Building Book DNA: Improved search, a better book database, and Goodreads & Storygraph imports.
Plus: Recording a book's format, setting no date, and improved personalization.
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 joke as I’ve been sick for a few weeks, and I’m happy to be feeling better. I hope everyone is staying healthy and enjoying the summer.
What is new in the app?
Improved book search
We’ve done a big batch of work to improve book search within the app. This covers many reports from our beta users; please use the “Give feedback” button if you see any additional problems.
What did we work on?
When you search for a book series, you will see better matches, and the series will be shown in order. If you specify the book number in the search, it will also hone in on the correct book in the series.
Improved search results so that searches for a specific book title are respected. This sounds easy to do, but in reality, it can get a bit tricky.
Improved search to give a bit more weight to popular books and authors, and what books we show for big-name authors.
A bunch of smaller tweaks 😃
What are we working on this summer?
A better book database
Right now, we use Open Library for our book data. The data is not great. We have done a fair bit of work to clean it up, but it still lacks many books. So…
We are currently testing a paid book database to improve our book coverage and the quality of our book cover database. We are testing Nielsen and Ingram over the next four weeks to look at switching to them.
I wish this data were freely available, but we will likely have to pay for it 🙁. And it is equally frustrating that Amazon doesn’t share with anyone any books published only within its ecosystem.
Goodreads & Storygraph imports
We’ve started work on the import system! I’m incredibly excited to see this working, as once we can bring in our beta users’ reading history, we can start further personalizing the app around it. And is the fuel for our big focus, deeply personalized book recommendations.
What smaller things will we add this summer?
Record the book format (optional setting)
This summer, we will add an option for you to record the format of the book you read. This was highly requested by a big chunk of our beta testers. And for those who don’t care, you can click hide, and it will never show up again unless you change it in settings.
Recording a read with no date
Later this summer, we will add an option to record a read without a date. And we will have a page under “My log” showing you all the books without dates. We realized this would be useful and needed to add it.
Testing: Improved TBR showing your history with that author or series
This is something I am testing, but within your TBR, I want to make it easy to see your history with that author or series. If it tests well with users we will add it this summer.
And we are playing with something similar on the author drop down.
Let me know what you think via email 😃.
What is going on outside of Book DNA?
I am spending July in the Pyrenees mountains in Spain and doing a ton of gravel biking. I am excited, especially now that I am starting to feel better (been sick for a few weeks).
What am I reading now?
I just finished…
In the Woods by Tana French: This is Irish crime fiction at its best. I bought this for my mom for Christmas; she recommended it back to me, and I loved it. I can’t believe this was her debut book. I’m reading book #2 now.
A Parade of Horribles by Matt Dinniman: This is the latest Dungeon Crawler Carl book, and I loved it. This book truly captures something special about the world we live in. I don’t know how to describe it beyond a litrpg reality-TV sarcasm bomb that vibes with our weird world.
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 Likeness by Tana French: This is the second book in the Dublin Murder Squad, and I am really enjoying it. I bought the first book for my mom, and she liked it, so I decided to give it a try. What a beautiful writer, great characters, and story. If you love Bosch and gritty detective stories, you will love this.
Have a good week,
Ben
P.S. Back in the Spanish Pyrenees mountains. 😃
