Today’s edition covers:

  • My 10 favorite book lists for June and July…

  • What are we adding to the Book DNA app this summer?

  • What am I reading?

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  • The calm, private way to track your reading: Track what you're reading, what you want to read next, and the books you've finished (or DNFed), with your notes and ratings. Private by default, and fully yours.

  • Never miss a new book + track your series and favorite authors: Track every series you're reading and see exactly where you are: reading, waiting on the next book, paused, completed, and abandoned. Opt into alerts so you never miss a new book in a series you love.

  • Recommendations from readers who actually share your taste: Book DNA learns from what you love and what you don't. Instead of pushing bestsellers, it finds your Book Twins: readers whose ratings match yours, and surfaces what they're loving right now.

Fun size! 🦥

My 10 Favorite Book Lists For June & July…

Sorry, I got sick for the last half of June and wasn’t able to send the newsletter like normal, so I’m doing two months in one!

Heavy fiction list for the summer 😀

Also, don’t forget we have bookshelves like geology (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.

Our geology bookshelf

What are we adding to the Book DNA app this summer?

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

We are testing the book databases from Nielsen and Ingram to compare them. We’ve been using a free source (Open Library), but it is not as complete as we would like. I’ll share more details as we finish those tests. If things look good we will slide in the new database to replace the old one.

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.

Goodreads imports

We’ve started work on Goodreads imports! Woohoo! We have a lot of testing to do to ensure they are as accurate as possible.

What are we building after that?

  • Folders so users can organize how they want.

  • A simple mobile webpage that allows readers to log their read, add what they are reading/listening to, and add books to their TBR. We are going to keep it simple to start.

What am I reading?

I finished…

  • In the Woods by Tana French: This is Irish crime fiction at its best. I bought this for my mom for Christmas; she recommended it back to me, and I loved it. I can’t believe this was her debut book. I’m reading book #2 now.

  • A Parade of Horribles by Matt Dinniman: This is the latest Dungeon Crawler Carl book, and I loved it. This book truly captures something special about the world we live in. I don’t know how to describe it beyond a litrpg reality-TV sarcasm bomb that vibes with our weird world.

I am reading...

What have I been up to outside of Book DNA?

I have been sick for almost two weeks. I’m not sure what I got, but I’m just now getting back on my feet, which is rare. I’m hoping my energy comes back soon so I can start biking now that the heatwave has died down.

Have a great weekend,
Thanks, Ben

P.S. Greece is beautiful! From an earlier trip…

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