Am I asking too much to request a way to preview the site without establishing an account? A short demo video? Even just screenshots?
Show HN: I built a modern Goodreads alternative
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Re: Show HN: I built a modern Goodreads alternative
#72Am I asking too much to request a way to preview the site without establishing an account? A short demo video? Even just screenshots?
You can view the website without registering though? Just click the link and browse without registering.
Re: Show HN: I built a modern Goodreads alternative
#73I'm curious about the origin of the name. Kaguya-hime no monogatari? Kaguya-sama?
Mostly the former. I wanted our website to celebrate storytelling, and naming it after one of the oldest Japanese stories felt fitting. Plus, I did love Kaguya from the anime—so that's a bonus. :)
Re: Show HN: I built a modern Goodreads alternative
#74Your competition is not Goodreads, but https://joinbookwyrm.com/
I've joined Storygraph, LibraryThing, and I think a few others. Never heard of Bookwyrm before.
I still use Goodreads almost exclusively.
Goodreads is still the competition. If you mean competition specifically between alternative to Goodreads, I think LibraryThing is the most popular by a fair bit. After a quick look around Bookwyrm, it definitely doesn't look like the one I'd choose. I'm mostly seeing "some rando's list of books they read in 2025" and "some rando commented on some random book".
Maybe once it finishes importing my Goodreads list it'll be more useful, but it's taking a while (kaguya was very quick), and my initial impression is that I'm not impressed.
Re: Show HN: I built a modern Goodreads alternative
#75> 10-star rating system (More nuance than 5 stars) Does one really get anything meaningful out of saying this was a 6-star book vs a 7-star book? Personally I think 4 levels is sufficient. Either it's rather bad, not bad but not good, good but not great or it's great. Anything beyond that will have to be written in words.
Should be Positive / Neutral / Negative and anything beyond that described in text.
Reasoning: number ratings are subjective. My 4/5 is not the same as yours... or even the same as mine 2 years ago.
Re: Show HN: I built a modern Goodreads alternative
#76> 10-star rating system (More nuance than 5 stars) Does one really get anything meaningful out of saying this was a 6-star book vs a 7-star book? Personally I think 4 levels is sufficient. Either it's rather bad, not bad but not good, good but not great or it's great. Anything beyond that will have to be written in words.
Agreed in general that 10 and even 5 is too much, and that 4 is a good compromise. Though personally I prefer thumbs up and thumbs down, plus a separate starring option. The first two signify “would I recommend this to anyone else” while the latter means “this has something interesting I’d like to revisit at a later date”. Something losing its star rating is par for the course, but the recommendation status is less likely to change (though it can happen). And yes, it is possible to give something a thumbs down and favourite it, e.g. when you don’t think something is particularly good or competent but it still had something which you recognise as meaningful to yourself specifically.
I don’t think this system is right for everyone, but I like it. Depending on the platform I may even use a rating system of 1, which represents the starring and everything else is just read/watched.
Re: Show HN: I built a modern Goodreads alternative
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, we don't have comics and graphic novels currently. I wanted to keep it simple for launch.
Makes sense. Is there a reason Pandemic ( https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/710698.Pandemic ) and The Rift ( https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/271167.The_Rift ) aren't in Kaguya?
They're there. Looks like our search needs some improvement. We'll add a dedicated search results page too.
https://kaguya.io/books/pandemic-6 https://kaguya.io/books/the-rift-1
Re: Show HN: I built a modern Goodreads alternative
#78I'd also like to recommend https://literal.club/ as a Goodreads alternative.
Re: Show HN: I built a modern Goodreads alternative
#79> 10-star rating system (More nuance than 5 stars) Does one really get anything meaningful out of saying this was a 6-star book vs a 7-star book? Personally I think 4 levels is sufficient. Either it's rather bad, not bad but not good, good but not great or it's great. Anything beyond that will have to be written in words.
for me there are 3 levels:
- books i wish i hadn't lost time with
- books i've read and were probably ok
- books i would give/recommend
Re: Show HN: I built a modern Goodreads alternative
#80How does this compare to https://www.thestorygraph.com/ ?
StoryGraph has made it pretty clear they don’t want to be more social—you have to go into your settings and explicitly turn on friends and followers. They also de-emphasize reviews, hiding them under a button. There are no likes or comments on reviews, and they don’t have shelves like Goodreads. But to me, a big part of Goodreads is the community, library organization, and reviews, so I want to emphasize those on Kag…
That was a pretty good endorsement of StoryGraph. I bet a number of people just read your description and thought “yes, that is exactly what I’m looking for”. Of course, it also means you did a good job of promoting your own service, since it’ll attract people who want the opposite.