Reading list management using org-mode. A sample list lives on my wiki here.

org-books is available on melpa.

;; Set path to the reading list org file
(setq org-books-file "~/my-list.org")

;; A basic template file can be generated using the function `org-books-create-file'.

• To add books manually, use org-books-add-book function. To add from urls, call org-books-add-url (or use org-books-cliplink if url is in clipboard).
• To give ratings, go to the entry and call org-books-rate-book.
• While filing a book, org-books-file-depth tells which headings are to be considered as a category (like fiction or something).
• org-books-add-to-top (default t) tells whether to add the book at the top or bottom under the selected heading.

A source for books provide a details function that takes certain input (like a url in case of amazon) and returns a list of title, author and props. props is an alist which gets added to the entry as org properties. Here is the output from amazon’s:

(print (org-books-get-details-amazon "https://www.amazon.in/Algebra-Chapter-Graduate-Studies-Mathematics/dp/0821847813/"))

("Algebra: Chapter 0 (Graduate Studies in Mathematics)" "Paolo Aluffi" (("AMAZON" . "https://www.amazon.in/Algebra-Chapter-Graduate-Studies-Mathematics/dp/0821847813/")))

With the details function defined, you need to write the url pattern it accepts and add it to the variable org-books-url-pattern-dispatches. Check variable’s docstring for more details.

As of now there are the following sources:

• Manual (input: title, author etc.)
• Amazon (input: url)
• Goodreads (input: url)
• Openlibrary (input: url)
• ISBN (input: ISBN, dispatches openlibrary url source)

For a more flexible setup, you might just want to use org-capture, possibly with a little help from functions present in this package. Directly using capture gives you much more flexibility over the structure and organization of entries. Here we describe a few capture templates that can be used:

(setq org-capture-templates
      '(("b" "Book" entry (file "some-file.org")
         "* %^{TITLE}\n:PROPERTIES:\n:ADDED: %<[%Y-%02m-%02d]>\n:END:%^{AUTHOR}p\n%?" :empty-lines 1)))

(setq org-capture-templates
      '(("b" "Book" entry (file "some-file.org")
         "%(let* ((url (substring-no-properties (current-kill 0)))
                  (details (org-books-get-details url)))
             (when details (apply #'org-books-format 1 details)))")))

While reading, I keep a timestamped log under the book connected via org capture template. Here is how it looks like:

*** READING Book name
:PROPERTIES:
:AUTHOR:   Author
:ADDED:    [2020-03-29]
:AMAZON:   https://www.amazon.com/...
:END:

**** Log
 + [2021-04-09 Fri 00:32] ...
 + [2021-04-08 Thu 23:59] This book is very ...

Org capture template looks like the following, using the function org-books-visit-book-log from this package:

(setq org-capture-templates
      '(("b" "Book log" item (function org-books-visit-book-log)
           "- %U %?" :prepend t)))