Reading suggestions

BiblioGenius suggests books to read from what your library already holds, and can also point at the volume or the title missing from a series or an author you follow. The computation stays on this device; looking for a book you do not own sends an anonymous lookup, never your reading profile.

The "To discover" tab

At the top of your library, one strip shares a single spot between two tabs:

• Activity, the recently added books, with their count;
• To discover, the current suggestions.

Activity stays the default and nothing ever switches on its own: you move between them, and your choice is remembered. When one of the two has nothing to show, the other takes the strip without tabs, under its own plain title.

The "To discover" tab only appears when there is genuinely something to fill it with. As long as your library is too young for a taste to emerge, the strip stays what it has always been: your recent activity.

The chevron folds the whole strip away, tabs included, and the folded state says what it hides ("To discover · 5"). The Settings toggle brings it back.

In the library's top bar, the "Reading suggestions" action opens the full list directly, without going through the strip.

Where else to find them

• On the dashboard, the "Suggestions for you" section shows a handful of titles, with "See all" for the full list.
• On a book page, the "You might also like" carousel offers titles close to the one you are reading.
• When you finish a book, a "Continue with" block opens on its page, at the moment the question comes up.
• On an author page, a "To discover" section lists their books you do not have.
• In your collections, a "Selections for your library" block offers ready-made lists that overlap your shelves.

Why this book is suggested

Every card carries one or two reasons, in plain words:

• Same author
• Similar subject, from your shelves and your genres
• Same publisher
• Same period, when the publication years are close
• You rated this book highly, when your rating is high
• In your to-read pile, to bring back a book you already own and have not started

Suggestions draw first on your own books: they mostly remind you of titles you already have at hand and had lost sight of. A book you marked as a favorite weighs double in that ranking.

Completing a series, completing an author

Two kinds of suggestion go after a book you do not own yet:

• The missing volume of a series you own, when the collection is marked as a series. The reason says so: "Volume 4 of Foundation".
• A book by an author you already read, when several of their titles are on your shelves. The reason says so too: "Author you like: Ursula K. Le Guin".

These cards carry a "To discover" badge: the book is not in your library. One card per series and per author, never at the expense of the suggestions drawn from your own shelves.

Tapping such a card opens a preview. If a volume is missing in the middle of a series, that is the one offered, not the next one out.

Borrowing instead of buying

In that preview, if a library in your network owns the book, the "Available in your network" line is no longer a bare statement: the libraries that hold it are listed underneath, and the borrow request starts there. One tap also adds the book to your wishlist if you would rather come back to it later.

Profiles that lend without borrowing, librarian or bookseller, keep that line as information only.

The author page

On a book page, the author's name opens. Their page gathers their books present in your library, then, under "To discover", the ones that are not.

It is the same machinery as the suggestions, brought where you already showed the interest: you went looking at that author, and the page answers that question.

Selections for your library

Some ready-made selections overlap what you already own. When they do, they are offered with the reason in plain words: "7 books in common", or "7 books in common, 3 of them liked". They carry a "Selection" badge and join the existing suggestions without ever replacing them.

Dismissing a suggestion

The "Not interested" button hides a card everywhere it appears. A message offers to undo right after, in case the gesture went off by itself.

That choice is kept on this device and survives an app restart. If you dismissed everything, the full list simply reads "No suggestions right now".

What leaves the device

Suggestions are computed on your side, from your books, your shelves and your ratings. None of that is sent anywhere.

Finding a book you do not own requires an outside lookup: it carries two or three ISBNs, a series name or an author name, and nothing else. Not who you are, not what you like, not what your library holds.