Literally, the best app for people who love to read. So the tagline goes for one of the newest book sites on the net. Since Literally still is in beta, I’m not going to make a case for or against it being the best app. However, I do want to make a case for the appeal of Literally.
Literally is a website/ app that allows users to track books. Wait! Another book site?! you ask? Well, after some googling, these were the bookish sites that popped up for me:
- aNobii
- Bookish
- BookLikes
- BookRabbit
- Goodreads
- Leafmarks
- Libib
- LibraryThing
- Literazee
- ReadUps
- Riffle
- Shelfari
- ThirdScribe
That’s 13 of them. A number of websites shut down, so those are the ones that are standing today. 14, counting Literally. That’s not that many bookish sites, if you ask me. Then again, I don’t need 14 websites to track my reading. I reckon nobody does.
Considering Bookish Sites
Over the past few years, I’ve tried some of the available options out there. I joined Shelfari in 2008 but shut down my account last year because I decided Goodreads was enough. I tinkered with LibraryThing for a bit but didn’t like it much. In 2009 I tried aNobii because I was looking for something with a viable mobile app. I didn’t last long on aNobii either. I’ve a Bookish account but I don’t log in.
As for the ones that I’ve not yet given up on, there are BookLikes and ThirdScribe. BookLikes is kind of a cross between book cataloguing and Tumblr. All well and good but I already have my blogging space carved out with my own domain, so I’m a little hard pressed when it comes to fully making use of BookLikes. As for ThirdScribe, I’m hanging around until things get exciting or at least until I figure out how to use the site.
The Heart of Literally
So back to Literally. I’ve decided that I’ll continue using it. See, the uses for it aren’t as ambiguous as with websites that try to compete with Goodreads or LibraryThing. Thankfully, that’s not what Literally is trying to do. Sure, there are the default shelves: Reading, To Be Read, Finished, oh and Did Not Finish. Hah. But cataloguing is not the heart of Literally. Reading is. Literally is more about tracking your reading progress and finding your next book to read.
What Literally Has to Offer
The first thing I see after logging in is my dashboard. This is where I keep track of the books I’m currently reading as I update the number of pages I’ve read.
The dashboard also features all the badges I’ve earned so far and also a graph showing my reading progress of the week. The badges are pretty neat. They’re nicely designed and encourage greater engagement with the site.
Spy that moustache? Yep. I’m a certified hipster because I was one of the first 100 users to sign up. Incentive right there for me not to jump ship.
There are some social features as well, so all users have their own profiles. Although, despite the option for status updates, I’m not sure what they’re good for because as of now, there is no integrated timeline. Maybe that’s for the future. Either way, profiles are the more public spaces on Literally for users to access.
Now, what sets Literally apart is how the site deals with upcoming reads. Under the Books menu, users are challenged to tackle their TBR lists, can ask for book recommendations from friends, or simply search for books that they might want to read.
What intrigues me are the TBR Challenge and book recommendations from friends. The TBR Challenge basically battles books I intend to read against each other. All I have to do is to keep picking one book between two options until I’ve found a book I want to read.
If no titles seem to appeal to me or I’m in the mood for something but don’t know what book can address that mood, I can submit a recommendation request instead, which will be sent to all my friends on Literally. After I’ve submitted my request, I sit back and wait for the recommendations to come in. I think that’s a great feature because that way recommendations are tailored to fit the users.
That’s it for now in terms of functionality of the site itself. It is still in beta, so not everything has been introduced yet and there still are bugs that need to be addressed. Nonetheless, I think Literally is pretty neat already. I think the appeal of Literally definitely is in the simplicity and in the focus on reading, rather than books specifically.
Users cannot rate books and cannot review them either. Ratings and reviews are pulled from Amazon and displayed with all the books’ information though, so choosing books to read isn’t a blind process.
The Near Future for Literally
Looking at what Literally has in store, there are a few exciting things lined up. One thing many are bound to appreciate will be the deals section. The plan is to notify users when prices of books on their TBR shelves drop below a certain amount they’re willing to pay for books. I think this is going to be a major draw towards Literally.
What I most look forward to is the mobile app. Updating my reading progress is something of a side activity, so I don’t switch on my laptop if that’s all I want to do. Going mobile means I’ll definitely use it a lot more actively than I have the past couple of months. Literally announced that the test versions of the mobile app will be released this weekend, so that’s something I’m looking forward to.
Have you tried Literally yet? How’re you liking it so far?
If you’re not a Literally user yet but want to be, I have one invite code to give away. Just mention in the comments that you want it, and I’ll email it to you. If there are several readers who want the code, I will draw lots on 6. April at 12 noon (GMT).
Hey,
Are you still using Literally? I’m actually at the point where I’m thinking of letting this site go. I use a lot of book sites and I’m getting tired of waiting for them to fix all of the issues with this site, some of which make the site unusable depending on the specific book I’m reading. I realize they are still in beta, but it seems like development has slowed down and the developers are much less responsive than they were when I first joined.
