, but for functional ability I definitely think the only change that needs to be made is the chance to finally have half star reviews. Otherwise, everything else is perfect for the functional tracking of reading, what to read, and so on, with plenty of chances to engage in communities.
Aesthetically though I agree with some other comments, generally the platform needs some updates to bring it into 2025 without losing some of the warm feel from the original GoodReads we know and love. On top of this, a dark mode would be excellent and hopefully one of the first new features we will see (alongside some half star reviews please!)
2025-08-20
Glitches + Resetting
Its really good and i love using it as many of my friends have it too its easy to use but i feel like there have been a lot of glitches and the app as a whole really needs to be updated i was logged out (i only have one account) and logged back in but the app reset to the year i joined and i lost all my data i gave it a couple days and still nothing, now moving to another app
2025-08-08
4g PLEASE
Love this app, but so frustrating that it only works on wi fi. We aren’t in the dark ages!! Fix this please *begging voice*
2025-08-07
Fave app BUT…
Please bring back the 2024 style reading challenge! I like to see when friends hit there’s
Also, we want half stars ⭐️
2025-08-06
Perfect Ten
A perfect debut novel
Perfect Ten lives up to its name as a debut novel. From the beautiful description of the setting of Port Emerald to the relatable characters made me not want to put down this book until I had read it all! Loved Sarah & Tate! It’s a perfect summer read and I can”t wait to read more about Port Emerald & its inhabitants!
2025-07-20
Thinking of switching to an alternative platform
A month ago I would have given
Goodreads 5 stars as I have previously found Goodreads to be brilliant when I have contacted them for help and I have been loving the Goodreads community. They were brilliant when I contacted them to report someone masquerading as a rather famous person. However unlike other platforms you do not get notified if you have been suspected of breaching their community guidelines. The only notification you will receive is a message that advises you that have been locked out of your account due to suspected breach when you try to log in. I appealed and was cleared of suspected illegitimate ratings/reviews, however unlike other platforms when I was asked for more details I was advised due to security reasons they could not provide me with more details. Being honest this experience has soured my love of Goodreads and it remains doubtful as to whether I will stay part of the community or whether I will leave and seek an alternative platform for book reviews.
2025-06-08
Seeing the ratings at the top is so offputting
This app would be the best if not for the fact that when you search a book to add to your reading list it immediately shows you the community rating right below the title. It doesn’t sound like much but seeing a poor rating on a book before even starting it is genuinely off putting and can influence reading a book.
Most books I’ve absolutely loved have a rating of less than 4 stars, books I’ve not enjoyed sometimes have a rating over 4 stars, so of course everything is subjective but seeing a bad rating on a book you just started can influence the enjoyability of a book. It would be best that a user isn’t forced to see the book rating as they simply try to add a title to their shelves.
This is why I switched to StoryGraph even though I prefer the GoodReads interface (in spite of the buggy shelf system) - StoryGraph lets me add titles without being forced to see what rating the book has, it’s not the first thing you see when adding a book to your shelves.
If GoodReads can change this I'd definitely switch back, and I’m sure the cattiness that is prevalent in the community would be toned down as well - There is major dog piling and deliberate sabotage by rating books poorly and other unnecessary twitter/X like behaviour that goes on on the app which is another reason I left it.
2025-04-29
Star Envy 360 - The First Journey- Book By Paul Henry
This book is truly an eye opener as its fascinating story line is based on factual information and I could not put it down when I started reading it, as I was keen to find out what happened in the next paragraph.
A breath of fresh air to find a book that takes space adventure and travel into the next millennium, written by a professional author.
This is the first book in a trilogy of adventure stories with Paul Hawkerland and cannot wait for the next adventure to start in book two.
A must read for all Star Wars and Star Adventure Fans across the whole wide world. A true blue moon dancing from Mars to Liverpool that travels across the cosmos of space and time!
5 stars awarded for a 5 star adventure story!
