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Comment by ahmidi

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Comment by ahmidi

Hey HN, I've been building a site called cybershe\f for fun, but now feel an urge to share it with yall. First off, disclaimer: this is fully vibe coded (albeit with care) and exists as a working prototype/vision. It's free, MIT-licensed open source (https://github.com/ahmidii/cybershelf), and I plan to keep hosting it indefinitely and hope our community and maybe some moderators would help shape its growth.

The main thing is it allows you to read your books with your friends like an asynchronous book club. You simply enter the page you're on and share your thoughts, after which, any friend that follows you would be able to read your comments ONLY when they log past that point in the same book. You could also share spoiler free thoughts for anyone of course.

The way it works is you import your book collection to your "Library." I'm still figuring out how to simplify this process, but for now it just sources from Open Library through manual entry, and it can take in a goodreads csv. Covers and book details is autopopulated based on the selected edition, though spine images have to be uploaded by the user (with enough use and time, a database of spines should populate on its own).

The books in your "Library" could then be arranged into bookshelves. Think of each bookshelf as a kind of playlist for books that you can decorate and arrange however you like, and one would be featured as your main shelf on your public profile page. You could even add toys and other decor (my goal is to be able to add any 2d/3d digital asset, and maybe even your board game collection) so that you personalize your shelf however you like.

From then on, whenever you read a book, just log a thought at any point and your reading circle will be able to experience your reactions whenever they end up reading past that point.

Anyways, feel free to play around with it and come up with suggestions. Only reason I made this is to fill a gap in my own reading circle, and I wanted all my books in one place. A longer term vision if it's even possible would be to launch any book directly from your cybershelf into the platform/ereader app you purchased it from.

Also want to note that I actually worked with a professional UI/UX designer on this same project back in 2023, which is when I claimed this domain (I have no affiliation with elon musk so please excuse the "cyber" branding). That designer delivered an excelent job, but as a figma file that I had no idea what to do with. I still have that file as an asset but the design of the site right now is just part of the vibecoded package. The plaintext logos (cybershe\lf + cyber\shelf) and Library/Bookshelf experience came from myself and the hired designer (Shoutout Ihar Kolesen).

Thanks for your time, and enjoy!

Replies ahmidi · 50m
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