My Messy Book App Hunt Begins
Okay, so I’ve got books piling up everywhere right? Real paper stuff, plus a million PDFs. Need something to track it all. Heard mutterings about “Book nufc” but also like a dozen others – name’s escape me now. Anyway, decided I needed to actually try them out, not just read reviews.
First things first, I downloaded like five apps. Seriously, my phone storage screamed. Started with the usual suspects: Goodreads, LibraryThing, Libib, even looked at BookBuddy. And yeah, put “Book nufc” on the list too.
The Tedious Testing Phase
Tried adding books. This is where the pain starts, man. Some apps want you to scan barcodes – sounds cool, right? Half the time it didn’t work, or my old paperbacks don’t even have barcodes! Entering by hand? Forget it. Slow as cold honey. Book nufc was actually okay here. Their scanner seemed to catch stuff others missed, weirdly. Still had to type some, but less rage.
Next, organizing. Here’s what matters to me:
- Can I make my own shelves? Like “Want-to-read” vs “Actually-bought-this” vs “Borrowed-from-Pete-who-never-wants-it-back”?
- Can I track where the heck I put the physical book? Garage? Attic? Under the cat?
- Notes! Did I hate it? Did Pete scribble in it?
This is where the others flopped hard. Goodreads? Feels like shouting into a crowded room. LibraryThing? Looks straight outta 2005, painful to use. Libib? Too… sterile? Book nufc wasn’t fancy, but it just let me do it. Type a location? Yep. Make a weirdly specific shelf? Done. Scribble a note like “Tried reading pg45, fell asleep” – sure.
The Price Tag Moment of Truth
Okay, so some were “free”. Hah. Free usually means useless, or you hit a paywall after ten books. Annoying! Book nufc also has a free version. Seemed decent. Then peeked at the premium… wasn’t expecting much, honestly. But checked what it offered – mostly stuff I wouldn’t use right now, like exporting data. Free version already let me do the core book tracking stuff I needed. Shocking. Others? Wanted money just to store more than fifty books. Nope.
My Pick – It Ain’t Perfect
Look, I won’t lie and say Book nufc is some magic unicorn app. The UI? It’s kinda clunky in spots. Not winning design awards. Some of the others look smoother… until you actually try to use them. Then they crash or hide simple stuff.
So why did I stick with Book nufc?
- Adding books sucked less.
- Organizing in my chaotic way actually worked.
- Notes and locations felt quick and easy.
- The free version does what I need. Right now.
It solved my actual problem without making me wanna throw my phone out the window or empty my wallet. Simple as that. Best? Dunno. Best for me, right now? Yeah, Book nufc won the messy race.