2025-03-31
Less than ideal
I’d like to make this my go to reading app but it’s full of issues. The challenges feature seems all but useless I’ve read books this year that qualify with correct dates but they do not reflect as completed - how is something like this supposed to motivate me to read? Various links in the app seem to take you in circles and seem like it’s just a poorly embedded webpage at times. The recommendations are pointless - despite having hundreds of books added and marked as read it still tries to force completed unrelated genres towards me and they more feel like ads than any type of personal recommendation - the alternative is setting wide categories as what genres I read but these still are awful suggestions. The rest of the app seems incredibly slow to update data with different pages being in different states rather than showing a user a consistent view this is 101 basics for app and data management. The list goes on .
2025-02-20
A few things
I love how this is linked to Amazon/kindle as that is where I do most of my reading, it makes things so easy and convenient! I think it would be great if there was a DNF category/bookshelf, in addition to what’s already there (Want to Read, Currently Reading, and Read). It doesn’t need a review (as I don’t think it’s always fair), but maybe a section for comments on why a person DNF. I think it would also be great if there way a way to manually add books that maybe a person is reading in another reading app/PPC app so that they can be catalogued, if not counted in challenges.
2025-01-29
New changes have ruined the enjoyment
As other uses have noted, the new update has ruined the enjoyment of this app. In particular the removal of being able to keep up to date with friends’ challenges and the changes in tracking your annual challenge so you no longer know if you are ahead of yourself or falling behind. This was a useful feature.
I would also love to see the facility to give half stars when rating books.
But please bring back the ability for us to keep track of our friends’ challenges and get rid of the new challenges - or at least give us the option of both. The new challenges only guide you in the direction the app wants you to go rather than what you wish to choose to read for yourself and so for those of us who won’t be coerced in this way simply to complete random challenges the new update has been a waste of time and taken away features a lot of readers loved about the app. Don’t lose readers to other apps, just reinstate what we’ve lost please.
2024-11-14
No ability to personalise
This is a real missed opportunity, I was hoping for a way to make the goodreads website into more of my own book logging and journal. Unfortunately it’s not easy to use and you just can’t make it look the way you want. Unless you want to befriend endless random people you are subjected to an endless stream of everyone’s latest activity on your home page. I’ve been told this is by design so it isn’t empty but having had x rated book covers appear on this stream, I’m not convinced it’s a good idea! Goodreads- make the layout of the pages customisable in layout, content and colour. The reading challenge page could also do with looking like the collage view on the website!
2024-11-12
Desperately needs a proper DNF option
Absolutely love everything about this app, the book suggestions, connections with friends, reviews for authors, bar the capability to have some books marked as Did not finish. I know you can create shelves to put them there, but you really need a drop down option that you can mark as DNF & you can have the option to track or clear, as I don’t want them as currently reading or ‘want to read’ & I want to track what I’ve started but not finished. Any true book lover has many of these in their life
2024-08-30
just another person begging for a UI update
I know it won’t happen, but seriously every day using Letterboxd and Goodreads side by side emphasises how terrible Goodreads is. the only reason I use it is because I’m forced to if I want to track books on a big enough platform. I want to make lists of books for fun and be able to add the same book to multiple lists. Tags could fill this purpose to an extent but they don’t even work. Rereading books is possible but not clear. I want to be able to see all the reviews I’ve liked in one place and for each book. Same with being able to save Goodreads/other people’s lists and come back to them. Goodreads has a large young audience who are accustomed to much better UIs, but even older users would surely benefit from some improvements. Just incorporate a guided tour of the update like everyone else. ffs PLEASE
2024-07-22
Unputdownable !!!!
Unputdownable! Nicole's writing truly shines in this captivating mix of memoir and interviews with other women. As a master storyteller, she skillfully intertwines her personal journey with the perspectives of other women who, like her, are not mothers. Being a non-mother myself, I found solace in Nicole's words and connected with the stories shared by other women. Many of the struggles she faces in a society that often marginalizes those without children resonated deeply with my own experiences. The unfair treatment and discrimination faced by childless women in the workplace, for example, is something I have personally encountered. Nicole approaches these topics with objectivity, compassion, and understanding. She seamlessly weaves in her own family dynamics, generational trauma, and societal pressures , taking us on an incredible journey of self-discovery alongside her . Through her book, she has created a safe space where we can feel heard and seen
2024-04-30
Missing words issue never resolved
Great for updating reading progress; receiving and reading notifications; and adding new books via the barcode scanner. If you like Goodreads you'll enjoy this app. The latest version makes everything even more intuitive and simple. All that said, there is one annoying aspect to using the app that has remained unresolved. Some words are not visible on the app. So some sentences contain missing words. The words are visible when viewed on a computer.
