Building a Personal Book Tracker with Flask and the Google Books API

29 Nov, 2024

Photo by Renato M Chugo on Unsplash

As an avid reader, I’ve always enjoyed keeping track of the books I’ve read, categorizing them, and understanding trends in my reading habits. For years, Goodreads was my go-to solution, but with their API access being restricted and my desire to maintain control over my data, I decided to build my own Book Tracker application. Here’s how I did it and how you can too.

Why Build a Book Tracker?

Platforms like Goodreads are great for community interaction but come with some limitations:

• API Restrictions: Goodreads no longer allows open API access, limiting automation or personal data analysis.
• Data Control: With Goodreads, your data is stored on their servers, and their ecosystem determines how you can use it.
• Customization: I wanted to tailor the experience to my specific needs, like visualizing categories or tracking unique reading metrics.

By leveraging the Google Books API, I could tap into a vast collection of book metadata without worrying about storing data on Google’s servers. The result is a custom-built, lightweight book tracker powered by Flask.

Features of the Book Tracker

The application allows you to:

• Track Reading Status: Organize books into shelves like "To Read," "Currently Reading," and "Read."
• Search and Add Books: Use the Google Books API to search for books and fetch rich metadata like author, categories, and cover images.
• Analyze Reading Habits: View detailed statistics, such as the most-read categories, total books read in a year, and average page count.
• Manage Your Library: Edit book details, refresh metadata, and categorize books by custom parameters.
• Privacy First: All your data is stored locally in a database that you control.

How It Works

The Book Tracker application is built using Python and Flask, with an SQLite database for local storage. It integrates with the Google Books API to fetch metadata, ensuring the latest information about each book without storing it on Google’s servers.

Prerequisites

Before you start, you’ll need:

• Python 3.8+ installed on your system.
• A Google Books API key. You can generate one through the Google Cloud Console.

Getting a Google Books API Key

1. Go to the Google Cloud Console
2. Create a new project or select an existing one
3. Enable the Books API:
   • Go to "APIs & Services" → "Library"
   • Search for "Books API"
   • Click "Enable"
4. Create credentials:
   • Go to "APIs & Services" → "Credentials"
   • Click "Create Credentials" → "API Key"
   • Copy your API key

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/book-tracker.git
cd book-tracker

2. Check Python version:
```bash
python --version

3.Create and activate a virtual environment:

python -m venv books-env
# On Windows:
books-env\Scripts\activate
# On macOS/Linux:
source books-env/bin/activate

4. Install dependencies:

pip install --upgrade pip
pip install -r requirements.txt

5. Alternatively, install dependencies using pipenv:

pipenv install
pipenv install -r requirements.txt
pipenv shell

6. Create a .env file in the project root:

FLASK_SECRET_KEY=$(python -c 'import secrets; print(secrets.token_hex(16))')
GOOGLE_BOOKS_API_KEY=your_google_books_api_key_here

7. Run the application:

python app.py

The application will automatically create the database on the first run.

The application will be available at http://127.0.0.1:5000

Usage

1. Adding Books

   • Search for books using the Google Books API
   • Select a shelf (To Read, Currently Reading, or Read)
   • Books are automatically populated with metadata from Google Books

2. Managing Books

   • Move books between shelves using the dropdown menu
   • Edit book details with an option to refresh from Google Books
   • Track reading dates for completed books
   • Remove books from your library
   • Search within your library shelves

3. Book Details

   • View comprehensive book information including:
     • Title and authors
     • Publication date and publisher
     • Page count
     • Description (HTML-free)
     • Categories
     • ISBN numbers
     • Language and maturity rating
     • Preview and info links
     • Book thumbnails

4. Viewing Statistics

   • See reading trends and patterns
   • Track categories and authors
   • Monitor reading progress

Challenges and Lessons Learned

1. Transitioning from Goodreads

The lack of Goodreads API support was frustrating at first, but the Google Books API turned out to be a more flexible and modern alternative.

2. Ensuring Privacy

Since Google Books is used only for metadata fetching, sensitive data like your reading habits remains private and under your control.

3. Building User-Friendly Features

Flask's templating system (Jinja2) made it simple to create dynamic and responsive pages for managing the library and displaying stats.

Future Enhancements

While the current version is functional and robust, there are some exciting features I'd like to add:

• Advanced Analytics: More granular insights, like time spent reading or trends by genre.
• Mobile-Friendly Design: Improve the user interface for smaller screens.
• Bulk Operations: Tools to import/export books or move multiple items between shelves.

Final Thoughts

Creating my own book tracker was an empowering experience. Not only did it solve the problem of data ownership, but it also gave me the flexibility to customize and expand the tool as I saw fit. If you're a reader who loves diving into data or simply wants more control over your library, I highly recommend giving this project a try.

You can check out the source code and contribute to the project on GitHub: Book Tracker.

If you decide to build or enhance this project, feel free to reach out or share your insights---I'd love to hear how others are customizing their book-tracking experience!

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