Building Book DNA: Filter by genre/author, sort by published date/log type, and optional ISBN/ASIN field.
Plus: What are we building in June?
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.
I am feeling…
I am trying to sift and sort through the feedback I am getting from beta users to map out where we should go in 2026 with our limited resources. I’m getting some great feedback from our beta testers, which is helping.
New: Filter by genre/author, sort by published date/log type, and optional ISBN/ASIN field.
You can now sort your TBR and reading log by genre! 😃
The genres are pulled via the BISAC system (used by publishers in the USA).
And you can also filter by the most frequent authors in your TBR and reading log.
And you can now sort your TBR by published date!
Our “first published” data is pretty good and will improve as we progress.
And you can now sort your Reading Log by Log Type.
And we added an optional ISBN/ASIN field to the “add missing book” function.
Plus, a lot under the hood.
What are we doing between now and June 15th?
Smaller things:
Fixing a bug with filter search.
Improve the book selection dropdown accuracy.
Tracking down and fixing a bug with date validation.
Plus, a few other bugs and improvements.
Bigger things:
Improving book cover coverage within the app.
Improve the weighting within the book search in order to improve search results. Right now, we have some issues with how we are matching book searches to books.
Improving the stats we show 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.
After June 15th?
Improved book database: We are vetting Nielsen and Ingram to switch to them for our book database. We’ve been using Open Library, and the data is not great. This work would also include improvements to fix duplicate books, book cover coverage, and more.
Goodreads and StoryGraph imports: This is the next big thing we are working on.
More info on our roadmap page: https://building.bookdna.com/roadmap/
What is going on outside of Book DNA?
My family all got sick, so that wasn’t fun. They are feeling much better, but it made for a rough few weeks. I also tweaked something in my back, so I’m working on getting it worked out as I train for a July biking trip.
What am I reading now?
I just finished…
The Praxis series by Walter Jon Williams: I enjoyed it. The characters grew on me, and the world was a bit like Master & Commander in space. Solid recommendation if you love military sci-fi (although you should start with Dread Empire’s Fall).
Nightshade and Ironwood by Michael Connelly: I am a huge Connelly fan, and I’ve read every book he has written. I just found his new series, and it was fun; it wasn’t as good as Bosch but still great. I enjoyed book #2 a lot more. They are about a Sheriff on Catalina Island.
I am reading...
How the World Really Works by Vaclav Smil. This was my dad’s pick for the family book club, and I am super excited to read it. It looks interesting, and many people at Book DNA have recommended it, which is a good sign.
The Butcher’s Masquerade by Matt Dinniman: I’m rereading Dungeon Crawler Carl before I read book #8, as this is one of my favorite series. It is insane and makes me laugh. Somehow, it feels like it is a book that is really about the insane world we now live in.
Have a good week,
Ben
P.S. From our trip to Crete, Greece earlier this year 😃
