Building Book DNA: Check out the new "reading now" page!

Plus: What are we building in May?

Every 3 weeks, I share notes on building Book DNA.

We’re building a private, personal way to track your reading and get deeply personalized book recommendations. Think Goodreads, but for readers who want a calm, private space to track what they read, keep notes, and explore books that match their Book DNA. Like Spotify or Pandora, but for books.

Want to help shape it? Apply to be a beta tester! And a huge thank you to our 750+ members! Readers and authors can join, and more perks are coming as we grow.

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I am feeling…

We are chugging along, and things are going well 🚂.

We’ve got 15 beta users tracking their reads in the app, and we’ve gotten great feedback. We’ve added improvements based on feedback from our beta users, and we will spend all of May doing the same.

After that, we will start work on adding imports from Goodreads and StoryGraph, a simple welcome process for the app, and some backend stats for us.

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The new Reading Now page.

This is one of the best pieces of feedback we got from beta testers. They didn’t want what they were currently reading under “My Log” but rather to have it broken out into its own page with a more dashboard-like feel. As I use the app, I feel similar.

We will add this in May!

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What are we aiming to add in May?

• Small things:

  • Improve the weighting of famous authors/books in search as a tie breaker.

  • Add a genre filter to the TBR and Log pages.

  • Add a sorting option to sort your TBR books from oldest to newest (and vice versa).

  • Add a log type filter option to the My Log page so readers can see which books they didn’t finish, reread, etc.

  • Add an optional ISBN/ASIN field to the “add missing book” function.

  • Switch the disliked icon to a thumbs-down, and use emojis that match our design motif.

• Bigger things:

  • Integrate the app into our book processing system.

  • Under My Log, add a crowned book page showing only crowned books.

  • Adding a “Reading Now” page as the new default page.

  • Swap the star icon for the read next queue to a bookmark icon.

  • Add Smart TBR pages for Fiction and Nonfiction.

  • Improve the UX for adding a book to the TBR if the user has already read it. And add a “rereads” page to our Smart TBR section.

  • Fix stats on page two of the ratings process based on reader feedback. Plus, we will collect an optional book recommendation if someone rates a book as loved/crowned.

If we can finish that in May, then in June, we will work on Goodreads/Storygraph imports and our simple onboarding process.

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What is going on outside of Book DNA?

Spring is here, and I am starting my training for summer biking. I’m spending July up in the mountains of Spain working and riding, so I want to be in good enough shape for 4+ hour bike rides.

What am I reading now?

I just finished…

• There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm: This was my pick for our family book club, and I enjoyed it. It is a very original science fiction book, and I can see why it has gotten so much buzz. It is less about character development and more about a really original story (reminded me a little of the movie Forbidden Planet).

I am reading...

• The Praxis Walter by Jon Williams: I just started this last night, as I was in the mood for some space opera. So far, it is great, with a really big universe.

Have a good week,
Ben

P.S. Our trip to Crete, Greece, was fantastic. Amazing island 😃