Show HN: Stack – Save and explore books and book lists | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Stack – Save and explore books and book lists

stack.app

156 pointsoliv__69 comments

Man I didn't expect to see this land on the front page...it was actually falling off the "new" page with a single, lonely point the last I saw it.

So basically I made this to scratch my own itch: I wanted a simple/quick way to save the books I enjoyed and read with the possibility to add a quick review and also be able to create "stacks" -- curated lists of books that fall under a common theme/category. I feel like I've seen so many of these on the web but in a unstructured format: lots of "summer reading" blog posts, celebrity reading lists, etc... and thought that having a structured way of creating lists would be a nice thing to have.

As many of you noticed, the site is not optimized for mobile, the tos suck and overall it is still very much alpha but I really appreciate the interest and hope to see some books saved and stacks created if you like the idea enough to sign up!

Also, don't take it so seriously: I know a lot of Show HNs are now part of elaborate launch campaigns but this is truly just a side project I've been hacking at and wanted to share on a whim with the community.

Cheers

I'm slightly embarrassed to admit that I wasn't paying complete attention on the sign up page, and I pasted my new password into the "Pick a username" field because I expected it to be a password verification field.

Also, there is apparently no way to change my username (even though I sign in with my email address, so I assume my username is not a primary key), or change my password, or delete my profile.

This same thing happened to me. Two fields for passwords is such a common pattern that often we fill in the blanks automatically. And I think there is a design smell in current signup page. Easiest fix would be to move the username box above password.

I found a user that seems to match but I'm not 100% sure it's you. Could you shoot me an email at: hello@stack.app?

Sorry about that. If it makes you feel any better, you're not the first, although the first time I just kind of dismissed it as my friend not paying attention.

I've reordered the fields so hopefully that doesn't happen again and updated your username to williamjackson.

As you noticed there is no way to update profile settings for now but I'm working on adding that!

FYI: On an iPhone SE, and the mobile layout looks terrible and impossible to read or scroll. The width on the grey boxes is too small. Also, I don’t know why you’d label this “anti-goodreads”. I personally have only used goodreads a few times, but I like it

Same troubles on an iPhone XS

There was a discussion on HN a while ago about the things people didn't like about Goodreads[0]. This might be a response to that discussion and an attempt to capitalize on it.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20904549

Yeah, site is busted as hell on mobile.

Yes, sorry about that, the website is definitely not mobile-friendly yet. That is on my list of things to add.

But don't they say if you're not embarrassed with the first version you launch, you're launching too late? I guess I'm doing it right haha

Looks more like an Amazon wishlist alternative (which is a feature I've used extensively for years). Having a direct integration with Amazon via a chrome extension would be nice. Assuming there were some other features to make it worth switching (ie, a far nicer UX/design).

I previously worked on a 'smart' Goodreads alternative that used NLP to data mine social media, (and eventually) Amazon, the press, and your own email for book names which provided unique recommendations and popularity analytics. But it never really took off as a product. It was more of a demo of the AI tech underneath. https://www.producthunt.com/posts/bookvibe

My recommendation is to find some niches and focus on them content-wise. There's plenty of thriving mini book communities (scifi, romance, pop-sci Malcolm Gladwell stuff, etc).

dmix, thanks for the feedback.

Not 100% sure what you meant by "Having a direct integration with Amazon via a chrome extension would be nice": like a button that would let you save a book to stack if you happen to be on that book's amazon page?

If that's what you meant, I feel like that sort of changes the purpose of the site from exploring and discovery to shopping?

Also, tried to check out Bookvibe but it seemed to be down.

As a non-Goodreads user, can you help me understand what Goodreads does poorly and what your website does correctly?

It didn’t have a negative article written about it last week.

As other comments point out, it doesn’t mean this new demo site addressed those issues

Hey zapstar.

Personally I just wanted a simple site where I could record my reads and make curated lists of books. Goodreads offers some version of both but in my opinion the site has waaay too many features/buttons/sections and is too complicated/too much.

I guess that's why I see it as an anti-goodreads

I'd love to be able to add user defined tags to a book I have added. A nice simple feature that lets your users do all sorts of more complicated things if they want. I would use it to track if I have specific books in audio, digital, and/or paper format.

That's a great idea! Do you see these as being strictly private and personal or would you consider having public tags?

I would only need it as personal but wouldn't mind if it were public. Depends how much complexity you want to add.

If you do add public tags, they should be limited to a predefined set.

Probably with a 'request new tag' button somewhere.

The concept is good but the website is not mobile friendly. I would love find a book but apparently there is no search book functionality. Also it would be nice to view details and comments about book when I click the cover thumbnail, right now it takes me to amazon which somehow feels like promotional.

codefreq,

The title of the book will take you to the book's page.

Maybe I should add a label on hover to indicate that the book cover goes to Amazon, the idea was just to have quick access if you were interested in the book.

And yes it's not mobile friendly yet. I figured the HN crowd mostly browsed on desktop so it would be fine for now (maybe I was wrong)

I'd remove the timezone selection from the sign-up / join page.

