Presenting... π
https://bookstr.xyz, a simple Goodreads alternative built on Nostr!
This is an extremely basic prototype that only barely works (user beware!). However, I think it highlights what is amazing about building on Nostr. I was inspired by this post, and then able to build a client in 3 days almost entirely with AI.
The opportunity to bridge social behavior with "other stuff" (in this case, books via Open Library API) is huge. This concept could work for any type of content, not just books. Music, Movies and TV, games, etc. β all on Nostr.
The process of building on Nostr with AI also demonstrated a few gaps in the ecosystem where AI-ready tools were missing or failing, so there is definitely opportunity to grow there.
Shout out
@Alex Gleason who had many of these ideas first, helped me with lots of the Nostr event specifics, and solved a couple bugs!
Overall, I'm extremely impressed by what can be done with AI on Nostr and all the doors this will open! I'm excited to keep working on this. #bookstr #GrowNostr #AI #Nostr
Replies (70)
Nice!
Sweet! π
Super cool. What paper ink devices can you use that work with this?
Wow! What was your coding experience prior to this?
Awesome!
Just FYI, that link has a comma at the end of it, so useβ¦..
Bookstr
Decentralized reading on Nostr
Awesome!! Love it
As a "tech retard" I get stuck here and cannot log in....why can't I just type in my nostr key to log in?
Thatβs amazing!!
this is awesome.
any insights into your dev flow?
A couple of years and projects or contributions here and there when inspired. Junior dev at best. I mostly work in communications π
this is sick
i want a nostr book club
i can't sign in with alby though...?
yeah same
Fair play. I was sort of hoping you might say noneβ¦ then Iβd go full stream ahead making myself a Nostr native, self hosted video platform.
Iβd have no idea how to start though, Iβve never got further than adjusting the odd parameter in a script following instructions.
Well done!
How can I add my book to this? This is really great what you did and I would love my book to be a part of it.
Can you elaborate on the AI part? What part of bookstr is AI? Or do you mean you developed it with AI?
Right now it only supports Nostr Login via Nostr.band which is a nice login tool for Nostr you can just immediately plug in. You can use an extension, a signing app, or basically anything besides raw nsec (which is for your safety, bc I wouldn't trust it with your nsec yet probably! lol!)
GitHub
GitHub - nostrband/nostr-login
Contribute to nostrband/nostr-login development by creating an account on GitHub.
Wow. Way to ship!
I built it with AI! Didn't touch a line of code myself!
Right now it's pulling from Open library API, I'm not sure how they add books! I'm the future I want to expand the book data and include the ability to submit books :)
AI works better when you are also an expert coder. Anything of value will require human intelligence to debug. Just my 2 cents worth.
Im no expert, although I did have the handy assistance of an expert nearby when I got stuck - so I agree it's not at a piont yet where a truly non-technical person with just an idea and a dream could do it. The main it helepd to know what the Nostr event types I wanted to use and the various tags, etc, to be able to shape the events it was submitting to the relays.
I am so in
Love it. Will have a play around. Nice to see someone else building for the readers!!
ok, I had to click the hidden button on the right then later click the login button on the left
I think if you click this link and create a lovable account (there's a free tier) you can see my entire chat with the AI including me eventually yelling and crashing out over the ratings lmao
But overall my advice is shape as MUCH as you can in the early prompts before the codebase gets too big. It struggles after a certain point and the simpler the better.
Lovable - Build for the web 20x faster
Build software products, using only a chat interface.
This is awesome, congrats
BTW I'm signed in rn, but it still says that I'm not
Just sharing feedback!
Thank you! You probably have to refresh between actions
i manually input the ISBN of a book I started yesterday
the title is wrong, no subtitle
no cover image
i can manually fix this stuff.
@MK Fain can you vibe code these features? I will zap you small amounts of sats that do not fully compensate you for your efforts. π
There's still a lot of improvements to be done with the Open Library integration! All still to do π
I have my issues with signing extensions. Alby is the only one I know of with multi account support. I will jump ship as soon as a high quality alternative is available.
Good on you. Never allow users to enter their nsec directly. π₯
Is there a GitHub repo for this?
Did you use the OpenReads app for any info? Thatβs a pretty good app without the social aspect
This is awesome. Is there a stand alone app or browser only?
Thanks for building this! it looks very cool.
It'd be even cooler if I could import my 14 years of data from goodreads. Unfortunately when I tried to export that data I got this shitty message:
At least if I have to start over on #nostr I'll be free of another walled data garden.
Damn I didnt even know they offered this at all! I'd love to include the ability to import data in the future
It's hidden in small type at the bottom of the profile settings page, "Download my Goodreads data".
Ironically, punctuation broke the link to bookstr;
Bookstr
Decentralized reading on Nostr
#bookstr
View quoted note βNice. The link wasnβt working for me. Not sure why
Disregard
This is very good work. Well done!
π
Really cool
booya! cover image uploaded
it looks like you don't pull in subtitles tho, that was already there
5000 sat bounty for subtitles
I really like this project.
Is it possible to import a CSV from the data I have in goodreads? Is that in mind for a future version?
And what about marking as read? I'm looking for this option and haven't found it yet.
Once again, congratulations on the initiative.
To mark a book as "read" click the check mark icon in the top right corner of the book (maybe this needs a more clear UI! π
). It should turn green when you refresh the page after that, and show up in the "Read" tab in your library!
No importing from Goodreads yet, but some others have suggested it and I'm going to have to look into how they allow exporting and see what can be done! I agree that would be a hugely impactful feature!
This is great!
Awesome, i'll start using it right now!
We definitely need a legitimate Goodreads alternative for the Nostr protocol. #bookstr
Ok got it, thanks a lot π Iβll go mess with it and well done for the amazing idea !!
I can't use extensions on mobile and bunkers almost never work for me, they just hang.
I wish more sites would support DM logins
Itβs super straightforward to do. I like DM logins because it turns your favourite social client into an authenticator. I will try to implement on my site.
site is down
this is a good sign π
It's still up for me - lmk if it persists for you after a refresh! Also possible we've got rate limited π
lol π€¦ββοΈ the primal URL includes a comma. it works in other clients
DM doesn't solve it for sites that need to sign events though
NIP-98 does tho
Nice!!!
Great initiative!!
Hi there. Have been building a few tools with nostr and social media platforms providers for automated marketing/social media posting along with normal posts. My cryptocurrency platform has email based authentication. Not sure users like it. Need to do research. However, looked into building an API gateway something using nostr. Somehow erring towards lnurl-auth. Suspect the nostr lightning wallet would work with this. Not sure. Will add you anyway..well.done.
This is awesome
So cool :) awesome work
It's open source right?
Maybe I would collaborate, I like the project ππ»
For me it stays like this forever. Running it on brave in an Android device:
