this is the real reason goodreads wont be dethroned. book data is very very messy and requires lots of manual cleaning by humans and goodreads is where the humans are. its like trying to make a wikipedia competitor. it just wont happen.

goodreads is not supported by amazon. its self sustaining through ads, affiliate links and publisher promotions.

a redesign is underway

this is false. they bought it 8 years ago, you'd think it would be dead by now if so.

By "kill" i don't mean "close down", I mean "make stagnate"

that is underway right now actually. theres a beta in-progress for a re-design of a couple pages including the book page.