My Favourite Online Resources for Book Lovers – TTT

my 10 favourite online resources

Hi everyone! How are you doing this week? I’m super tired, but that’s life with a baby, right? It’s Tuesday and that means I’m here with a new installment of Top Ten Tuesday, the weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. For this week’s topic, we get to list our favourite online resources for book lovers. I decided to not only list some resources I use as a reader, but also some that I use for this blog. So let’s jump right in!

Goodreads

When you’re making a list of online resources for book lovers, it’s almost impossible to leave out Goodreads. It’s the platform where you can post reviews, see what your friends are reading, and make an endless list of books you want to read.

The Storygraph

This website was launched in 2020 and its purpose is similar to Goodreads. The major differences? It’s not owned by Amazon, lists content warnings for each book, and it looks a million times better.

Social media

Social media is how I mainly learn about new books. Especially Twitter is good for this, because the authors and publishers you follow will promote other authors and you’ll discover tons of great books that way!

Author websites

If you want to find out more about an author’s books, you can either scroll through their Twitter feed, or check out their website. Unfortunately, not everyone keeps their website up to date… This can be quite annoying when you’re looking for an upcoming book’s publication date, especially with the current supply chain issues.

Google Drive

This is more a resource for book bloggers than readers. I like to write my blog posts in Google Docs before I paste them into my WordPress editor. I also keep spreadsheets of books I want to buy, and the pageview stats of this blog.

(scroll down to read more)

10 must-have resources for book lovers and bloggers

WordPress

As I mentioned, I use WordPress for this blog. Once upon a time, I had a Blogger site but I used that one for personal stuff. I was hesitant about making the switch to WP for Traversing Chapters, but I really like it! The difference between the .com and .org continues to baffle me though, I can never remember which one is which. WordPress also has a ton of themes you can customize to suit your tastes, but I leave that to my fiancé, who is waaay more tech-savvy than I am!

Canva and Pixlr

I don’t know the first thing about Photoshop, other than the fact that it’s expensive. Instead, I use free alternatives to create and edit images. Pixlr is a great option for simple photo editing like cropping, while Canva is my favourite tool to create graphics like the header image at the top of this page. It’s fun to tinker with and you can get great results with a minimum of design skills.

Netgalley

When you love reading and blogging about books, you need books, right? You can buy them in a brick-and-mortar shop or online, find them in a library, or… get them for free! On Netgalley, you can request free ebook copies of many upcoming novels, in return for a review. Not every request will be granted though and you’ll probably need to start with some less popular titles to “build your reputation”, but I can imagine it’s a great feeling when you do get approved for that big book! (I have never requested a book yet, to be honest, I just assume no one’s going to approve me for them lol)

Bookishfirst

I only just recently stumbled upon this one myself and haven’t tried it yet. But it sounds like a useful resource, so I wanted to share with you. If I get this right, you can read the first couple of chapters of available books for free, and then leave a review. For international users, that’s it. But people in the US have a chance of winning a copy of that book. How amazing is that? This Belgian is so jealous!

And finally… this blog (hah!)

This is hands-down *the* best resource you can find if you love books and blogging. And the person managing the website is so humble too! Okay, I’m just kidding, of course, but I do hope you found this post useful and it helped you discover some useful websites and tools!

What are your favourite online resources? Let me know in the comments! Happy reading!

24 Comments

  1. Cindy Davis
    1. An Dierickx (Post author)

      They definitely are!

      Reply
  2. Susan

    I keep several bookish spreadsheets on Google Sheets. It’s a great resource!

    Happy TTT!

    Susan
    http://www.blogginboutbooks.com

    Reply
    1. An Dierickx (Post author)

      Google Sheets are amazing, I’d be lost without them!

      Reply
  3. literacious

    I love that you promoted yourself! Lol! I agree about WordPress – can never remember which I have and the difference, but it’s so easy to use. Happy TTT! https://www.literacious.com/2021/10/19/top-ten-tuesday-online-resources-for-book-lovers/

    Reply
    1. An Dierickx (Post author)

      Haha, I’m glad people like that joke 😀

      Reply
  4. Poinsettia

    I use Goodreads, but Storygraph sounds intriguing! I’ll have to check it out. Here is our Top Ten Tuesday. Thank you!

    Reply
    1. An Dierickx (Post author)

      I still mainly use Goodreads as well, because it’s just where all my reviews and rating are. Old habits and stuff 😉

      Reply
  5. anovelglimpse

    I just wrote a comment, but I think it disappeared? I need to use Storygraph more. I don’t use it nearly as much as GR. I also need to take advantage of Google Docs more than I do. I love that you included your own blog. Perfect!

    Reply
    1. An Dierickx (Post author)

      Oh same, I still use GR more than the storygraph out of habit. And woops for my site apparently eating your previous comment, sorry for that!

      Reply
      1. anovelglimpse

        It might have been user error on this side. 😉

        Reply
        1. An Dierickx (Post author)

          Ah, that sometimes happens to me as well, haha

          Reply
  6. masterspj

    I love Canva and use it for all of my graphics.

    As for NetGalley, I would say sign up and go from there. The first book I received from them was one they were approving the first 1000 people for. And it’s one of my most anticipated releases for next year. I haven’t read it yet, as it’s not being released until February 2022. It is tempting to request every book available, but I would suggest you focus on the books you truly want to read. The super popular books do tend to get scooped up quickly, but don’t get discouraged.

    Pam @ Read! Bake! Create!
    https://readbakecreate.com/5-booktube-creators-worthy-of-checking-out/

    Reply
    1. An Dierickx (Post author)

      Oooh, congrats on being approved for that book! I sometimes feel like no one is going to approve this little blogger when there are bloggers with way more readers requesting the same book, and then I don’t even bother requesting. But you’re right, I shouldn’t get discouraged 🙂

      Reply
  7. Steph-paigesofbooks

    I love your post. I almost added Netgalley and Bookishfirst to my list this week. Here is my post-https://paigesofbook.blogspot.com/2021/10/top-ten-tuesday-favorite-online-bookish.html

    Reply
    1. An Dierickx (Post author)

      Thank you so much!

      Reply
  8. stefani

    Blogs are definitely a resource. Happy reading! My TTT https://readwithstefani.com/10-books-about-books-on-my-tbr/

    Reply
    1. An Dierickx (Post author)

      Blogs are such a great way to discover new books and meet fellow readers 🙂

      Reply
  9. Lydiaschoch

    I’ve used Canva a little, but I’d never heard of PIxlr. I’ll have to check it out. Thanks!

    My post: https://lydiaschoch.com/top-ten-tuesday-online-resources-for-book-lovers/

    Reply
    1. An Dierickx (Post author)

      Pixlr isn’t super fancy or anything, but it does the job for basic photo editing. You’re welcome!

      Reply
  10. Greg

    I love Goodreads although I’m terrible at updating my reviews and stuff over there. And Google Drive has been surprisingly super useful to me! I’m the same way with Netgalley. I’ve never requested a book there but I should start one of these days.

    Reply
    1. Lori

      If my books didn’t auto-update from Kindle, I’d have the same problem with Goodreads. In fact, I never really kept it updated *at all* till the kindle integration. I keep hoping for a better (automated) solution, but so far…

      My list is here— https://fiftytwo.blog/2021/10/19/ttt-books-i-loved-but-will-probably-wont-re-read/

      Happy TTT,
      Lori

      Reply
      1. An Dierickx (Post author)

        I don’t use Kindle, but that auto-update sounds super useful!

        Reply
    2. An Dierickx (Post author)

      That’s what I tell myself too, to just request a book 😀

      Reply

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