How to Import Digital Books from Goodreads, Calibre, and Kobo

The Big Bookcase treats digital books the same as physical ones: covers on a shelf, metadata you can edit, and a catalog that stays yours. You do not need a special ebook connector. Export a CSV from the tool you already use and import it in Settings.

Goodreads (Kindle sync and reading lists)

On Goodreads, open My Books, then Import and export, then Export Library. You get a CSV with Title, Author, ISBN, shelves, and more.

In The Big Bookcase, open Settings, choose Import from CSV or Steam, and upload that file. Rows on your ebook shelf import as digital books. ISBNs match against Open Library when possible so covers fill in automatically.

Calibre (serious ebook hoarders)

In Calibre, right-click your library and choose Export catalog to CSV (or use Convert books → Create a catalog of the books in your Calibre library). Include title, authors, ISBN, and pubdate columns.

Upload the CSV through the same import dialog. Calibre exports are detected automatically and imported as digital books.

Kobo and other stores

If your store exports a simple title and author list, download our CSV template from the import dialog and paste or merge your columns into that format. Set format to digital and media_type to book.

Amazon Kindle does not offer a clean export API. Many collectors sync Kindle to Goodreads and import from there instead of copying purchase pages by hand.

After import

The preview step shows matched covers, ambiguous titles, and anything already on your shelf. Uncheck duplicates, confirm the batch, and your ebooks appear in the Digital subsection alongside physical books.

You can export the same library anytime as CSV or a media ZIP from Settings, so your catalog never lives in only one place.