I recently got an email inviting me to join a new website oriented around books called Rifflebooks.com. Now, at first I was like “you know, I’m really sick of getting these invites already, I bet it won’t even be worth it..” I mean Goodreads has SO much to offer booklovers that it’s really hard to compete with it.  But I decided that I’d sign up (it’s in beta form right now) and have a look around and share my thoughts with my readers so they can decide if they’d like to get into it or not.

I literally did take notes on every step so I’d remember all my thoughts  - see what I go through for you guys?!

Setup:

First Impression: *Groan* Not another Facebook App!

I clicked on the “accept invite” link in the email I received and taken to the site where the first thing  that pops up is an App asking permission to post on your Facebook page and to access personal information such as your email address. Typical Facebook app terms. I reluctantly accept and I think I marked to not grant Rifflebooks.com the right to post things on my wall.

Create Your Profile:

Genres

Moves on to book genres where you pick which ones you like. It also has a drop down menu where you can pick a genre to be considered an “expert” in.

[I chose not to become an expert in anything since I want to know exactly what I'm getting in for and don't really consider myself an "expert" at any one genre.]

Currently Reading

Up next: What are you currently reading? Where you type in the title or the author. Or you can select that you’re “currently reading nothing.” When I entered the book title a drop down menu appeared to select which copy I was reading (one was titled right but had the wrong cover – as in totally from another book.) I was able to find the right book though and match the cover correctly.

So I consider it a bit hit and miss at this point, probably as their database of books expands it’ll get better.

Favorite Books

 What are three of your favorite books?
Another bar to type in the title or author and three empty slots waiting to be filled with the books you select. I found this to be the hardest question EVER..I imagine it’s like choosing which child is your favorite – how to decide?!I typed in three titles and like before a drop down menu appeared to select which book. I was able to find the right cover for all but one of the books I selected.

[For the curious, The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, The Secret History by Donna Tartt, and Dominance by Will Lavender.]

A convenient time line above shows I have two more steps left. Fairly smooth ride so far!

Following Friends

When I arrived at the 4th step, it told me I was “now following these suggested users in your favorite categories (and 3 friends who are already here)” and showed what I’m assuming was their profile pics for 3 bloggers I know. I could either press to go to the last step, or I could scroll down and see what other users Riffle had set me up to follow and choose to unfollow them. I decided not to unfollow anyone and moved to the 5th and final step.

Follow Rifflebooks.com?

The last step was simple enough: Riffle asks you to follow it either on Facebook and/or Twitter. I chose Twitter. Then I was all set up and ready to explore the rest of Riffle!

Wide World of Riffle

Then we move to a screen that is reminiscent of Pinterest except it’s solely book covers and book lists made up by other members.

When you scroll over the book covers a pop up allows you to mark the book as recommended, finished, or interested. It also shows a user that’s currently reading the book.

If you click on one of the book lists displayed a much larger popup box appears with the title of the list, the genre and several of the book covers on display. You can click to see the full list, share the list on Facebook, Twitter or to recommend it. It also shows the Riffle user who created the list and you can follow them on Twitter [I'm presuming it varies on what their personal preferences are if they allow Facebook or Twitter or both but that's speculation on my part.]

I decided to Recommend Nobody by Jennifer Lynn Barnes which I’ve recently read and loved, and to mark it as Finished.

After marking preferences for a couple other books I decided to move to my Profile and see what was going on there.

The profile has a handy bar to keep track of your “influence”, followers, following, profile views and book list views. As well as any invites. It grabs your Facebook profile picture and name.

Click on Invites and a pop up box appears to invite a friend.

Since I have no lists, when I clicked on List Views it took me to the screen to Create a list.

I like how you can add other people’s lists – say if there was a blog I loved that had a favorites list I wanted to upload, I could and give them complete credit including a URL. Same goes if it’s your personal list, you can include your own URL.

Create A List

In creating my own list, I’m adding books and I tried to add Darkfever by Karen M. Moning but all there was only the Japanese version. Iced showed up and so did Fevermoon and Dreamfever.  So again, their database obviously needs some work – but this is beta after all and I’m sure it’ll expand over time.

They didn’t have another of the books I wanted to add to my list, however I DID find out that the author has a new book coming out this year – so score for that! I featured my find in this past week’s Waiting on Wednesday post.

Overall, I think Riffle is a really interesting website that holds a lot of promise. If they get their database expanded a bit more they might be on to something. How often do you wish you could go on Pinterest and get ONLY books and book lists compiled by other readers? I also loved the fact that it was easy to direct readers to the source/author of the book lists – whether it be your own or a professional site like The New York Times Bestseller list. I can picture it as a great way to meet new readers and recommend your favorite books. Also could be a friendly way to promote your blog in a non-spammy way, by creating a book list of your favorite review books, etc!

First Impressions:
*Groan* Not another Facebook App!
Pretty interface, very clean and organized.
Very easy to use and uncomplicated.
Book database needs a little bit of work to include more selections.

Have you been to Rifflebooks.com, are you interested in it? What are your thoughts on it?