Book Search

Not every book you’ve read lives in a Kindle or a Kobo. Book Search lets you find a book by title or author and add it to your library directly. It’s the best way to add books you read on paper, or any book you want in your library without highlights.

Book Search is powered by Google Books, so most published books are easy to find.

Add a book

1. In the web app, go to your Library.
2. Click Add source and choose Add books by hand.
3. Type the title or author and pick the right book from the results.
4. Confirm to add it to your library.

You can pick several books in a row before confirming. Each one you click moves to a Selected books list above the results, and the button at the bottom of the page keeps count of what you’re about to add.

Finding the right book

The first ten matches are shown. If yours isn’t among them, choose Show 8 more below the list — the number is however many are left.

Searching an author returns that author’s books, so a prolific one fills the list quickly. Adding a word from the title — borges ficciones rather than borges — is usually faster than reading through everything.

If the book still isn’t there, add it by hand with Paste Highlights, which lets you name any title and author yourself.

What gets imported

• The book’s title, author, and cover, added as a Book in your library.
• No highlights — this adds the book itself, not passages from it.

Adding highlights later

A book with no highlights is a fine starting point. When you’re ready, you can add the passages you care about with Paste Highlights — paste many at once for the book you just added.

See also

• Import overview — all the ways to bring highlights in.
• Import failures — if you can’t find the book you want.