Everything you add to that page that isn't strictly necessary for signing up, is bad for getting people through the sign-up process. There is nothing critically important about setting the user timezone, for a service like this, such that it must be established on the sign-up page.

Place it in a settings section for the user account (if you haven't already) and call it a day.

Good idea!

Some feedback:

- I think the shadows around the boxes are a bit too much. I'd pull those in a bit.

- I'm skeptical of the links going to Amazon. Are they affiliate links? What about other bookstores?

- I like the "stacks" idea, which I assume is a curated list of books to read.

- It would be nice if there was a discovery mechanism where I can enter books I like, and it'll give me other options that I might like.

Congrats on the launch!

Yeah. And isn't GoodReads linking to Amazon what makes GoodReads Goodreads? I was expecting Stack not to include any links like that.

I guess I just don't know what "anti-goodreads" means.

Thanks for the feedback!

- They are very pronounced, I might tone them down, yeah.

- About the amazon links: basically the idea is simply to have a quick way to find/buy the book if you're interested in it. I might add other bookstores in the future but amazon seemed like the easiest/most efficient way for now. Also, I was thinking the affiliated links could help run the site.

- Glad to hear that! That's what they are.

- I agree. Not sure how to implement something like that but I'll think about it.

This is great. There is definitely a need for a site that just lets you create a "stack" of books for x topic. Good reads is bloated for this. I'm tackling the same problem with my app. Good luck.

[1] https://bookshulf.com/toplists

Thanks. I agree :) I like Bookshulf's design

Hey this is great. It might not be super polished but the book titles I have found so far are amazing. It might just be we like the same things but I am totally on board if this stays small and we have a bunch of great contributions to stacks. If it grows big I hope you find a way to keep the good quality of stacks.

Thanks! Glad to hear you found some interesting picks! Maybe the stacks could have some kind of upvote mechanism or even just have some "Editor's picks" in the future.

This is so great, nice job!!!! I've been looking for something like this :). Going to play with it this weekend as I much prefer people's recommendations compared to GoodReads which never seems accurate or useful.

Thank you! I really appreciate the compliment! Let me know if you have any feedback once you use it: hello@stack.app

Will do! I love reading but somewhat despise Goodreads as it is so hard to search for books with above x stars from people who also liked x and y or so on. Hoping this can produce great lists I can find from people who liked x books eventually. I'll try to make some lists to add to it this weekend :)

Opinion: what we need is a better Android mobile app for LibraryThing[1], the already-exists alt-Goodreads. If you're an avid reader, there's a lot to be said for a service such as Goodreads or LibraryThing which handles the ISBN and Edition work to maintain your library along with the copious other features related to book management and their plentiful connections to external sources of information to pull in the data you want/need automagically.

[1] https://www.librarything.com/

Also, only related in name, it made me think of stack magazines, which is actually pretty cool:

https://www.stackmagazines.com/

Get one independent magazine to your door every month for ~$9.

I've gotten 3 so far, and its' been cool to kind of feel what different magazines value, and see such a variety.

What I want from a Goodreads alternative:

Curated lists of books from people I respect.

Lists of books that are not all dominated by Harry Potter and other trash.

The ability to follow people and keep track of the books they recommend.

A faster website that doesn't constantly error and crash

Better data with fewer duplicated books.

Easy to use API

Are these all the areas where you think goodreads needs work?

If so, can't you keep track of the books people recommend by simply looking at their ratings?

I would like to see:

- Ability to have reviews be "friends-only". My reviews are generally just notes to myself, and I spend about 30 seconds writing them. I don't like that they end up in the general pool of reviews.

- Faster website! It's crazy how slow the website is. I usually view the desktop version on mobile. I suspect it's intentionally nerfed in order to drive people to the app.

Overall, goodreads is valuable to me because it helps me: see all the books that authors have written; find new books to read via seeing what my friends read; keep a list of books that I'm going to read in the future; see a list of books I've read; and learn when an author I've read has something new. Stack seems to just be a place to keep track of what I've read (but I haven't created an account, so I may be missing features).

Eh most people don't have a Goodreads.

Like, a "Goodreads" official list of Elon musk / Steve jobs / Obama recommended books so I don't have to sort through the chaff.

Or a "Goodreads presents: John Carmaks favorite computer programming books."

Basically an employee or moderator builds the list, or they explicitly work with someone like John Carmack to make a "Goodreads official" list

Not an endorsement but: https://www.theceolibrary.com/

Amazing stuff! Needs some work on mobile, though.

If an API is ever available, I'd gladly plug into it and build an Android app.

I'm a sucker for apps when it comes to something I use every day.

Thank you! I agree, mobile design will be the next thing up for sure.

That would be sweet! Shoot me an email: hello@stack.app and we can talk about an API!

From the TOS:

2. Description of Services We make various services available on this site including, but not limited to providing employment ads, and other like services.

Before spending my time and exposing my private information by registering I wish to know how this site is better than Goodreads.

