So a couple of months ago, as a way to do something productive while dealing with ongoing bouts of insomnia, I started making web apps to solve problems I've faced in my own creative projects. If you saw my last post, you already know this. But ever since I began down this path, I knew I wanted to do something for readers, as an avid one myself. After doing a lot of thinking, researching to find a gap in the market, and tossing some ideas around with my friend and colleague, Christopher Green, I finally landed on a few ideas. The goal wasn't to compete with the big guys: Goodreads, StoryGraph, LibraryThing, etc. What they offer, they do well, for the most part. I use them myself. What I wanted to do was to make something that served a very specific need, was simple to use, and worked well on desktop and mobile.
I landed on a suite of three apps that each address one problem. They can be used on their own, or you can use all three with the same login, and they have the same design approach to make it easy to move from one to the other.
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I recently took these ideas from a bunch of notes in my phone to live websites. And I'm excited to share them publicly today. The other big apps I mentioned can be used to do these things, but they're not really designed for them, and it can be a little clunky to use them for these tasks. But if you're already using them for these purposes and it's working for you, that's great! These are for people who want a purpose-built tool for a specific need and don't want to bother with "making it work" with those other options.
So here they are, what I'm calling the Bookworm Buddy apps:
TBR List Buddy - This is a tool specifically for those who want to track their reading shortlist. Not a massive To-Be-Read list that you add to whenever you hear about a book that seems interesting and you think you want to check out at some point. This list is capped at 24 entries, so you can build a curated queue of titles that you actually have "on the docket" to read in the near future. I intentionally chose that number because it seemed to me to be a great middle ground between a long-term list and the next 2 or 3 titles on your nightstand. This app can be used to map out a solid reading plan for a year, at 2 books per month, while still allowing some spontaneity and mood reading picks to be inserted, or to queue up the titles for each month for those who like to meticulously itemize their monthly reading. You can add optional info about each title to help you sort them and decide which one to read next. And you can print and share your "up-next" queue if you want as well.
Booklist Buddy - This one is pretty simple to describe; it's a wishlist for books you want to own, not books you'd like to read. It's for the book collectors among us. There are lots of books you might read in your lifetime, but if you're like me, there are certain books you just want to have in your personal library. So with this tool, you add the desired titles to the list, along with optional notes about preferred format, specific editions, and even purchase links. Then you just reference it yourself when you next want to treat yourself to a book, or share a link to your list when friends and family ask what you want for birthdays or Christmas.
Book Loan Buddy - This one is probably the simplest of the trio; it allows you to easily track the books you loan out. How many times have you let someone borrow a book and then lost track of it? It's happened to me so many times over the years. So, this app aims to take the friction out of this process. Unlike other tools, like TinyCat, it doesn't require setting up a complete lending library system; you simply add info about who has which book, when they took it, and when you expect it back. You can even add their contact info to make it easy to send a quick reminder to them.
When you first open one of these tools, you are assigned a unique account code. This is your login key, so keep it secure. You will use it to log in in the future from any device, and you can use the same key across all three apps to allow for quick transition from one to the other. And all three can be "installed" on your phone through your mobile browser's "add to home screen/install shortcut" option.
Now, here are a couple of bonus apps that are also for literature lovers. They're not helpful tools like the ones above; these are just for fun.
Ever wondered what it'd be like to be a character in a Charles Dickens novel? Well, wonder no more! This fun little app asks you to enter a few personality traits and will generate a Victorian persona complete with name, occupation, and summary tailor-made for you that will make it seem like you just stepped out of the pages of a work penned by the great writer.
Ever wondered what your life might look like as a hobbit? Well, we can answer that for you! This fun little app asks you to enter a few personality traits and will generate a halfling persona complete with name, occupation, and summary, uniquely based on you, that will make it feel like you've just been transported to the Shire.
If you check out or try any of these apps, I'd love to hear your experiences, both positive and negative. They are all free to use and have no ads. And if you like them, please share them!
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