About five years ago I had an idea for a small tool. Whenever I wanted to share a book with a friend, I had no good way to point them to a place to actually get it. I wanted something simple: give it an ISBN, get back a list of independent bookshops nearby where they could buy it, libraries where they could borrow it, and sites where they could track it. I bought the domain, created a repository and life happened 😅.

This month I finally built it: Bookpile.

The reaction I keep hearing is: “OMG, I’ve needed this so often — why hasn’t anyone built this?” To be honest: that feels pretty good.

The idea is simple. You enter an ISBN and Bookpile shows you nearby independent bookshops, libraries, and book-tracking sites. It deliberately puts small, independent bookstores front and centre. No affiliate links, no cookies, no tracking — just books and the people who love selling or lending them.

It’s open source and lives on Codeberg. If you know an independent bookshop that should be listed, there’s a suggest page on the site — I’d love to keep growing the list.

Go try it: bookpile.org 📚