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https://github.com/lepisma/org-books

Reading list management with org mode
https://github.com/lepisma/org-books

emacs org-mode reading-list

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Reading list management with org mode

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README 

        
#+TITLE: org-books

#+AUTHOR: Abhinav Tushar



[[https://travis-ci.org/lepisma/org-books][https://img.shields.io/travis/lepisma/org-books/master.svg]] [[https://melpa.org/#/org-books][file:https://melpa.org/packages/org-books-badge.svg]] [[https://stable.melpa.org/#/org-books][file:https://stable.melpa.org/packages/org-books-badge.svg]]



Reading list management using org-mode. A sample list lives on my wiki [[https://lepisma.xyz/wiki/readings/reading-list][here]].



[[file:./screen.gif]]



** Quickstart

~org-books~ is available on melpa.



#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp

;; Set path to the reading list org file

(setq org-books-file "~/my-list.org")



;; A basic template file can be generated using the function `org-books-create-file'.

#+END_SRC



- To add books manually, use ~org-books-add-book~ function. To add from urls, call

  ~org-books-add-url~ (or use ~org-books-cliplink~ if url is in clipboard).



- To give ratings, go to the entry and call ~org-books-rate-book~.



- While filing a book, ~org-books-file-depth~ tells which headings are to be

  considered as a category (like fiction or something).



- ~org-books-add-to-top~ (default ~t~) tells whether to add the book at the top or

  bottom under the selected heading.



** Adding new source

A /source/ for books provide a /details function/ that takes certain input (like a

url in case of amazon) and returns a list of ~title~, ~author~ and ~props~. ~props~ is

an alist which gets added to the entry as org properties. Here is the output

from amazon's:



#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp :exports both :results output

(print (org-books-get-details-amazon "https://www.amazon.in/Algebra-Chapter-Graduate-Studies-Mathematics/dp/0821847813/"))

#+END_SRC



#+RESULTS:

: ("Algebra: Chapter 0 (Graduate Studies in Mathematics)" "Paolo Aluffi" (("AMAZON" . "https://www.amazon.in/Algebra-Chapter-Graduate-Studies-Mathematics/dp/0821847813/")))



With the details function defined, you need to write the url pattern it accepts

and add it to the variable =org-books-url-pattern-dispatches=. Check variable's

docstring for more details.



As of now there are the following sources:



- Manual (input: title, author etc.)

- Amazon (input: url)

- Goodreads (input: url)

- Openlibrary (input: url)

- ISBN (input: ISBN, dispatches openlibrary url source)



** Using org-capture

For a more flexible setup, you might just want to use ~org-capture~, possibly with

a little help from functions present in this package. Directly using capture

gives you much more flexibility over the structure and organization of entries.

Here we describe a few capture /templates/ that can be used:



*** Manual entry



#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp

  (setq org-capture-templates

        '(("b" "Book" entry (file "some-file.org")

           "* %^{TITLE}\n:PROPERTIES:\n:ADDED: %<[%Y-%02m-%02d]>\n:END:%^{AUTHOR}p\n%?" :empty-lines 1)))

#+END_SRC



*** Using url from clipboard



#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp

  (setq org-capture-templates

        '(("b" "Book" entry (file "some-file.org")

           "%(let* ((url (substring-no-properties (current-kill 0)))

                    (details (org-books-get-details url)))

               (when details (apply #'org-books-format 1 details)))")))

#+END_SRC



** Capturing reading logs

While reading, I keep a timestamped log under the book connected via org capture

template. Here is how it looks like:



#+begin_src org

    ,*** READING Book name

    :PROPERTIES:

    :AUTHOR:   Author

    :ADDED:    [2020-03-29]

    :AMAZON:   https://www.amazon.com/...

    :END:



    ,**** Log

     + [2021-04-09 Fri 00:32] ...

     + [2021-04-08 Thu 23:59] This book is very ...

#+end_src



Org capture template looks like the following, using the function

~org-books-visit-book-log~ from this package:



#+begin_src emacs-lisp

  (setq org-capture-templates

        '(("b" "Book log" item (function org-books-visit-book-log)

             "- %U %?" :prepend t)))

#+end_src