Getting started¶

Your first library¶

When you start Bookx for the first time the library is empty and shows a welcome page. The library is a plain folder, by default ~/Documents/Bookx Library. It holds your book files and a SQLite catalogue, bookx-library.db. You can move the folder, copy it or back it up like any other folder.

To use another folder, open Preferences (Ctrl+,) and change the library location. Preferences has sections and a search (Ctrl+F inside it, see Preferences), and the command palette (Ctrl+K) finds every command, book and setting; see Accessibility.

Adding books¶

• Click + in the header, then Add Books (Ctrl+O), Add Folder or Add Folder Recursively.
• Or drag files and folders onto the window.

Bookx reads the metadata and cover from every file. Formats other than EPUB are converted to EPUB on the way in, see Converting and exporting. Duplicates are skipped. While a large import runs, a progress page is shown.

Two more ways to get books in:

• Add from the Web turns a web page into a book, or a feed into a news book. See News and Web.
• A watched import folder offers files that appear in a folder for review. See Library.

Importing a Calibre library¶

Menu → Library Health → Import Calibre Library. Pick the Calibre folder (the one that contains metadata.db). You choose between copying the files into the Bookx library and keeping them in the Calibre folder. A progress view runs, and at the end a report lists what was imported, what was skipped and what was already there. The same is available on the command line:

bookx-cli library import-calibre ~/Calibre\ Library --copy

Opening a book¶

Double-click a cover to read it. Right-click a book for the context menu: Read, Edit Metadata, Edit Book, mark read or unread, Convert To, Send by E-mail, export annotations, save a copy, show in Files and Remove.

Next: Library, Reading.