Bookshelf for KOReader

Your books, on a shelf.

a nicer way to find something to read next

Bookshelf puts your library on a shelf you can browse by series, author, genre or anything you like, with the book you are reading front and centre.

Get started See what it can do

What the clip shows, step by step:

1. Bookshelf: your library as a grid of covers
2. Tap a book to see it in the top panel
3. Recent: what you've been reading, in two columns
4. Tap a book there too
5. Series: each series together. Open one
6. Then tap a book inside it
7. The book button brings back what you're reading
8. Back to Home
9. Long-press the page counter for a list, then spines
10. Swipe up for a full screen shelf
11. Pinch for smaller books, more to a screen
12. Spread for bigger ones

Find your way in

• New to KOReader

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  Never installed KOReader before? Start at the very beginning: getting KOReader onto your e-reader, then Bookshelf on top.

  Install KOReader

• Know KOReader, new to Bookshelf

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  You know the file browser and the top menu. Here is what changes, where things moved and what stays the same.

  Coming from KOReader

• Make it beautiful

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  Themes, wallpapers, wooden planks, ornaments, colours and a top panel you design yourself.

  Make it yours

• Organise a big library

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  Shelves built from series, authors, genres, collections or filters, sorted the way you think.

  Organise

• Already using Bookshelf

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  What's new in 5.5, every menu option in one place, every gesture, and the tokens for your own lines.

  What's new

• Something not right?

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  Empty shelf, missing covers, or Bookshelf not showing up at all.

  Troubleshooting

Your shelf, your way

What the clip shows, step by step:

1. Long-press the page counter to change the shelf's style
2. List: title, author, blurb and progress in rows
3. Long-press again for Spines
4. Spines: books on a shelf, some standing face out
5. Once more, back to Covers
6. Covers: a grid of cover art

A grid of covers, a list, or spines: long-press the page counter to switch.

What the clip shows, step by step:

1. Home wears Macabre
2. Series: top menu > Theme > This shelf
3. Tap a theme: the shelf changes behind
4. Genres wears Autumn
5. Each shelf keeps its own theme

Every shelf can wear its own theme.

What the clip shows, step by step:

1. Stand every book cover forward on a spine shelf
2. Long-press the HOME tab, then tap "Shelf style"
3. Face out is a Spines option. Tap Spines
4. Tap "Face out"
5. Ticked reasons stand face out. Tap "All books"
6. Back, then close the dialog and the editor
7. Every book now shows its cover, on the shelf

Spines with every book turned face out, like a shop window.

Unreada plain cover, with its number in the series

Readinga bookmark and a progress bar

On holdfaded, with a pause mark

Finisheda tick in the corner

Favouritea heart

Shelves that fit how you read

Every shelf is built from your books' own details: series, authors, genres, languages, collections, reading status, ratings, or Calibre's metadata if you use it. Mix a source, a few filters and a sort, and a shelf keeps itself up to date as you add books and read them.

A list you curate. A collection as a shelf, in the order you arranged it: a reading challenge, a holiday pile, the classics you mean to get to. Specific collection… · sort by Collection order

One genre, only what's unread. Pick a genre, filter out what you've read, and what's left is your next mystery. Specific genre… · Filters: Unread · sort by Surname

Series as boxed sets. On a spine shelf each series stands as an open slipcase, with how many you've read on the front. Shelf style: Spines · Series boxes: On

Your own system. A shelf of shelves holds as many shelves as you like, each with its own filters: Reading now, To read, Finished, or anything else. Shelf of shelves · + Add shelf

Every author at a glance. One tile per author, showing their covers, with their books in series order inside. Authors · Folder tiles: Collage

More ways to slice it.

• By language, for the books you read in French, or a shelf per language you're learning.
• By rating, your five-star shelf.
• By format, comics and manga apart from novels.
• By folder, if you keep things in folders already.
• From a Calibre column, by mirroring it into tags.

Sources, filters and sorting

What's in the box

• Shelves for everything

  Home, Recent, Series and Genres out of the box. Add your own from any series, author, genre, collection, folder, reading status or online catalogue.

• A top panel that's yours

  The book you are reading, with its blurb, progress and time left. Every line is editable, down to the font.

• Spines with real proportions

  Width from the page count, height from the cover, colour from the cover art.

• A start menu

  A launcher you build yourself: shortcuts, folders, other plugins and live micro-modules like a clock or your reading goal.

• Online catalogues

  Browse Project Gutenberg, Standard Ebooks and other OPDS catalogues as shelves, and download straight to your device.

• Made for e-ink

  Built and tested on a real e-reader: quick page turns, careful screen refreshes, black and white or colour.

Ko-fi shop

Dress your shelf

Theme packs bring framed art, wallpapers, ornaments and new shelves, drawn to look right on black and white and colour screens. Ukiyo-e hangs Japanese woodblock prints among your books, Macabre brings a Gothic stone shelf and candlelight, Autumn fills the gaps with hedgehogs and pumpkins, and Planks swaps the oak for nine other timbers.

Buying a pack is one way to support Bookshelf's development. If you'd just like to say thanks, you can also leave a tip.

Visit the Ko-fi shop See the packs

Ukiyo-e: woodblock prints on washi paper.

Macabre: a Gothic stone shelf, by candlelight.

Autumn, here on the Leafy wallpaper.

Bookshelf is free and open source. It needs KOReader v2025.08 or newer, and works best on v2026.03 or newer.