The thing is, Goodreads always felt like a feature. They failed to build a business, let alone one that should take VC (and hence be required to generate venture-scale returns). And my guess is the only way they could have generated the right returns is to move down the sales funnel, which is a direct threat to Amazon's business. Making the subsequent behavior inevitable.
It feels like there are a couple very nice small (not necessarily lifestyle, but not vc) businesses in that space.
I'm aware of https://readng.co and https://bingebooks.com