One of the last responses to an issue I got from them months ago, they thanked me for reporting the issue, but told me that the website would be abandoned after the apps were fully functional. I asked if they meant that there wouldn’t be a website at all or if they would be putting up a new one. I explained that having an app without a website to go with it would be very inconvenient for me. I like having an app to update my reading progress on the go, but when I’m updating what books I’m adding to my TBR list and such, I find it much easier to do that from a PC on an actual website. I never got a response to that question. Needless to say if it turns out that they will become an app only type thing, I’ll likely be dropping them.
I was kind of skeptical about the site to begin with because I thought that it would be annoying to update my reading progress every single day and it still is after months of doing it, but I thought it would be cool to be able to see my reading stats. Right now you can’t view anything more than a week’s worth of stats and I doubt they are even saving your past stats somewhere hidden at all. I’m assuming this will change in the future, but I’m not sure it’s worth the trouble anymore. I thought their achievement system was really neat, but didn’t like the fact that there are some achievements that it will be impossible for some people to get and others that can only be gained one day out of the year. LeafMarks has a similar achievement system which is quite fun so I can get that there if that’s what I’m craving.
I started really thinking about dropping them this week when I started reading a book that didn’t have the number of pages listed, because it wasn’t listed on Amazon where they pull book info from(meaning I can’t even add books at all not listed on Amazon), which meant that when I updated the book I was reading by percent it didn’t give me any credit for pages read in my stats. I’m just getting fed up in general and I’m really thinking I should at least move this site to the back-burner to just keep an eye on it rather than actively using it anymore.
Sorry for the long comment, but I just wanted to find out what your current thoughts on the site are since your blog was where I first found out about Literally.
Hi there,
I’m sorry I took so long to reply. Somehow I didn’t see the notification.
Anyway, I’d say I currently use the site very passively. I update the books I’m reading and my reading progress whenever I remember to do so (which is maybe 80% of the time that I update my reading progress on Goodreads). I figured I’d maintain my presence while they’re in beta to see what else happens. The beta stage could still last a while. BookLikes was in beta for two years. But I agree, they seem to be much less responsive than before. Why that is, I don’t know.
Whoa! Ok, I had no idea they would be abandoning the website. I did download the iOS app but managing books on it is a chore at this point, so I don’t bother updating my TBR books. So yeah, I’m with you on that. I want both a desktop and a mobile version.
Since the mobile app came out, I don’t give updating stats a second thought. It just takes a few seconds, so I don’t really mind. Though yes, I wish the stats went beyond the weekly versions. I think rewarding users for specific things that others might not be able to get is fine because it does build an incentive to be more active. Then again, there haven’t been any new badges lately. Not even for Labour Day, so that was a little disappointing. I’ve not tried Leafmarks yet. I don’t see the appeal at the moment because I’m not sure in what ways it’s supposed to be better than Goodreads.
Whenever page numbers weren’t stated, I tweeted the Literally team and they were always diligent in updating the page numbers. That’s not a sustainable model for sure but I guess for now it gets the job done since I doubt there are that many users on the site yet, given the need for invite codes to sign up.
I think keeping Literally on the back-burner might be a good idea. Instead of plaguing yourself with features you feel aren’t working so great, just give suggestions whenever they ask us for it, so they can improve the site. Besides, when it does take off, knowing you were there from the beginning is kinda cool, no? ;)
Thanks for your thoughts. Since I posted that comment I pretty much have stopped using the site. I still have it bookmarked and will probably keep an eye on it, but I actually feel more relaxed about reading since I’ve stopped using it. I think I was just being very anal about using it. If I was going to have daily statistics I wanted them to be as accurate as possible so I was updating on a daily basis. In addition to that since most of my books are ebooks and I have to use percentages, I would feel pressured to end reading for the day on as close to a full percentage number as possible since the site couldn’t handle partial percentages. It feels so nice to be able to stop reading wherever I want and not having to worry about the fact that I stopped reading at 34.45% and that entering 34% into Literally would be inaccurate by 10 pages or whatever.
Another thing that sort of annoys me about Literally is the whole Twitter thing. I don’t use Twitter and when the developers weren’t responding to my emails I had to get a Twitter account just so I could tweet them to get their attention. That is not something I should have had to do. Adequate support should be available by email, and I shouldn’t have to follow them on Twitter in order to get updates about the site.
As for LeafMarks, yes it is modeled after GoodReads and is similar in many ways. I would say at this point three major features that LeafMarks has that GoodReads doesn’t is that you can enter multiple read dates per book, there is an achievements system like I already mentioned, and they have a fairly elaborate challenges system. You can customize personal challenges much more than on GoodReads and they have a number of community challenges that you can get achievements for participating in. They also have friend challenges if you want to compete with a friend on a customized challenge. They are still a fairly new site though so only time will tell what direction things will go in.