Update: 30 April 2024 -I have now deleted this app and just rely on the browser version as the missing words has got increasingly annoying. I have no idea why this issue has never been resolved. It often results in only seeing the start of posts with the rest of the post completely invisible on this app.
2024-04-11
Doesn’t work on latest iOS
For the past 2 months, I’ve had nothing but problems with this app. Whenever I try updating what I’m currently reading, I get an error message pop up saying the servers are busy, so I cannot add books to my reading challenge. I also cannot view any of my personalised bookshelves - I get the same ‘servers are busy’ pop up.
I have complained to Goodreads and explained that the app is no longer working (despite me having the latest version of both the app and iOS) and they responded by telling me to clear my web browser - so it’s clear that they didn’t even read my complaint. I think the time has come to move on from Goodreads. It’s clearly not what it used to be. My only reason for using Goodreads was to catalogue books that I’d read and to create a reading challenge - and since neither of those two features have been working for the past two months, then there really is no point any more.
2024-04-06
The app simply doesn’t work anymore!
I have been using this app for years and until recently it was fine. However I click on my bookshelves and none of them can load. I’ve lost everything. I tried logging out and back in, it doesn’t work, I’ve tried uninstalling and reinstalling the app and yet again it doesn’t work. I have tried to contact them directly and the service to do so is not even working. The app is seriously broken and they are giving me zero assistance despite my attempts. I have given up and am uninstalling the app which is sad as I was going to buy a kindle because you can use Goodreads on there however there is on point anymore, I will buy a kobo.
In summary, do not use this app it is full of bugs and issues that the company are refusing to address.
0/10
2024-02-24
Enhancement request
I was introduced to GoodReads by my 15 year old Granddaughter. It is a very good app and I am enjoying it for the most part. What I find frustrating and would ask the developers could the either do it automatically or have the option to list books by an Author AND have his Character Series listed in Series order. Take James Patterson for example - he has a lot of Novels with Alex Cross and likewise Jack Morgan in the Private Series. When looking at his books using by Author the listing is all over the place - #15 might be listed before #2 in the Series with books from all his other Character/Theme Series mingled in. I am a person who likes to & tries to read a Series in order since the Author is carrying some details from earlier books into the later ones. I also find the same book title listed more than once and it wasn’t because it was included in a compilation set. If you could add this enhancement suggestion it would make a very good app even better and more useful!
2024-01-16
Not user friendly when you start
I’ve just downloaded this as recommended by friends. From a customer journey perspective, the beginning section where you ‘rate 20 books’ is quite confusing. Am I rating books I’ve read? If so, there should be a search button for books that aren’t listed rather than having to scroll through. Am I rating books I want to read? But I haven’t read them yet so that doesn’t make sense? Am I rating books based on how much I want to read them? Then that should be clearer to the user. Also that page is bugged - when I click the stars to rate, it brings me bring to the top of the page and have to find where I last rated a book. Hope this feedback helps.
2024-01-10
Great but has issues!
I’ve used Goodreads for years, I love the awards, being able to see what people are reading, tracking my own reading habits and being inspired.
However, it’s buggy as heck. I have lost count of the amount of times I’ve been writing an absolute FIRE review then the app closes itself and I love my review. That’s infuriating.
Then there’s the fact it focuses on books read, you can’t measure pages. There’s also no stats so I can’t say ‘oo 60% of my reading was fantasy!’ Or ‘I read so much of this author maybe I’ll go read their back catalogue!’.
It also bugs me that you can’t half star. You either have to round up or round down.
I also think people should have to log dates read before reading. The amount of ratings skewed by people who’ve never said they’ve read it is annoying (either because they like or loathe the author).
Anyway, it’s pretty good except for its flaws. But there are other apps out there. The only thing keeping me on good reads is the awards, but it needs to fix its probs to keep it that way.
2023-10-24
Great App, could make changes for the better
This app is great to track books, read and leave honest reviews and find new books to read. Some changes that I'd love to see are:
1. Functionality to rate half stars
2. When reading different versions/editions of the same book, it doesn't show as two different books on your tracker, it shows as the same thus cannot rate a revised edition higher than the previous, would like this to chanhe
3. Cannot format text on IOS for reviews, would be nice if we could
2023-09-27
Love Goodreads but app is so buggy!
