Adding books and managing your shelf

The easiest way: scan them

The CookShelf app (free from the App Store and Google Play, links at cookshelf.app) has a barcode scanner built for this. Sign in with your EYB email so everything syncs, tap My Shelf, then +, and start scanning along your shelves. One limit: a book we don’t already have in the Library can’t be added through the app scanner. See “If your book isn’t in the Library” below.

Adding books one at a time

1. Select Library and search by title, author, or ISBN.
2. Click +Bookshelf. The book’s status changes wherever you see it.

Adding a book from the Library. +Bookshelf becomes a check mark once the book is on your shelf.

Add all your books, even unindexed ones. Your Bookshelf becomes a catalog of your collection, we email you when one of your books gets indexed, and the more Bookshelves a book is on, the sooner it gets indexed.

Importing in bulk

Import Books (under the My Bookshelf tab; Premium members) takes a pasted list of ISBNs, up to 500 at a time.

1. From Goodreads: My Books > Import/Export > Export to CSV, then copy the ISBN column.
2. From LibraryThing: More > Import/Export > Export as CSV, then copy the ISBNs.
3. With a USB barcode scanner: plug it in, click into the Import box, and scan.

Import Books, under the My Bookshelf tab: paste or scan your ISBNs, then click Add Books.

Paste or scan into the Import box, click Add Books, and please stick to food and drink books. Books already in the Library import immediately; for the rest, we fetch the data from Amazon, usually within a few hours, and they land on your Bookshelf.

If your book isn’t in the Library

Sometimes Amazon doesn’t list a book, or hasn’t tagged it as food and drink, so the import can’t fetch it. You can add the book data yourself with the Member Added Books feature. Vintage books, self-published books, and books without ISBNs are all welcome. To see which of your requested imports didn’t come through, select NotOnAmazon in the menu to the right of the green search bar.

Removing books and recipes

Click the check mark next to a book (or the ✓Bookshelf button on its details page) and confirm. It works the same for magazines and blogs. There’s no remove-everything button, but if you need a full clear-out, email us at info@eatyourbooks.com.

Removing a book: Remove in the list view, or the checked Bookshelf button on the book's own page.

To remove a single online recipe you added, open it and click the checked Bookshelf box at the top (“Remove from your Bookshelf”). Recipes that come as part of a whole book, magazine, or blog can’t be removed on their own; they come with the collection.