Want to keep track of all the books you’re reading and are planning to read? Try using Bookwyrm, an alternative to Goodreads. You can also use BookWyrm to read and write book reviews.
Tip: BookWyrm is a decentralized network of similar, interconnected websites. You can create your own BookWyrm site or join someone else’s. It’s easier to join someone else’s site to start, so pick one from this list and sign up.
After picking a username and confirming your email address, you will be asked to fill out your profile. Choose a display name, upload an avatar and write a summary. You can also choose if you want to manually approve new followers and if you want your account to appear as a suggested user. Leave the latter box unchecked if you want a more private experience.
Next you can add your books. A few popular books are shown as suggestions, but you can also use the search bar to add more. This is just to get started, you will be able to add more books later. When you click on Add Books, a menu will appear. Choose to add the book to one of the following categories:
- To Read
- Currently Reading
- Read
- Stopped Reading
After adding a few books, you will get a “Who to Follow” page. You can follow people on BookWyrm, Mastodon, and other parts of the Fediverse. You can also skip this step if you want to focus on books for now.
How to Find Books on BookWyrm
You can search for books by their author or title, or by scanning the ISBN barcode with your phone’s camera. There are also lists. BookWyrm users can create book lists to share with other people. This is a good way to discover new books to read. You can set your list to be editable by only you, or you can allow other people to add books to it. You can also make your list more or less private.
More BookWyrm Features
BookWyrm also allows you to create groups. Groups can be used as book clubs, or you can simply have all your friends in a group.
You can also set a reading goal for the year and sort your books into custom categories.
You can import your book data and reviews from other websites like Goodreads, Storygraph, LibraryThing, OpenLibrary and others.
When writing a review, you can give it a rating out of five stars. There is also a built-in spoiler alert option.
What is the Fediverse?
The fediverse is a collection of connected (“federated”) websites whose users can interact with each other even though they are on different sites. BookWyrm websites are a part of the fediverse. There are also fediverse sites dedicated to sharing videos (PeerTube), microblogging (Mastodon) and more. If you’re interested in learning more, read the laptops.lol Guide to the Fediverse.