Since you brought up BookLikes, if you’re still using that site, how do you feel about some of the recent changes on there? There are some things they’ve done that I really like, but some changes they’ve made have made the site harder to use for me and I had a friend leave the site over those changes. First off the new hover menu is harder for me to use due to the fact that often my mouse will slide to the side as I’m dragging it down which will cause the menu to disappear so it can take several tries to click on the option I want especially the further it is down the menu.
I found the hover popups for book info to be horrendous and it made the site very difficult to use when I had to constantly click out of them. I was grateful that they removed the popups from the three primary pages, but they won’t remove them from the rest of the site and won’t explain why. This makes navigating certain parts of the site, especially people’s blogs/shelves, extremely difficult.
I also didn’t like the new shelving menus. I think they were meant to make shelving more convenient but it just adds an extra step for me because those drop down menus don’t contain all the options I need so I always have to click on advanced shelving which is annoying. There are other concerns I have with that site but those were the three main ones.
I love using this side combined with Goodreads. I like how personal Literally is and getting those badges is such a neat feature :D Those stats make sure that I update my reading progress every day. There are certainly things I like to see changed, but I know they are busy with them (and the support on Twitter is so kind and quick in respond!) Yep, I’m definitely a fan.
Badges! *starry-eyed* Actually GR has mostly been a pretty personal affair for me. My offline friends who added me on GR hardly ever interact with me there, so I sometimes even forget that they are on it. But it’s been a bit more lively after adding a couple of blogger friends. Haha.
And yes, I definitely appreciate Literally’s tech support. They’re always swift to respond and are very open to suggestions.
Thanks for this post! I hadn’t heard of Literally until now, and I’m tempted to check it out. :o)
Glad to be spreading the word about Literally! :) Hopefully you’ll like it just as much as I do when you decide to give it a try.
I love Literally, but I do hate that it’s still in beta. There are a lot of things I want them to finish and just get over with. I’d love the ability to set the date for when you finish a book. It’s only currently available for books you’re reading, not ones you’re finished with.
But it’s definitely worth it! I love it. I just hate it when I’ve been busy and it’s not updated according to what really happens. I’m way more OC for this one. But I definitely use it more than GR. If I can make small notes about ratings or I’m actually allowed to rate, I’ll ditch GR.
Patience, my dear ;) They just got started and it’s kinda exciting to watch everything unfold, don’t you think? Haha. Ah, yes. I’m waiting for that too. It’s cool though that I can set the correct dates for the pages read. That’s something not available on GR but w/o dedicated reading progress stats, it’s not all too important to have it on GR.
Whatever happens, I’m not prepared to ditch GR. I would use both GR & Literally but GR has become so integral to my reading life, something drastically better in book cataloguing would need to come along for me. GR has definitely contributed a lot to my book discoveries over the past years. So yeah. GR & Literally have overlapping functions but are different.
I’d like a code if you still have one. I tried to get one on the site but it looks like I was put on a waiting list.
Nevermind, Literally sent me an invite code. I wasn’t expecting to get it so fast. I guess you can save your code for someone else.
Thanks for letting me know! Have fun exploring Literally! :)
I typically use Goodreads as my go to book site. I also have a BookLikes account, but Goodreads is the only one I sign into frequently. I don’t think I’ve heard of any of the other ones except LibraryThing, Shelfari and Literally.
Literally sounds interesting and seems like it has potential. I honestly wonder if I’d like it more than Goodreads. I mainly just use Goodreads to track my reading progress anyways and occasionally for recommendations. Literally sounds like it may fit my interests more. Plus I love the interface based off of your screen shots. Then again, Goodreads is very well established. I have a hard time imaging using anything else. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.
Yep, Goodreads trumps them all in terms of the time I spend on it. In fact, Goodreads is one of the sites I visit practically every day.
For me, it’s not so much about which one I like more but rather which sites are useful to me. This is why sometimes I don’t even use sites that I actually like because the utility matters to me first. So as much as Goodreads trumps all for me right now, I’m very much open to Literally :)
I used to be on LivingSocial: Books but that shut down so I decided to join Goodreads. I’ve accounts on BookLikes, Bookish, as well as Riffle but I hardly ever use them.
Still, I decided to join Literally because everyone was raving about it. I must say, it has some potential. I like the badges a lot and the reading progress graph is a great incentive to make users read. I don’t use Literally as much but I do visit it a couple of times a week. I love that they introduced new badges recently and yes, we need a good bookish mobile app like yesterday.
Oh wow, I had no idea about the TBR Challenge, that’s pretty neat.
I first joined Goodreads in 2006 or 2007, I think. But I closed my original account Jan 2012 and set up another one instead, so that the books I log are more up to date with my current reading tastes. MG book recommendations just weren’t my thing anymore.
Yeah, Literally definitely has a lot of potential, and I’m definitely rooting for the team. The team is very responsive towards request and feedback, which I think is very cool of them. But we’ll see how things hold up as they expand and work towards getting out of beta. And yes! Mobile app. Such a must for me to become a regular user.
Yay! You discovered something new today ;)