How it works
You add the books and write the notes, and the library connects them.
The first two steps are yours and take no more effort than reading with a pencil. The third step happens without you, and the shelves are rebuilt as your notes grow.
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You do this
Add the book you are reading
Type the title, and the library fills in the cover, the author and the year from public catalogues. Each book keeps its reading state and the dates you started and finished it, so the shelf also records what you read and when.
EnchiridionEpictetus · 1600 · 4 blocksReading
Why Red Doesn’t Sound Like a BellFinished 14 March · 11 blocksRead
The SpikeAdded 2 April · no blocks yetWantThe title was the only thing typed for each of these books.
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You do this
Write a block whenever a thought arrives
A block holds one thought, which might be a line worth keeping, a question for the author or a point you disagree with. You can return to it later and add a second thought underneath. Keeping each thought separate is what lets the library compare it with the blocks you have written about other books.
the growth is at the point of resistance
and it needs rest either side of it, or it is just damage
an example blockThis example block had its second thought added underneath it a week after the first.
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The library does this
The library connects the blocks
The library reads each block for its meaning and finds blocks in other books that make a similar point. Books with similar notes end up on the same shelf, and the library gives each shelf a name drawn from the subjects or the book at its centre. You never file anything, and the shelves are redrawn as your notes grow.
the growth is at the point of resistance
an example block · one bookthe impediment to action advances action
an example block · another bookThese two blocks were written about different books, and the library places them side by side because both say that an obstacle is where progress happens.
What you get back
Four ways to see what you read.
Every library also has the usual shelf, calendar and reading views. The four below are built from your notes, so they appear once you have written some.
Shelves: made from your notes
The library grouped these books by what the notes about them say, then named each group after the subjects its books share or the book at its centre. Nobody chose these shelves or typed their names.
These are the six largest of 20 shelves. The map below shows every one of them.
Constellation: the whole library at once
Each point is a book, placed according to what was written about it, so books that share ideas sit close together. Point at a star or choose a shelf below to see which books sit together. This is the map of the library behind this site, with titles and notes left off because the library is private.
Point at a star to see its shelf.
Kindred: books that belong together
Each book lists the books closest to it, measured by how similar your notes on them are. Genre, author and shelf play no part in it.
- 48 Laws of PowerRobert Greene
- How to Be a StoicMassimo Pigliucci
- HappyDerren Brown
- The Ego Is the EnemyRyan Holiday
- 12 Rules for LifeJordan B. Peterson
- Advice Not GivenMark Epstein
These books sit beside the Enchiridion because the notes written about them share its ideas, whatever their genre or author.
Questions: what your reading made you think
“My bookshelf tells you what I read. My marginal notes tell a more interesting story.”
Some questions outlive the book that raised them. The library notices when notes from different books and different years keep circling one, and traces it back through what you wrote, marking where your books disagreed and where your own thinking turned.
When I make a decision, is conscious thought doing the deciding, or am I explaining it afterwards?
An example question. The library proposes the question; every line underneath is the reader’s own note.
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“Who actually decides here, me, or the part of me that reports on it afterwards?”
Opens it -
“The conscious mind is a press secretary: it hears the result after the vote and announces it as though it had cast it.”
Extends -
“No hidden depths made the choice. The reasons I give are improvised on the spot, and they feel true because I only just made them.”
Sharpens - Your books disagreed here
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“Even if the explaining comes late, it is not idle: what I tell myself changes what I do next. That may be enough to count as deciding.”
Pushes back
In numbers
The library so far.
These totals are counted from the library each time the site is rebuilt.
books on the shelves, first published between 1600 and 2026.
words written in the margins, which is more than two full-length novels.
blocks, each of them compared with every other block for what it means.
shelves, each named from the books it holds.