I can’t even submit the bug issue on the app, because the app has a bug that means the OG just buffers when I try to submit the bug to contact us!! So poor 🙃
A few weeks ago I was writing a review, typed out a whole detailed piece and was just going to submit when the app crashed and I lost everything.
Just now the same thing happened, I wrote out a super detailed review for the invisible life of Addie review. Took about10 minutes, was just writing the last line and then it crashed and again, lost the whole thing :( I’ll have to write them in my notes app first from now on but it is such a frustrating bug. It’s definitely an issue with the app not my phone as keeps happening. Please fix this! And/Or bring in a review draft functionality, so it auto saves reviews that you are typing. Then even if the app crashes you can pick up where you left off. This would be a really useful feature regardless so you could draft detailed reviews as you read the book rather than all at the end.
I like the app otherwise, but it’s so buggy. My app is up to date.
2023-09-13
Winston Sees All
Book Review: Winston Sees All
‘The only well life is a true life’: the sub-title of Barry Stone’s novel Winston Sees All (Berry Press, 2023). Nobody should be denied the opportunity to live as he or she was born to do, but Stone tells of Craig and Marcus, both born gay, and the assaults on their humanity, from schooldays onwards. The story dodges back to the second World War, and the effect that a young man destroyed in the oil-covered, burning sea has on future events, and moves forward to the present day. It tells of the awfulness of some people’s actions, while acknowledging that the perpetrators can be victims of their particular histories. And it recognises the danger of suicide to which young gays can be vulnerable. Yet in this novel we also see good coming out of bad events, and it is ultimately a well-rounded story of fulfilment, with plenty of tension on the way. It is narrated by several people, but mostly, and cleverly, by Brucie the rescue dog, with Picasso the ageing parrot keeping a watchful eye on events. Most people, but perhaps especially those of us who are gay, will find in this book characters and situations that ring true. Highly recommended.
David Peel
2023-09-10
I love Goodreads
I can’t remember who told me about this app but what I do remember is I downloaded it originally but didn’t use it for years. Now, I recommend it to ANYONE who tells me they read books. I love it.
It’s sooo unbelievably handy to read everyone’s reviews before deciding on adding a book to my ‘to read’ list. I also LOVE being able to keep track of my books that I’ve read, want to read and am currently reading. I love that you can set yourself Reading challenges for the year and that it includes a community, although I don’t make the most of that but I should.
I always write reviews in order to give back as they play such an important role in my choosing which books to read. I also really like that I can break down all of my books into categories, as many categories as I like. As I have A LOT of books on my list so it’s handy to filter them all out.
The only reason it isn’t a 5 star is because it’s still a bit of a basic app with limited functionality. I’d love to see it updated and become a bit more advance so I would be able to do a bit more with it. However, it’s free! So I’m not complaining. I’d be gutted to lose it that’s for sure.
2023-08-02
Good way to record your reading
I love recording what I read and what books I would like to read. I also like linking with friends and seeing what they read. I like the targets and the roundup of what you have read at the end of the year. Also I like the feature where you can put in what page you are on and it tells you the percentage you are through a book (although they are not always exactly accurate but they are most of the time).
One criticism is the search aspect is pretty rubbish. If you get a title or author slightly wrong it seems to have trouble finding it.
2023-03-30
Echo - worth a repeat read
Echo is a delicious Sicilian surprise. As usual I count down the days until Sybil’s next AES installment, then struggle to fit normal life around devouring the pages loathing any interruptions.
Echo has appeared alongside the other Alpha Elite hero’s and hints have been made towards his protective side but his story will completely tug at your heartstrings. I also love how previous characters pop up and the banter between them all which usually gives us a sneak peek into future Alpha’s.
As always all of Sybil’s books are a one-click but this story, wow, as his name correctly suggests this installment will definitely be a repeat read.