One data point:

Goodreads TOC: 92 lines

Stack TOC: 174 lines.

The TOC is totally weird and looks like it's been copied from a different site that offers, among other things, "employment ads, and other like services", "E-mail, Messaging, Blogging, and Chat Services". On the bright side, at least it doesn't have a forced arbitration clause.

It is. I have to admit Terms of Service / Privacy pages just seem annoying to have in the first place so I just hacked some previous terms I had together. Maybe I shouldn't have included them at all instead of having some half baked terms.

I actually don't even know what they say, but I definitely didn't make this to sell the emails or spam people. Sorry if this put you off

Well, a lot of people do read - or at least skim - TOCs. For a typical service, the front page tells us all the author wants us to believe, but the TOC hints at all the shenanigans they're willing to pull.

If you're not planning to do any shenanigans, it might be worth it to make the TOS reflect that.

If you are looking for book collection apps, I started using Libbo not long ago, pretty smooth!

[0] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/libbo-your-books-organized/id1...

I'm not sure if this a part of the mobile issues others have addressed but the review preview for the first book I clicked on (give the anarchist a cigarette) there wasn't enough copy for me to have a full understanding of what it was. Good luck on your next iteration!

Looks like the CSS needs a bit of cleanup ;) Impressive portfolio, though. I like your stuff.

Shhh.. you haven't seen anything :p

Upvoted for effort, but if all I want to do is show off a subset of the books I've read and offer a bit of commentary on selected titles, I could do that on a web page. Why would I want to bother providing personal data to yet another web app?

I have an app I want to write. It would need crowd-sourced data as well, and there seem to be only a couple of ways to make it worth someone's while to enter that data.

One is soapboxing. Medium, for an instance. I don't have good feelings about that. The other is recommendations, but I'm not sure if that works either.

Consider the bell curve of average users, where the curve is how widely read (in this case, literally, but also figuratively) the individuals are.

If I'm out on the right end of that curve then my value to the site is high, but the value of the site is rather low to me. If diversity isn't very high, then everyone is mostly entering reviews for material I'm already familiar with. I'm bored. I get nothing except maybe a soapbox.

Perhaps sites like this should consider these prolific people to be their 'whales' and treat them the way other companies treat whales; by going out of their way to do something for them. Could be, and I'm just spitballing here, that a properly run site should be paying a few professionals to add material and make sure there's something substantive for these high value users. Hand-built recommendations, if nothing else presents itself as a solution.

I can soapbox on my own website. You might argue that the purpose of a soapbox site like Medium is to get read, but getting read doesn't matter as much to me as it once did. I've had people read my crap, and it wasn't the life-altering experience I thought it would be because nobody cared. What matters to me now is having written.

Recommendations are likewise of little worth to me; nobody knows my preferences as well as I do, and any attempt to accurately model my preferences will fail because I gain more by withholding accurate information than I do by providing it.

The truth is that I'm not really anybody's target audience.

Which api backend shold one use for the books data? The obvious choice is Amazon, but maybe there are different, better data sources available? Any insights into better book apis?

Google books is good

This reminds me of Library Thing. Not sure if that service is still up though.

I wonder whether the messaging (at least the HN headline) is ideal.

I clicked through, but I don't know what makes it an anti-Goodreads. Perhaps the pitch really is just for people who have a strong negative opinion about Goodreads? For me, I don't care about Goodreads at all.

Agreed. My immediate impression is "Goodreads clone with fewer features" not "anti-Goodreads".

Ok, we changed the title from Show HN: Stack, a Minimal “Anti-Goodreads” to what the page says.

I suspect this was posted here because of some recent threads that were very critical of Goodreads. You might search back through recent HN history to find some of the things people dislike about it.

Thanks, I’d missed that thread. So I guess that’s not the pitch, just an angle to appeal to HN.

Well apparently someone changed it now anyways.

The way I meant it initially was simply that it was a lightweight/minimal/simple vs big/complicated/clunky, which is my own opinion of Goodreads

"Anti-Goodreads" isn't a good thing. That site is fantastic and has lots of functionality. This project looks like the typical misdirected form-over-function appeal.

Just because it looks nicer doesn't make it better. And in this case it's broken on mobile.

Rendering in mobile Safari is pretty brutal.

Could you describe what functionality of GoodReads you use? I've come across the site before, but all I've ever found useful there was that it has a good compendium of quotes, which I use to get my quotations right. I'd be interested to know if it's a more useful tool than I've realized.

Proper search. Reading lists for progress and archives. Friends to follow. Book clubs/groups. Reviews and forums to discuss books. Recommendations and charts to find new books.

Thanks for responding. I have meat-space solutions to all these problems, so it's not for me, but that doesn't mean it's not for someone else. Enjoy!

Lots of people have actual complaints about the functionality of goodreads. I saw at least one article complaining about it recently on this site. When I saw the headline, I imagined the goal was to address some of those complaints. Perhaps instead the goal is to get some reviews or users first? Or perhaps it’s something else?

Eg this one: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20904549

Reply on news.ycombinator.com