2015 Reading Challenge [Closed] discussion

So I just randomly came across a platform/website called BookLikes. It seems like a sort of blogging platform for books where you can write reviews or posts on books, there are shelves, annual reading challenges and a timeline (similar to facebook?).

Does someone here have an account or knows what it's like? I'm really curious about it.

(I'm feeling a bit bad talking about another book platform on GR ahaha)

Adriana wrote: "(I'm feeling a bit bad talking about another book platform on GR ahaha)"


Adriana, you're talking about cheating on GR with this BookLikes site?!?!?!?!? lol but in all honesty, I tried to look at it because it would be awesome to see what other people have to say about some books...but sadly it totally froze my internet :/

Well, from what I've seen there are a good number of people who are using both. So maybe this could more of a polyamorous situation ahahah!

I think I'm going to give it a shot just to see what it's like!

Hmmm... Interesting. While Goodreads will always be my first love, I signed up for BookLikes and I'll see what I think. I'll let you know!

I did too! Here's my profile in case anyone is wondering what it looks like: http://lazydemon.booklikes.com/ (no blog title yet because I lack imagination), so far it only has the books and reviews exported from GR.

I definitely like how it looks!

Just from a quick glance -

The Groups and Discussion Boards don't seem as easy to navigate as they are on Goodreads.

I like that they allow half-star ratings.

I like that there is a built-in blog feature.

Aside from those points, it seems very similar to Goodreads, as far as what it offers. I certainly won't be transferring my 1000+ of TBR books over there, but I might keep up with any Currently Reading/Read books over there, simply so that I can use the blog feature. I have a book blog over on another website, but it doesn't get any views and I feel like it's lost in the sea of blogs. I feel like a book blog on a book website might work better for me.

Will definitely be keeping with Goodreads, though. I love my Groups. :)

Yes, I love the blog part!
Another thing I noticed is that the editions of books don't seem to be combined. If I look at the portuguese translation of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" only reviews of that edition appear.

I'm excited about starting to blog about books but I'm going to stay here too!

I just noticed that you can also sync your Goodreads shelves with BookLikes. Interesting. I want to try and keep BookLikes less cluttered, only including books that I'm reviewing on the blog, but it's an interesting concept if anyone else wants to see how well that works.

Btw, for anyone interested, here is me:

http://bostonkate.booklikes.com/

After looking at both of your links, I like the style of the site as a whole...I'm just not a huge blogger. unless there is an app that I can use on my phone I'm not as interested lol

I synced all my books (including shelves and reviews) and it worked pretty well! I just noticed that anything that was in bold or italic stayed the same...which is probably completely normal. In my defense, it was the first time I use exported data from GR and imported elsewhere. The spoiler thingy didn't stay though.

Yeah, other than the blog feature it's not very different from GR so I get what you're saying Brittany. At least I won't bother my Facebook friends with articles about literature anymore lol!

That's weird that the bold/italic html wouldn't carry over, maybe they use a different format? I post all sorts of random things on my facebook anyways so I doubt if they would notice if I started posting about literature. usually it's just the random status updates that I make on here :P

No, it did carry over the bold/italic html! Only the spoiler things we have here didn't!

oops! I totally read that wrong. it is WAY too early and clearly my coffee hasn't kicked in yet :P

Update on that! I just found out it doesn't work the other way around! I wrote a review on booklikes, it was synced to gr but everything that was in bold or italic didn't stay that way here. In booklikes you don't do the html thingy like here, you select a portion of the text and change (like on word) so maybe that's the reason?

Adriana wrote: "Update on that! I just found out it doesn't work the other way around! I wrote a review on booklikes, it was synced to gr but everything that was in bold or italic didn't stay that way here. In boo..."

I'm pretty sure that's exactly the reason - HTML will cross over from one platform to another, but if you're just clicking on the "bold" button, that won't translate, unfortunately. If you're going to post in both places, you're probable better off writing your review on Goodreads first and then syncing it to BookLikes, rather than the other way around. :/

Okay, so one thing that I just noticed that really annoys me? It defaulted me to following about 20 people. Really? Let me choose on my own which blogs I want to follow. Don't just automatically have me follow people.

And if you must have me follow a few people, in order to show me how the main page will look with people's posts on it or whatever, then at least choose people based on the topics that I chose when I signed up. You know what topic I didn't select as a topic that I read/review on? Erotica. So why are half of the people that I'm "following" posting 90% Erotica books?

Nothing wrong with reading Erotica, if that's what you want to read. Just not my thing. So why not select people for me to follow based on the type of books I actually enjoy?

Sorry. Rant over. I'm all about them suggesting that I follow someone. But don't default to me following that person. It's annoying. *Sigh*. Now I'm off to find some blogs that I actually want to follow...

Edit: It also makes me wary of the 18 followers that my blog has. I wonder if any of them are actually there by choice. :(

Yes, I have to figure out how to do it from GR to Booklikes!

Yeah, I was "following" 26 blogs when I signed up too. I haven't checked them out yet to decide which ones to follow or not. No Erotica on my main page though lol

I want to get some time to find some blogs I actually enjoy too. The ones that I'm "following" are nice but not about specific books/authors/genres I enjoy.

Kate, I think you're blog was featured on a Booklikes post!:D Here's the link! That probably explains the followers!

So far, I'm actually enjoying the interactions between bloggers. I got people who have an insane number of followers who started following and I'm just like "wow!". I'm definitely getting more interactions there than I usually do here. It's obviously too soon to tell but I like the community.

EDIT: I've also seen a couple posts about welcoming and interacting with new bloggers to prevent them from giving up the platform. Those posts are from people with high amount of followers that seem to have been there for a while. I don't know if they're in any way connected with the people who run the site but again, it's really nice of them to support new members.

Awesome. I actually have gotten a few comments on my blog, so I know at least a few of the followers are real. :)

I did see - after I posted on here - that I was featured on that post. Which is pretty awesome. I think it's the cat on my main page - no one can resist the hugging cat. ;)

I agree with your assessment, too - I think the blogging community on that site is really great. Goodreads offers a lot that I like better in general, so I'll definitely be keeping my TBR on Goodreads and I won't be leaving here any time soon. But it's great to find a good book-blogging community.

BTW - Adriana, I'm following your blog now. Like it so far. :)

Well, I just screwed up big time. I can't access my account. When I try to retrieve my password it says my email address is wrong however, when I type my username it says that an email has been sent to reset the password. I think I might have typed my email wrong when I created the account (truth is, I never got an email from book likes). I just sent them an email so see what can be done.

I'll check out your profile when (and if) I get back access to my account!