Today’s edition covers:
My 10 favorite book lists for August…
What are we adding to the Book DNA app now? When is the public launch?
What am I reading?
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My 10 Favorite Book Lists For August…
Also, don’t forget we have bookshelves like horror (and 3,000+ other genres and topics) with the best books of all-time, trending, new, filter by Book DNA, and lists by fans/experts.
What are we adding to the Book DNA app now?
Reminder: We’re building a smarter, more personal way to manage your reading life, with recommendations based on your Book DNA. Think Goodreads, but rebuilt for readers who want a private space to track what they read, keep notes, and get truly personalized book recommendations, like Pandora or Spotify for books.
Improved book database (25% done)
This is going slow… but we've made some progress. We are waiting on Nielsen and Ingram to email us back, as they are a bit slow. We hope to start testing the data soon and decide who we will use next week.
Long-term, this will allow us to create book pages on BookDNA.com and cover all the books an author has, rather than only those recommended on the website. And improve our book coverage and book cover images.
Goodreads and Storygraph imports (75% done)
This is going really well, and I’ve been doing a lot of testing. I’ve got some more tests later today, and then I’ll start scheduling the first beta users who want to do imports.
User folders (organize how your brain works) (50% done)
We are building the folder feature now 🙂
What are we building after that?
A simple mobile webpage that allows readers to log their reads, add what they are reading/listening to, and add books to their TBR. We are going to keep it simple to start.
Individual book overlays (and later book series and author overlays).
When is the public launch?
We don’t have a date yet, but we are looking good for a late Fall soft launch, I think. Maybe as late as Winter, but I’ll know more in a month or two.
What am I reading?
I finished…
All 6 books in the Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro series by Dennis Lehane. These were so much fun, somewhat Bosch-like, and I really enjoyed them. The characters are fantastic.
Fourth Wave by Michael Simon: This is old-school, pulpy military sci-fi that made for a good summer read. It is the 4th book in the series, so I’m in it.
I am reading...
Whalesong by Miles Cameron: Christian Cameron (Miles is a pen name) is one of my favorite authors. This is book 3 in his big new Space Opera series, and I’m liking it. I’m about half done. So far I like this shift in focus to a different character.
What have I been up to outside of Book DNA?
I’ve been up in the mountains of Spain working and biking and unfortunately having a bad wreck. It took a few weeks to recover from the fall, and now I am training for a long bike tour. I’m on the beach with my family for the next few weeks.
Have a great weekend,
Thanks, Ben
P.S. A fun encounter on a very high-altitude bike ride in the Pyrenees.
