Your own version
Your own Goodreads-style reading log on your iPhone
Goodreads is a social site for readers: shelves, community reviews and what your friends are reading. If you'd like a quiet log of your own books instead, with notes, quotes and a yearly goal, describe it to Borel. It writes a native reading log in Swift, which you try in your browser and keep on your iPhone.
Updated . Borel isn’t connected to Goodreads.
“A private reading log. I add books by title and author with a cover photo, and put them on shelves: want to read, reading, finished, gave up. While reading I log pages and save quotes, typed or scanned from the page with the camera. Finished books get a half-star rating and a private note. A yearly goal of 24 books shows as a ring, and a chart shows pages per month.”
About Goodreads
What people like about Goodreads
In our words, from what Goodreads says about itself.
- Shelves for the books you're reading, have read and want to read, plus ones you create.
- Personalised recommendations and the community's reviews before you pick your next book.
- Seeing what your friends are reading.
Goodreads calls itself the world's largest site for readers and book recommendations, and its about page names no price.
Made for you
What your own reading log can do
What the prompt above builds, and what you can change by asking Borel in plain words.
Shelves you name
To read, reading, finished and gave up, or one shelf per room of the house.
Quotes worth keeping
Type a passage, or scan it from the printed page with the camera's text reader.
A goal that fits
Books, pages or minutes a year, with a ring that fills as you go.
Ratings only you see
Half stars and a private line about how the book left you.
Said plainly
How it's different
- There's no catalogue of every book with covers and blurbs; you add the books yourself.
- There's no friends' feed, no community reviews and no recommendations from other readers.
- Your Goodreads shelves don't come with it by themselves.
- Your app isn't Goodreads and won't look or work like it: it has only what you ask Borel to build, and none of Goodreads's own content.
- Your data stays in your own app: on your iPhone by default, or in your app's own database in Borel's cloud if you add accounts.
How to get yours
From the prompt to your home screen
- 1
Start from the prompt
Change anything in it first: names, rules, screens. Borel asks what it needs to know, then writes the app in Swift and SwiftUI.
- 2
Use it in your browser
It opens in a live iPhone simulator streamed from Borel's Mac, at no cost. Building starts free, with 5 free credits a day, up to 30 a month.
- 3
Keep it on your iPhone
With Pro, from $20 a month, Borel Companion installs it with a free Apple ID, up to 3 apps at a time, and renews each one every 7 days while it runs.
Frequently asked questions
If you have your books in a CSV file, Borel can add an import screen that reads its title, author and shelf columns.
In a small way. The AI included with Borel apps can suggest titles from the books you rated highly; it can be wrong, so look them up.
Yes. Ask for minutes instead of pages on some books, and the yearly goal counts both.
Yes. The camera's text reader picks up printed text, and you trim it to the passage you want.
Make your own reading log
Start from the prompt on this page and change it until it's yours. Borel builds it while you watch.