2022-09-22
Goodreads
I really love Goodreads and have had it for some time. It lets me know what my family are reading and how much they enjoyed the book. You also get some excellent reviews of books so that you can decide whether it’s worth reading or not, whilst bearing in mind that we all see books differently-it certainly depends upon my mindset at the time as to whether I enjoy a book or not. I also love the reading challenge where you get to decide the number of books you think you’ll read over the year. It tells you if you’re on track, or how many books ahead or behind schedule you are.
2022-06-08
Book app that can’t sort books!
Try to add another version of the book you’re reading and it shows the same one and you’re reading it again, there’s more than 10,000 versions of a particular shakespeare play, the multiple IBSN numbers will show multiple versions, but if you select another version, it always shows the same one you’ve read before, how very clumsy for an app thats been around for years! You should see the workaround suggested to solve it and the same help page with two instructions that does not relate to the app at all. I’ve just read people trying sort this for over 8 years and still cant just select a book and add it, ( rate it, review it, then review another version, add it! Oh no it doesn’t).
2022-05-03
Love this App, but one Suggestion!
This app has almost no faults whatsoever, but there’s just one feature that I’d really like to see implemented.
It would be great if there was a shuffle button. Sometimes I just can’t decide what book on my self to read next or which to buy next if I haven’t already got it. Having a button which randomly chooses for you means that issue would be eliminated and instead of scrolling through countless books I could just press one button and have to go with that book.
2022-04-17
I really love it but
On the whole this app is definitely worth getting. You can get honest reviews on books you are thinking of reading and it’s just a great place to talk with one another about books you have read. It’s also a great way to track books you have read and also keep note of books you want to read. However the ONLY really annoying thing about it is the books in a year challenge. I love the idea of setting yourself a target for the books you should read this year but it seems to take ages to actually update it. For instance I have read 4 books and it’s still saying I’ve only read 1. At this point it’s annoying because I’ve seen other reviews with this same issue too and I don’t think it would be that much effort to tweak it.
2021-10-17
Keeping Secrets. Why do we do it?
Yet another great book from Teresa. Loved the fact I could read it uninterrupted, on holiday. It was interesting to read from each individual character. It really brings home, where we go wrong keeping secrets. Often done for the right reasons, but inevitably with the wrong consequences. Each character shown how their relationships were effected by their own secrets and the influence other peoples secrets had on them. As usual with TD books, I came away looking how this theme has/had effected my own life. Brilliant story and ‘good food for thought’.
2021-09-13
Could be better…
I’ve been using this app for nearly 2 years now and there are a couple of things I’d hoped that Goodreads would have adopted by now. There are a lot of new and up-and-coming apps that are going up against GR and providing better.
Firstly, half star ratings; come on GR! It can’t be that hard if others can offer it.
Secondly, I’d love to be able to analyse what I read in greater depth, genres, sub genres, emotions etc as well as being able to do digital highlights. Again, others already offer this and the longer GR drags their heels the more people will turn away. Please listen to what your users want and we all want this app to be the best it can be.
2021-09-05
Great app for book lovers
This is an excellent app which works very well. I really enjoy the fact that it’s now so easy to track your reading. Pretty much any book I’ve searched has been on the app and it’s great being able to leave reviews on there, that can hopefully help others. It’s also been useful more than once when I have gone back to a book thinking that I’ve not read it yet, only to find that I’ve actually read it before - sometimes leaving a review. The one thing that I would like to see changed is for the quotes that you see when opening the app to be available somewhere for looking at/copying. It’s very annoying when they pop up for a few seconds upon opening the app, only for it to disappear!
2021-08-05
3.5* because it is impossible to give half stars
As much as I like Goodreads and it helps me track my reads, and find out about new books as well as keep up with my friends opinions, I despise the impossibility of giving half stars. It should be allowed to give half stars to books because not every book deserves a 5 but it doesn’t mean it is a 4… I think that a lot of reviewer struggle a lot with the lack of flexibility in book reviewing and therefore a lot of books have higher or lower ratings than they deserve, which skews the whole thing.
Another thing missing is that there is very little statistics as to the genre mostly read, or types of books with highest ratings, authors specifications etc, to compare your reads of the month/year/in general. It would be helpful if some additional statistics, with page number, book number etc could be added to the summary of books read and to the yearly challenges…
Otherwise highly recommend for tracking your progress!
