If you like the concept of Reading Journals but don’t feel like you have the time or want to spend the effort making one, The Storygraph is the way to go.
The Storygraph is a book cataloguing service, where you can track what you have read. You can receive tailored book recommendations, write/read reviews, and participate in reading challenges, but without the social pressure that comes from other similar sites.
When you go to write a review on The Storygraph, they helpfully give you prompts, such a selecting how fast the pace of the book was, or how diverse the characters are. This way, even if you don’t feel able to write your own piece on how you found the book, you will be able to provide some feedback on the book just by ticking some boxes and help others to decide whether that book is for them or not.
You can find books by filtering according to mood, which is an interesting way to find books. It also gives you the option to mark which books you own and which you don’t, and then search your ‘to read’ pile focusing only on one or the other.
While there isn’t a social media element to the site, you are able to follow others (though they won’t see you’re following them), so if you had similar taste to someone else and wanted to see what they were reading, you could do that.
The reading challenges are very interesting, such as the ‘Unread Shelf Challenge’ (maybe we’ll all finally feel motivated to read what we already have lying around) or the ‘Translated Fiction Challenge’ (a great way to read books from other cultures and find other books from said cultures!). They have also cleverly made a few challenges to help you read while also learning about all the features of the website, so after the challenge you’ll be a storygraphing pro! You are also able to create your own reading challenges.
All in all, The Storygraph is a great tool to help you get more out of your reading and organise what you’ll read next. The have recently come out with a mobile app so you can add books to your to-read pile while on the go. It’s certainly helped me out many times!
The Storygraph brings many benefits of Reading Journals in a quick and convenient place, so why not give it a go.