Finding books
For readers and authorsUpdated 3 min read
Search from the header, browse Books and Authors with filters, let Discover recommend, reach the wider catalog for books not published here, or import a Goodreads or StoryGraph export.
The short answer
Search
The search box in the middle of the top bar (the magnifier on a phone) finds books, authors, series and readers in one go; press / from any page to jump into it, and the Booklabria AI chip inside it turns what you typed into a question for the assistant. Results open on Discover, grouped by type with a count chip for each (All, Books, Authors, Series, Readers, Circles, and Posts when any match): the matching words are marked in every row, and each row has one action (Want to read, Follow, See the series, Take a look). Discover has the same search as one wide field at the top of the page. When nothing matches, the page says so, offers Did you mean with a close spelling when there is one, and three ways onward (your genre, the Charts, Early copies). Signed out there is no search box: the Books and Authors pages in the footer have their own filters. Search understands whole words and phrases; a username can be found by a fragment.
Browse
- Discover (signed in): the search first; then a shelf named for your taste (Because you love a genre and a trope, from your preferences and what the picks matched; From authors you follow when you have set no taste yet) with the reason under every cover (New from an author you follow, the genre and trope it matched, Matched to your taste); the open campaigns as one band; Trending now and New releases as two numbered lists; and three authors worth following. Recommendations are a documented mix of your taste and real reading activity, never a black box, and they are capped so your feed stays yours.
- Books and Authors are open to anyone. Filters live in a drawer and are written into the page address, so Back keeps them and a filtered page can be shared. On Books they are Sort, Genres, Tropes, Status, Language, Minimum rating, Mood, Pace and an early copy available switch for books with an open early-copy campaign. Mood and Pace match only published books that five or more readers have marked, and a book matches a mood when every mood you pick is among its three most common (Writing reviews).
- Charts (in the footer's Read column, and on Home's side rail): what people are actually reading this month. See How the charts work.
Books that are not published here
Your shelves can hold books no Booklabria author has published. Below the results for a search, Books not on Booklabria yet lists matches from Open Library, an open catalog; pick a shelf and Add, and the book comes along with its title, author, ISBN and cover. We look them up from our servers, keep a copy so the book stays on your shelf, and never send Open Library anything about you. Such a book has no author page here, no early copy and no place on the charts; it is yours to shelve, track and review.
Bringing a library from elsewhere
Library › Import takes a Goodreads or StoryGraph export (a CSV of up to 5 MB). Books are matched by ISBN first, then by title and author, and put on your shelves; your ratings stay on the list for you and nothing is posted as a review; rows that did not match are listed under Not matched yet. See Importing your library.
Content you avoid
Books carrying content you marked as avoid are kept out of recommendations, and when one turns up elsewhere its content notes open with the match marked. Nothing is hidden from search or from an author's page: you can always find a book on purpose. See Content warnings.
Where this lives
Related
- Setting your reading preferences: Your genres, tropes, language and the content you avoid shape recommendations, your feed and your early copy matches. Set them in the onboarding wizard (every step skippable) and change them any time under Settings › Profile.
- Shelves and progress: Your Library has five shelves (Want to Read, Reading, Completed, Did Not Finish, From authors); a book lives on one at a time, and a copy an author handed you keeps its mark wherever you move it. Books you are reading carry a progress percentage; reaching 100 % or tapping Finished moves them to Completed and offers a review.
- How the charts work: The Charts rank books by real reading activity each month (readers, finishes, saves, reviews, weighted by a rating that needs many ratings to move), never by sales or anything an author can buy; a book needs three engaged readers in a month to appear.
- Content warnings and content levels: Authors describe a book's content warnings in their own words and set a content level; both show on the book page, and an Explicit book opens only for signed-in readers who have said they are 18 or older. A topic you asked to avoid keeps matching books out of the books Discover recommends for your taste, and is marked on the book's page wherever else you meet it; nothing is hidden from search.
- Importing your library from Goodreads or StoryGraph: Library › Import takes a Goodreads or StoryGraph CSV export (up to 5 MB), matches each row by ISBN then by title and author, and puts the books on your shelves; ratings stay with you and nothing is posted as a review.
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