Your whole personal library, catalogued properly
A free, local-first book collection tracker - no account required, nothing stored in someone else's cloud. Search a title, author or ISBN to add it, track what you own, you're reading, you've read, want or have lent out, rate it out of five stars, and watch your year in reading take shape. Book Library Pro is an optional one-off upgrade.
Shelf view lays your collection out grouped by status - cover art and a star rating per title, so you can see what you're reading, own, or still want at a glance.
Search by title, author or ISBN to pull cover art, publisher, year and page count in automatically via the Google Books API, with an Open Library cover fallback - no key or setup required.
Owned, Reading, Read, Wishlist and Lent - the last one so you can actually remember who's borrowed a physical copy, not just what you own.
Rate anything you've read, tag titles however suits you, track series and reading order, note the shelf or box a physical copy lives in, and keep freeform notes.
Totals, unique author count, average rating and books added this month - plus a breakdown by status and by rating, and your top publication years.
Hit "Surprise me" for a random pick from anything you haven't finished yet - built entirely from your own local data, no recommendation algorithm involved.
Select several books at once to bulk-change their status or delete them together - handy for sorting through a big pile after a clear-out or a house move.
Your collection lives on your own device - no server dependency for day-to-day use, and no account or sign-in. Nobody else's cloud, nobody else's rules.
Export your whole collection to a readable JSON file whenever you like, and import it back in later. No lock-in, no proprietary format holding your data hostage.
Shelf for browsing by status, Grid for a dense cover-art overview, List for a sortable table with everything laid out - filter any of them by status or a quick search.
Your collection, shelves, covers, search-to-add, Currently reading, Year in reading and export stay free. Book Library Pro is a one-off £3.99 upgrade inside the app, bought through the Microsoft Store - no subscription, no account.
Set a yearly challenge in books - and pages, if you like - and see at a glance whether you're ahead or behind, and what it'll take to get there.
Note who borrowed a book and when, get a Windows reminder the morning it's due back - even when Book Library is closed - and keep a history of every loan.
Bring in your Goodreads shelves, ratings, dates read and reviews - or any spreadsheet of books. You see what's coming in first, and books you already have are skipped.
Print or save your collection as a tidy PDF - grouped by shelf, location, author or series, with covers or as a compact list. Handy for insurance, a move or a book club.
Pages each month, books a year over five years, how many pages a day you read, your favourite authors and tags, and which tags you rate highest.
| FEATURE | FREE | PRO £3.99 |
|---|---|---|
| Your collection: covers, shelves and list views | Yes | Yes |
| Search to add and barcode scan | Yes | Yes |
| Currently reading, Year in reading and the wrap-up card | Yes | Yes |
| Lent status and due-back dates | Yes | Yes |
| JSON and CSV export, JSON import | Yes | Yes |
| Yearly reading goal | No | Yes |
| Borrowers, due-back reminders and loan history | No | Yes |
| Import from Goodreads or CSV | No | Yes |
| Printable catalogue (print or PDF) | No | Yes |
| Reading insights | No | Yes |
Your shelves grouped by status, a book you're reading, your year in reading with a reading challenge, and the ink theme - a look at the actual app, not a mockup.
Goodreads is a popular free web app for logging and reviewing books, built around a social feed of what friends are reading. Here's how a local-first Windows desktop tracker compares for someone who wants a private collection catalogue rather than a social network.
| Feature | Book Library | Goodreads |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Free; optional £3.99 one-off Book Library Pro | Free (owned by Amazon, ad-supported) |
| Works fully offline | ✓ | ✕ |
| Your data stays on your device | ✓ | ✕ (stored on Amazon's servers) |
| Social feed / following friends | ✕ | ✓ |
| "Lent" status for physical copies | ✓ | ✕ |
| Clean JSON export of your whole collection | ✓ | ~ (CSV export only) |
| Import your Goodreads library | ✓ (Pro) | ~ (it's where the export comes from) |
| Yearly reading goal | ✓ (Pro) | ✓ |
| Native Windows desktop app | ✓ | ✕ (web app / mobile app) |
| No account or sign-in needed | ✓ | ✕ |
Comparison based on Goodreads' publicly listed pricing and features as of August 2026 (goodreads.com) - pricing and features change over time, so check goodreads.com for current details. Goodreads is a trademark of its respective owner; this comparison is for informational purposes and isn't sponsored by or affiliated with Goodreads.
Yes - your collection, the covers, shelves and list views, search-to-add, Currently reading, Year in reading, the wrap-up card and JSON and CSV export are all free, with no account. Book Library Pro is an optional one-off upgrade (£3.99) bought inside the app through the Microsoft Store. If you bought Book Library before it went free, Pro is already unlocked for you.
A yearly reading goal in books and pages, lending with borrowers, due-back reminders and a loan history, import from Goodreads or any CSV, a printable catalogue (print or save as PDF), and reading insights - pages each month, books a year, reading speed and favourite authors and tags.
Yes, with Book Library Pro. In Goodreads, go to My Books, then Import and export, and export your library as a CSV file. In Book Library, open Settings and choose Import from Goodreads or CSV. Your shelves, star ratings, dates read, page counts and reviews come across, and books you already have are skipped.
No. There's no account and no sign-in - install it from the Microsoft Store and start, and your collection stays on your own device. You can register your copy with your name and email if you'd like update notices, but it's optional.
Search by title, author or ISBN to pull cover art, author, publisher, year and page count automatically via the Google Books API, with an Open Library cover fallback - no key or setup required. Or scan the barcode with your camera, or add a book manually with your own details.
Shelf view groups your collection by status in a card-catalogue layout. Grid view is a denser cover-art-only layout for scanning a large collection quickly. List view is a detailed sortable table with title, author, status, rating and year.
Yes - export your entire collection to a clean, readable JSON file at any time from Settings, and import it back in later. No lock-in.
Owned, Reading, Read, Wishlist and Lent - five statuses covering the full lifecycle of a book in your collection, including titles you've lent out to someone else.
