Import from Goodreads

Thinking about moving away from Goodreads? You don't have to start from scratch. Book Assembly can import your entire Goodreads library, so all your books, ratings, reviews, and reading history come with you. Your Goodreads account stays completely unaffected.

How it works

Start by exporting your Goodreads library as a CSV file. Goodreads gives you this option in your account settings. Once you have the file, upload it to Book Assembly and a step-by-step wizard will guide you through the rest. You can preview everything before anything gets imported.

Everything comes across

The import brings over far more than just book titles. Here is what gets transferred:

• Books and authors
• Star ratings and written reviews
• Reading status (read, currently reading, to be read)
• Date started and date finished
• Goodreads shelves, mapped to Book Assembly lists
• Private notes
• Re-reads, so your full reading history is preserved

Shelf mapping

Goodreads shelves work a bit differently to Book Assembly lists, so the wizard lets you decide what happens to each one. For every shelf, you can choose to skip it, create a new list with the same name, or map it to a list you already have. If you have shelves for DNF (did not finish) or paused books, the importer will detect those automatically and set the correct reading status.

Keeping things tidy

Author names can be inconsistent in Goodreads exports. The wizard includes an author matching step that spots variations and lets you pick the version you prefer, so your library stays clean and consistent from the start.

Duplicate detection runs automatically during the import. If you already have some books in Book Assembly, the importer will flag matches so you don't end up with double entries.

Cover images

Goodreads exports don't include cover images, but Book Assembly can find them for you from online databases after your import is processed. This is on by default but you can skip it if you prefer.

Import limits

Each import handles up to 1,000 books. If your Goodreads library is larger than that, you can split the CSV and import in batches. Most readers will be well within the limit.

For a detailed walkthrough with screenshots, see the full Goodreads import guide.