Import from Goodreads into Calibre

[zakman]

I'm looking to pull my list of books off of Goodreads and start tracking all of my reading through Calibre instead. What's the best way to do this - using the Goodreads plugin, or can I skip that and just import the .csv export from Goodreads directly?

[dunhill]

To my liking with the goodreads sync plugin.
But your taste could be to import it through csv

[zakman]

Originally Posted by dunhill

To my liking with the goodreads sync plugin.
But your taste could be to import it through csv

At this point importing a .csv file is what I'd like to do.

Where can I find instructions/advice on how to do so?

[capink]

Have a look at the Import List plugin.

[dunhill]

Originally Posted by zakman

At this point importing a .csv file is what I'd like to do.

Where can I find instructions/advice on how to do so?

Export your shelves from goodreads into a csv file, install the plugin mentioned in the previous thread, and upload the downloaded csv file.

[ZuleikaD]

I'm in the process of doing this with my books and I found the "Import List" plug-in very helpful. Once you do a big import, then you can sync via with the Goodreads plug-in, if you want.

A few notes on GR issues, aligning data and work flow:

There are known issues with GR exports and have been for years. Word is that they have no plans to fix it. Goodreads does not export complete data with the CSV download. For example, even if your book record on GR includes an exact publication date, GR only exports the year. (I can't remember if the GR sync plug-in will pull in the complete year. Possibly worth testing before you manually fix all the dates like I did... )

The fields don't align exactly with Calibre, so you'll probably want to open your CSV file in Excel or Numbers and clean it up first. Then export again to CSV.

• GR exports series names and numbers appended to the title and all in the Title field, e.g. "Murder on the Orient Express (Hercule Poirot, #10)." You'll need to get into some fancy search and move or replace actions to extract the "(Hercule Poirot, #10)" from the Title field and move it into new series name and series number fields.
• Only one author is included in the "Author" field from GR. Additional authors, translators, editors, etc. are all in one "Additional Authors" field. If you have a book with two authors and a translator, you'll need to move the second author to the "Author" field and create a new column/field for Translator and move the other name there. In GR, it says whether the person is an author, narrator, translator, illustrator, etc., but this info is not exported, so you have to look at each book's entry on the website... Also, multiple authors are separated by commas, but Calibre will be looking for "and" or "&".
• GR will export a column for read and to-read. Because these are tags in GR, you get the actual text. In Calibre, you can set up a Read Yes/No column, but the import will be looking for yes/no or 1/0, so you need to convert the text.
• GR will export a "Format" field, but this is not compatible with Calibre's "Format" field, which is specifically which ebook format Calibre is storing. So you might want to add column in Calibre for type of book (I went with Paper, eBook, Audiobook, but you might want to make distinctions between hardcover, paperback, etc.).
• GR will export both the publication year for the edition you've shelved and the original publication year. You'll need to decide which is going in Calibre's pre-set "Published" date field and then add another column in Calibre for the other if you want it. I suggest using the pre-set field for the edition, since that will match up better with downloading metadata.

Add whatever additional columns and fields you want to your Calibre library for things like read dates, etc. You might prefer to shift some other data that GR stores as tags to columns in Calibre. I have a GR tag for "Books I Own," but this would probably make more sense as a column in Calibre.

Once you think you're ready to go, copy your library formatting to a second library to use for testing and importing. Copy one of your existing books to it and fill in some fake data in any empty columns.

Start with a small test and be prepared to tinker with your excel file some more and potentially your Calibre columns.

It may be easier to separate the ebooks from the paper books and audiobooks for separate imports. The paper books will all be added as "empty books" with no matches. For the ebooks, you'll have a lot of matches to confirm at import. I'm adding audiobooks as empty books, but it is possible to later attach them as files.

Neither the CSV import process or GR sync will transfer cover images or descriptions, so adding these is entirely manual. If matching the cover of the edition you own isn't important to you, then you can use the "Download Cover" option. Or you can start searching the web for a match and save it to your computer. When I used the "Download Metadata" option to add descriptions, I discovered Calibre was also changing my ISBN to that of the description I clicked on. (I am sure I have my settings to download "comments only," and I find it horrifying that Calibre changes my ISBNs, but that's another subject). So this step is a lot of search/copy/paste.