2021-02-21
When the mist clears by Frank Malley
I have two chapters left to read of this book and have found myself looking forward to going to bed every night when I do my reading. I have really enjoyed getting to know and understand the characters....at first I thought it was unlikely that I would get into a rather ordinary group of characters travelling weekly with their driver for chemo treatment. I was wrong and find myself embroiled in each interesting character. I particularly liked the part in the book when Dan was writing about his experience as a journalist in the Syrian desert. .....realistic and moving. The author has an easy flow to his writing and provides enough twists and turns in the storyline to keep the reader engaged, creating great moments of anticipation as to what was coming next. I was not bored once reading this book and would highly recommend it.
2021-01-05
Needs improvement
I absolutely love this app and use it regularly to keep track of the books I’ve already read, and also, to discover new books! I like the fact I can categorise books in to shelves, set myself a reading challenge, and also, amend the dates of the books I’ve read, as I go along.
However, the app can be glitchy and it can be incredibly slow at times; it’s slow to add books on to my current reading challenge, and overall, functionally slow!
When adding books to the “read” shelf, certain books are showing up “read twice”. I’ve tried amending the “dates read” but this only confirms that I have indeed read them only once.
An update is needed to fix these glitches, then it’d be a solid five stars.
2020-12-07
It’s so SLOW
The main issue with the Goodreads app is how SLOW it is when loading: reviews, profiles, book lists, groups, and everything else. On the website there’s no issues. But sometimes I’m just rolling my eyes for 30 seconds while I wait for it to catch up, it’s been like this for years. It’s really about time someone did a real update and fixed the bugs, upgraded the system and made it quick as everything else. Things like book groups, recommended lists etc also aren’t really integrated with the app - they open in the app browser which is... okay. But all of the features on web really should be integrated into the app now, it’s 2020...
On the whole: Goodreads is an excellent tool and community and I recommend it to anyone. (It’s just better on the web than how the app performs)
2020-08-24
Get this app!
If I had to describe this app, I would say it’s the equivalent of a non-toxic, book lovers’ social media. You can talk about books, rate books, use an algorithm to find recommended books, join groups, see what your friends are reading AND (this is my personal favourite feature) create “shelves.” You have three default shelves: “read,” “currently reading” and “want to read,” which is super useful in particular. But you can make your own - maybe a “favourites” one to keep track of books you would read again, or a “fantasy” one to keep track of genres. It is honestly so useful. I love this app.
I have iOS 13.6.1 (at the time of this review) and it works perfectly for me, even though some reviews say it has glitches.
2020-06-09
AMAZING
I’m obsessed with books and I’ve found that I’m trying to note down books I want to read later in my head, only to forget them when I need something to read. This has really helped. I’m able to keep track of the books I’ve read and the ones I want to read in the future. There’s also an option to classify books into other separate bookshelves if needed. It’s also a place you can write and read reviews so you can see others’ opinions and share your own.
Although you can’t read the actual books on the app, it’s great for organising the books you read and getting more suggestions.
2020-06-06
Recommend for fellow bookworms
Okay so I don’t really know what to say. This app is fun and helpful. I use it a lot and recommend it to my fellow book worms and friends a like. It helps me keep track of all the books I’ve read and want to read meaning I can finally delete photos off of my camera roll :3 yes I do that lol 😂
I also like the fact that there is a challenge you can set to read X amount of books in a year. It’s nice having a goal to try and achieve even if it’s a little sad it makes me happy.
Sorry for any spelling mistakes or punctuation errors I can’t see what I’m typing for whatever reason I can just see the blow line thing moving as I type so I’m hoping this isn’t blank 😂😂
2020-06-06
An excellent resource with room for improvement
I use this application all the time to record what I have read and what I thought about it. Also to list far too many books that I would like to read. But it could be better. Two suggestions:
1. It would be useful to be able to import lists of books that I have read with dates, ratings and comments. These might be csv files or tables, that could be populated from on’s own lists by drag and drop. This would be a lot quicker than adding individual books.
2. Books are listed as discrete, specific editions sans publishing history. It would be really useful to have the date of first publication and whether the edition listed is a later revision and so on.
