A real bookshelf, finally digital
Reading apps track what you read. Cataloguing apps list what you own. Kitabi does both — and remembers which friend still has your favourite paperback. Scroll on: the whole library, chapter by chapter.
Every book you own, in seconds
Point your camera at the barcode and the book arrives — cover, author, publisher, pages, the lot. No barcode? Search the catalogue or add it by hand. Even books without a photo get a handsome cover of their own, so your library always looks loved, never empty.
- ISBN scanning — one flash of the camera per book
- Editions done right — your 1994 paperback, not a generic listing
- Authors, publishers & series — tap any name to browse everything by them
Never lose a lent book againFREE, FOREVER
“Lent to Anu, 2 June.” Kitabi keeps a proper ledger — who has it, since when, returned ✓ — and gives you a gentle nudge when it’s time to ask for one back. Other apps paywall this; here it’s the whole point.
- Lending records, not sticky notes — every loan, dated and remembered
- A Borrowed shelf too — the books friends trusted you with, both sides of the ledger
- Lend to a friend on Kitabi — the book appears on their Borrowed shelf, and a return ticks both ledgers at once
- Due-date reminders — a quiet local notification, never a public shaming
Your reading, remembered
Pending, reading, read, stopped, wishlist — with start and finish dates, page-by-page progress, and a reading timer for the sessions you want to savour. A reading journal that fills itself in.
- Progress in pages or percent — pick up exactly where you left off
- Timed reading sessions — press start, sink in; your hours appear on Home
- Favourites, shelves & tags — “beach reads”, “to lend to Dad” — yours alone
Stars, reviews & secrets — kept apart
A rating is public arithmetic. A review is your considered opinion. A note in the margin — “signed copy, don’t lend” — is nobody’s business. Kitabi keeps all three in their proper places, each with its own lock.
- Private by default — nothing is visible to anyone unless you flip the switch
- Per-review visibility — share one opinion, keep ten to yourself
- Notes stay yours forever — no toggle, no exceptions, no fine print
Rating
On the book★★★★★ — quick, honest, attached to the book itself.
Review
Yours to share“The finest Malayalam novel I’ve read this decade…” — publish it, or don’t.
Private note
Only ever yours“Signed by the author at Kochi, 2019. Do NOT lend.”
Your year in pages
Watch your reading add up — books finished, pages turned, hours read, the languages living on your shelf. Search and filter everything: by author, language, genre, year, status, publisher, shelf.
- Dashboards & charts — your library, counted and drawn
- Language-wise, year-wise, status-wise — sliced any way you shelve it
- Share cards — a handsome per-book card to recommend it to a friend
Move in, in minutes
Already keep your books on Goodreads or in a spreadsheet? Bring the whole thing — shelves, ratings, reviews and dates arrive together, in one tap. Nobody re-types two hundred books, and with Kitabi nobody has to.
- Goodreads export — drop the CSV in, done
- Any spreadsheet — your long-suffering Google Sheet retires with honours
- Everything lands shelved — statuses, ratings and reviews mapped, not dumped