Calibre allows for more natural language in tags than GR does, so you can clean all these up, adding back in spaces, getting rid of hyphens, etc. The GR sync plug-in allows you to say how Calibre tags match GR tags.

Finally, when you're confident with what your new info looks like in your import library, you can start merging it into your main Calibre library.


You'll probably discover more as you start working on this that's specific to the types of things you read, but hopefully this will give you an idea of the type of things to expect.

[Rellwood]

Originally Posted by ZuleikaD

I'm in the process of doing this with my books and I found the "Import List" plug-in very helpful. Once you do a big import, then you can sync via with the Goodreads plug-in, if you want.

A few notes on GR issues, aligning data and work flow:

There are known issues with GR exports and have been for years. Word is that they have no plans to fix it. Goodreads does not export complete data with the CSV download. For example, even if your book record on GR includes an exact publication date, GR only exports the year. (I can't remember if the GR sync plug-in will pull in the complete year. Possibly worth testing before you manually fix all the dates like I did... )

The fields don't align exactly with Calibre, so you'll probably want to open your CSV file in Excel or Numbers and clean it up first. Then export again to CSV.

• GR exports series names and numbers appended to the title and all in the Title field, e.g. "Murder on the Orient Express (Hercule Poirot, #10)." You'll need to get into some fancy search and move or replace actions to extract the "(Hercule Poirot, #10)" from the Title field and move it into new series name and series number fields.
• Only one author is included in the "Author" field from GR. Additional authors, translators, editors, etc. are all in one "Additional Authors" field. If you have a book with two authors and a translator, you'll need to move the second author to the "Author" field and create a new column/field for Translator and move the other name there. In GR, it says whether the person is an author, narrator, translator, illustrator, etc., but this info is not exported, so you have to look at each book's entry on the website... Also, multiple authors are separated by commas, but Calibre will be looking for "and" or "&".
• GR will export a column for read and to-read. Because these are tags in GR, you get the actual text. In Calibre, you can set up a Read Yes/No column, but the import will be looking for yes/no or 1/0, so you need to convert the text.
• GR will export a "Format" field, but this is not compatible with Calibre's "Format" field, which is specifically which ebook format Calibre is storing. So you might want to add column in Calibre for type of book (I went with Paper, eBook, Audiobook, but you might want to make distinctions between hardcover, paperback, etc.).
• GR will export both the publication year for the edition you've shelved and the original publication year. You'll need to decide which is going in Calibre's pre-set "Published" date field and then add another column in Calibre for the other if you want it. I suggest using the pre-set field for the edition, since that will match up better with downloading metadata.

Add whatever additional columns and fields you want to your Calibre library for things like read dates, etc. You might prefer to shift some other data that GR stores as tags to columns in Calibre. I have a GR tag for "Books I Own," but this would probably make more sense as a column in Calibre.

Once you think you're ready to go, copy your library formatting to a second library to use for testing and importing. Copy one of your existing books to it and fill in some fake data in any empty columns.

Start with a small test and be prepared to tinker with your excel file some more and potentially your Calibre columns.

It may be easier to separate the ebooks from the paper books and audiobooks for separate imports. The paper books will all be added as "empty books" with no matches. For the ebooks, you'll have a lot of matches to confirm at import. I'm adding audiobooks as empty books, but it is possible to later attach them as files.

Neither the CSV import process or GR sync will transfer cover images or descriptions, so adding these is entirely manual. If matching the cover of the edition you own isn't important to you, then you can use the "Download Cover" option. Or you can start searching the web for a match and save it to your computer. When I used the "Download Metadata" option to add descriptions, I discovered Calibre was also changing my ISBN to that of the description I clicked on. (I am sure I have my settings to download "comments only," and I find it horrifying that Calibre changes my ISBNs, but that's another subject). So this step is a lot of search/copy/paste.

Calibre allows for more natural language in tags than GR does, so you can clean all these up, adding back in spaces, getting rid of hyphens, etc. The GR sync plug-in allows you to say how Calibre tags match GR tags.

Finally, when you're confident with what your new info looks like in your import library, you can start merging it into your main Calibre library.


You'll probably discover more as you start working on this that's specific to the types of things you read, but hopefully this will give you an idea of the type of things to expect.

I forgot how much work goes into importing a GR .csv at first. I've been doing it for years and have gotten it down to a science. Between the Sync plugin and the .csv I have it down pat.