Library

The library is your bookshelf — every book you've imported, organized however you want. It supports thousands of books without slowing down.

Bookshelf views

Toggle between two views from the top-right of the library:

• Grid — covers laid out in a grid. The default; best for browsing by visual recognition.
• List — one row per book with title, author, progress, and status. Dense, good for large libraries.

Search the library from the header — typing filters by title, author, tags, or series. Press Esc or clear the field to see all books.

Organize books

Group books by:

• Authors — auto-grouped by author
• Books (flat view)
• Groups — user-created collections (drag books into a group or create one from the selection menu)
• Series — auto-grouped when books share series metadata

Sort by title, author, last-read, date added, format, or published date. Ascending or descending.

Bulk operations. Enter selection mode (long-press on mobile, long-click on desktop) to pick multiple books. The action bar lets you change status, delete, group, or show details.

Book metadata

Tap Details in the action bar in selection mode (or right-click → Book info) to open the metadata panel:

• Title, author, series — editable. Your edits take precedence over what's in the EPUB.
• Cover — extracted automatically; you can replace it with any image.
• Tags — your labels for filtering.
• File details — format, size, import date.

Edited metadata is stored in Readest's book config, not in the file itself — the original EPUB is never modified.

Import options

See Getting Started → Open your first book for the basics. A few extra notes for heavy importing:

• Duplicate detection — Readest hashes book content and metadata, and refuses to import the same book twice.
• Batch import — drop many files at once; or import a whole folder on desktop.

OPDS catalogs

OPDS (Open Publication Distribution System) is a standard for ebook catalogs — think of it as RSS for bookstores and libraries.

To add a catalog:

1. Open Import Menu → Online Library in the header bar of the library page.
2. Add a new catalog with its root URL and optional username / password.
3. Browse the catalog from the library — OPDS catalogs appear as entries in the top bar.

Many sources publish OPDS feeds:

• Standard Ebooks — classics with modern typography. URL: https://standardebooks.org/opds
• Calibre server — if you run Calibre Content Server, its OPDS endpoint works directly.
• Your own library server — Komga, Kavita, and other self-hosted services all expose OPDS.

Downloads from OPDS go straight into your Readest library.