Bookiez

bookiez is an Emacs package for keeping track of books you own. The basic idea is that you enter ISBNs, and then bookiez queries various ISBN lookup providers, and then stores the information.

The information is then presented either on a per-author basis:

And you can list all the books by the author:

Or you can list all the books in one buffer:

And you can look at the detailed information about the book:

bookiez keeps track of the date you bought the book, when it was published, and when you marked it as read (or "skipped").

To get started, put the bookiez directory in your load path and autoload the top-level command:

(push "~/src/bookiez.el/" load-path)
(autoload 'bookiez "bookiez" nil t)

Then just type `M-x bookiez' to start bookiez.

To enter a new book, either use the 'i' command, or just start typing the ISBN followed by a `RET'. bookiez will then query the ISBN using Goodreads, the Google Book API, the OpenLibrary API, and optionally the ISBNDB API.

If you wish to use ISBNDB, you need to get an API key from ISBNDB, and set `isbn-isbndb-key' to that key. See https://isbndb.com/isbndb-api-documentation-v2.

Tracked Authors

If you have authors you follow particularly, these are called "tracked authors" (because you're keeping track of them). To mark an author this way, use the SPC' command in the author buffer. The n' command will then report on new books from all these authors. As explained in this blog post: https://lars.ingebrigtsen.no/2025/04/17/perplexingly-book-learned-emacs/ There really are no good ways to get this data at the present. So bookiez will use an LLM to try to figure out this stuff. The most useful backend for this is Perplexity.ai. You need to get an API key for that, and set `query-assistant-perplexity-key' for this command to work.

You do not need to use the LLM stuff to use bookiez -- it's only used for a couple of commands like this. And as usual with LLMs, the output is not to be trusted, and will usually give different results ever time you use the commands. That is, the LLMs will invent books that don't exist, and they will also skip books that do exist. But it's moderately useful anyway.

Commands

There's a whole bunch of commands in the various bookiez buffers -- for searching Goodreads, Bookshop and Biblio, for instance. Use the normal Emacs commands (`C-h b' etc) to get a list of available commands in each buffer.

Data Format and Exports

The data is written in a JSON format to `bookiez-data-file', which is ~/.emacs.d/bookiez.json by default.

You can export the data to HTML (suitable for putting on a web site to look at your books while on the go) by using the `M-x bookiez-export-html' command. Afterwards, just put the resulting files in a directory on a web server. The top-level HTML file will be called "authors.html".

The assets/bookiez.css file can be edited to adjust the look. All the elements should have semi-logical names to allow you to style (or remove) elements as needed without changing the code.

Barcode Scanners

If you have a lot of books to enter, it's strongly recommended to get an ISBN barcode scanner. I've been using a Datalogic Gryphon D120 for over a decade:

It's most convenient if it works like a USB HID keyboard and just outputs the ISBN followed by a `RET', which will make it work automatically with bookiez.

It can also be convenient to have your Emacs respond to a barcode scanner no matter which window has focus -- that way you can just grab the scanner after buying some new books without futzing around at all. But this requires some setup.

You need this package from Microsoft Github:

https://github.com/larsmagne/libinput.el

And then:

apt install libinput-tools
adduser `whoami` input

Then log out and in again to ensure that you're allowed to read the libinput device. (Note that some may consider this to be a security issue -- basically all programs that are running as yourself may then read all input events.)

libinput list-devices

and look at the output to find your barcode scanner. Mine looks like:

Device:                  © Datalogic 2002 Datalogic Bar Code Scanner
Kernel:                  /dev/input/event21

So then you

(setq bookiez-barcode-device "© Datalogic 2002 Datalogic Bar Code Scanner")

After restarting bookiez, bookiez will then automatically listen for events from the barcode scanner and mark new scanned ISBNs as newly bought books. If you scan a code twice, it'll mark the book as read.

Other Inputs

In general, any barcode reading device that can trigger a command can be used. On the Emacs side, start an Emacs server with `M-x server-start'.

Then use `emacs-client' to enter a book into the database by calling a script that looks like this (with the ISBN as the first parameter):

#!/bin/bash
emacsclient --eval "(bookiez-enter-isbn \"$1\")"

The `bookiez-enter-isbn' function will play different sort of beeps based on whether the ISBN is invalid, whether it can't be found, or whether it entered the book successfully. This way you can enter books rapidly without looking at the screen.

Webcam Barcode Camera

Instead of a USB HID barcode scanner, you can also use a webcam with barcode scanning. For instance, under X you may automate it something like this:

#!/bin/bash

echo "Finding Emacs with bookiez..."
BOOKIEZ=$(xdotool search --name 'Bookiez List')

if [ "$BOOKIEZ" = "" ]; then
	echo "ERROR: Couldn't find *Bookiez List*"
	exit 10
fi

echo "Scanning..."
zbarcam --set ean13.enable=1 --raw --prescale=640x480 /dev/video48 | while read -r line; do
	echo -n "Sending $line ..."
	CURRENTWINDOW=$(xdotool getwindowfocus)
	xdotool windowfocus "$BOOKIEZ"
	xdotool key --window "$BOOKIEZ" i
	xdotool type --window "$BOOKIEZ" "$line"
	xdotool key --window "$BOOKIEZ" Return
	xdotool windowfocus "$CURRENTWINDOW"
	aplay --quiet ~/sound/woop.wav
	echo " sent"
done