I've been using this for a bit and have some major complaints, the primary one being that reviews and books aren't shared across all servers. I'm still going to use it to track my reading, but the "social" aspect is straight limited from the start. I want to see ALL reviews for a book, not just the people I follow or the ones on the server I joined. How do you even find people to follow with that level of visibility?

This thread talks through it. https://fosstodon.org/@Brendanjones/110722850962870241

Edit: It's still way better than feeding your data into the maw of the ever-hungry Amazon, but I want it to be something I can recommend to my non-technical reading folks.

Half of the "utility" comes from following people and hashtags that interest you. From there, use boosts and such to follow the people that continue to be fun to read. I haven't gotten bored with my feed since taking a more active approach to choosing what I see.

I tried many alternatives (like feedly or theoldreader), self-hosted for a bit, and eventually ended up using inoreader. I've paid for it for years, but the ad-supported version is great.

It lets me do what I need on all my machines, regardless of OS. The app on both android and ios are solid. The web interface has keyboard shortcuts that make zipping through the feed a breeze. I can group sources together and view/manage them as a group (or individually). It is both feature-rich and simple.

The Old Reader would be my runner-up recommendation, but Inoreader is what I use.

I'm replaying this now (after playing it when it first launched). It is worth a go!