2020-05-20
Good but 1 easy request
App’s great, I’m a big fan and have used for multiple years now. I only really have the one request, and it’s purely aesthetic: any chance of the developers allowing for multiple presentations of bookshelves? By this I mean a decision between potential presentations, with one option being the current list-of-book-titles format, but then another new one being more of a montage of the book covers, of the kind that the Letterboxd app does with movie posters. Purely aesthetic and obviously not a priority, would just like to see each shelf as a set of the book covers it contains, and not just a list of titles.
2020-05-02
Not working since update
Since I’ve updated the software on my iPhone 6s I can’t get into goodreads at all. Not by any of the signing in methods. I’ve deleted it and reinstalled. But still nothing. So frustrating, I’ve been using this app for a few years and can’t review my books and update my reading challenge for the year. I guess I will have to delete and find another app. Really annoying when I’ve invested so much time in reviews etc and it’s got all my books on I’ve read and want to read ☹️
2020-01-03
Would of rated this much higher previously
Something seems to have been changed for the worse! I loved this app before but just updated my latest read to find that when you put the page your on it no longer gives the percentage of the book you have read 😢 it just says the page number which you obviously know since you just typed it in 🙄 totally thinking of getting rid of it now as that was the function that drove me on that made me read more! Now it doesn’t do it what’s the point in even entering the page your on since you already know that?! Whoever made this change is an idiot! As it’s hardly an improvement is it good reads!!!!!
2019-10-16
Almost perfect
Goodreads is a fantastic way of keeping a track of all the books you want to read, the ones you’re reading and the ones you’ve read. A social hub of fiction and non-fiction enthusiasts. Often I’ll be in a book shop or looking online and I’ll be able to have a look at my ‘want to read’ list to remind myself of that book I saw months ago but didn’t buy at the time. It’s a handy tool. The only thing that doesn’t work for me is the ‘Recommendations’ section - whoever has written that algorithm hasn’t quite done Goodreads justice. I’ve never read a book that showed up in mine However, if you have enough people in your network that you follow then you’re more likely to pick up better recommendations from them anyway.
2019-01-03
Great basics, still needs to improve a lot!
Great for searching for books and keeping track of separate reading lists for your own user, however there are some key functions the app is missing from web browser which don’t make it a very social app.
‘Recommendations’ need to transfer over to the app - not only a great tool but also makes the experience more engaging amongst your online friends.
At current there’s no way to search for books using ‘general terms’ - you have to know the title/author/ISBN or hope it may come up when searching through good reads’ pre-set categories. I’m particularly interested in the Middle East, at current there’s no way for me to search for books containing and tagged to these terms in the app.
Accessing groups and keeping track of threads/comments via the app was very clunky, to the point that I left a group.
I completely rely on using the app, I very rarely use the web browser version, so it’s a shame to miss out on some key elements that could really make Good Reads a lot more social, rather than keeping it at a basic functional tool level.
2018-12-20
Great but could be sooo much better
I’ve used goodreads for a few years and I love it, especially never losing track of books that I want to read, but I really wish they would change just a few things that would make it even better. I’ve hd the sMe recommendations for years, some are books I would never reD and some are books I read before goodreads existed and I’d love to be able to move them out of recommendations so it leaves space for new ideas. I’d also love it if there was a simple way to empty out or split up my read list into the years I read them or by author or even into catgories, it would ssve me trawling through a massive list to see if I’ve already read a book or not. Please please improve the app, don’t mind seeing adverts if required to cover the cost of improvements.
2018-08-28
Stop redirecting me from website
Editing my original review but for some reason it doesn’t keep the text.
I love this app but one REALLY frustrating thing is that whenever I try to open the goodreads website in safari it automatically takes me to the app. If I wanted to open the app I would open it. The website has some content that the app doesn’t (stats, questions from community about books) and it seems you’re making it too difficult to access this content. Either make everything accessible on the app or stop redirecting me when I try to access in browser. I’m not stupid I know how to access an app, please let me decide for myself...
2018-01-24
Best reading app out there
There’s so many features that makes this app worthy of a download. It tracks all your books you’ve read, want to read or currently reading and puts them on shelves that you can either make public or private. You can scan books in just by their barcode and find out more about them (other books by that author) you can discover new books based on the books you’ve read or certain genres you like. It is social like Facebook if Facebook was a library. The best thing about the app is it’s free and only has relevant advertisements based on books or reading. All I can say is try it!