Show HN: I made a table comparer to quickly find a new book to read
4 comments
·January 28, 2025bwb
Very cool! I tried it out, and it worked like a charm.
How did you build the genre list? I was curious how you got that data.
(I wish Goodreads would fix their API; so disappointed in them for killing off access)
I've been playing with something similar to help people find books... for example, here is a filter page that is searching science fiction books for all books with AI from newest to oldest (but limited to only the books in our DB that someone has recommended): https://shepherd.com/bookshelf/science-fiction?topics=Q11660...
I'm working on a TBR tool for this year as well. Going to try to really make everyone's TBR pile come to life in some cool ways.
HerChip
Ah thanks for your reply, this is my first tool and post: highly appreciated.
When you go to the book's dedicated webpage, you can see the corresponding genres. I'm using a web scraper to get this information, which enriches the existing book data.
Yeah, now uploading your CSV is a bit cumbersome, using their API would have been much nicer. Do you have any suggestions for using the website more often?
I looked at your shepherd tool. Nice website, seems nice. For me personally, I don't need any more recommendations as I already have a too-long TBR.
Cool. I'm curious about your plans. I have a long TBR list (800 books), so that is why I started with NextRead.
bwb
Ah, nice, very cool on scraper :)
The CSV part was smooth and quick, so there were no problems there.
>Do you have any suggestions for using the website more often?
For users, I think the ability to come back and not have to re-upload. Once I came back, I couldn't really access my previous data without it (but guessing you know this). I wasn't sure if I missed it, but being able only to upload one shelf might help readers who use Goodreads to dump their TBR pile into.
> Cool. I'm curious about your plans. I have a long TBR list (800 books), so that is why I started with NextRead.
Right now, I am trying to get some stuff in place for this feature, such as building a database of all books (so that we can easily add them to their list) and fixing our genre/topic system to improve accuracy using AI. I am also working to add some of the Book DNA elements I collect from readers to the system (mood, tropes, themes, etc.).
Once those are in place, I will launch the TBR feature. I want to make it easier to sort through your list based on those Book DNA elements to figure out what you want to read next and get suggestions for books you will love based on other readers who share your Book DNA. I also loving knowing how I met a book and I want to add that to the mix.
So a bit of a really powerful sorting tool with elements to help you see what similar readers loved. And with some of the Book DNA review data, things like "show me science fiction books on my TBR list that people loved for characters."
I'd also love to build a Chrome extension so that readers can easily add books to their TBR pile from any website, but I am not sure if we have time or resources this year.
Rough sketch...
bwb
Are you manging your TBR list in Goodreads for now? I've been using a spreadsheet and was curious there.
After a few weeks of programming a few minutes at the time, next to my full time job, I created this tool that helps you pick your next book from your long(er) want-to-read list. In essence, it is a table with filters and column sorters.
My problem was that the Goodreads website does not allow you to filter multiple columns at a time. That is why I created an alternative way to go through your books.
Unfortunately, Goodreads no longer shares API keys, so it relies on its export functionality for a csv file. Not all the required information for your book search is present in this CSV file. To solve this, the website scrapes Goodreads based on the book ID from the CSV file for the extra info.
Using the tool you can filter your want-to-read list. For example, I usually only read books that have been out for a few years, have an okay rating and have some reviews. Basically, a new book that has survived the hype and is still interesting.
I had the most trouble creating the front page and informing visitors what they could expect. I'm a more technical developer and found this part more difficult. I'm curious about your guy's feedback.
I hope there are some goodreads users as I was not sure if attaching a sample csv file was okay/possible.
For now, this website version is a basic trial version. It does not save any data in a database or in-memory. If people would find this useful, I could extend it.
Lastly, as I'm new to posting to hacker news, and wanted to share it. I read somewhere that you could add the "Show HN:" in front of it. I did this sadly after I posted this post earlier. So this is basically a repost, sorry about that. I have hide my previous (as deletion does not seem possible)