How to Showcase Your eBook Library?

Unlike a physical book library (paper), it is particularly difficult to showcase our collection of ebooks. Here are some solutions that exist to present your digital book library.

First of all, the digital books you own are stored on your e-reader, smartphone, or tablet. They can also be on a computer, especially if you use the Calibre software, which allows you to manage your ebook library for free. You will find a guide for Calibre on this page.

Presenting your library is not just an ego trip to show people how much of a great reader you are with a vast culture (even if that might be your primary goal).

It is also about seeing your books at a glance and deciding quickly to browse through them or to decide on your next read.

And for that, there's nothing better than seeing the book’s cover or its name on the spine. The advantage of physical book libraries is that this can be done in a single glance.

Unfortunately, this is not the case for digital books (ebooks)!

There are currently few solutions to do this easily, and in any case, you will need a computer and a screen to present your ebooks.

The first solution available to you is to use the Calibre software and configure it to display the covers of the books. Click on the button at the bottom right to change the layout and display the covers of the books in the Calibre library. Here’s what it looks like:

Another solution is to present your ebook library in the form of a website. Once again, it is possible to do this with Calibre.

But beware, from now on, it will become quite technical.

There is the Calibre Web software that allows you to create an internet server to publish your Calibre library on the web. This allows you not only to showcase your ebook library but also to share your ebooks with your relatives.

Here is what the created website looks like:

Link to download and install the software (IT knowledge required): https://github.com/janeczku/calibre-web

Additionally, here are other software or IT projects offering to program something similar:

• https://github.com/mawise/bookshelf
• https://scastiel.dev/animated-3d-book-css

And finally, here are websites that showcase ebooks in a more beautiful way than simple lists of titles:

• https://press.stripe.com/
• https://openlibrary.org/explore

Don’t forget that you can download free ebooks to start building a beautiful ebook library.