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Use Your Shelf

Your Shelf is your personal collection hub: an index of manual collections and Saved Searches you build yourself, alongside a full set of automatic views built from your own reading activity. It never changes the shared Library — only what you see and how you group it.

Open a Shelf

  1. Choose Shelf in the header (desktop) or the bottom tab bar (phone) to open Shelf Home. It lists every Shelf you can open, in three groups: Your Shelves (your own manual collections and Saved Searches), Automatic (one Shelf per system-derived view, always listed, in the same order every time), and Shared (Admin-published Shelves every signed-in reader can view).
  2. Choose a Shelf's name to open it. Each Shelf is its own page, with its own paginated membership — not a section of one long scrolling dashboard.

At the top of Shelf Home, jump chips let you move straight to an Automatic Shelf farther down the page.

Desktop

A dark desktop Shelf jump-chip strip above Recently Added, with the Bookmarks chip highlighted.

  1. Each chip jumps straight to that section further down the page — this one opens Bookmarks.

Phone

A dark phone Shelf jump-chip strip above Recently Added, with the Bookmarks chip highlighted.

  1. Each chip jumps straight to that section further down the page — this one opens Bookmarks.

A manual Shelf's row on Shelf Home shows how many books it holds; a Saved Search's row reads Saved Search — live instead, because it has no fixed membership to count. A Shared Shelf still in Draft carries a Draft badge next to its count, visible only when an admin is signed in.

What each Shelf shows

Recently Added is always first in the Automatic group. Every other Automatic Shelf follows in the same fixed order:

Shelf What it shows
Recently Added Every Book currently in the Library, newest addition first.
Downloaded Books whose most recent Checkout is more recent than any reading verdict you've logged for them.
Currently Reading Books with an open reading cycle right now.
Next in Series The next unread Book in a Series where you've finished at least one released Book.
Recently Requested Your most recently requested Books.
More by Recently-Read Authors Unowned Books by an Author whose Book you've finished.
Recently Read — Not Rated Finished Books that are still waiting on a star.
Bookmarks Books, Series, and Authors you've bookmarked.
Unread Releases by Watched Released, unread Books by an Author or Series you Watch.
Series in Progress A Series with at least one finished released Book and at least one you haven't finished; a current Did Not Finish anywhere in the Series removes it from this list only.
New in Your Series Recently released Books in a Series you've already started.
More Series by Authors You Love Other Series by an Author whose Books you finish.
Full series available A Series you own in full that you haven't started yet.
Read Every Book you've finished, most recently finished first.
Rated Every Book you've starred, most recently rated first.
Unrated A started or finished Book with no star yet.
DNF Books you've marked Did not finish.
Top Rated The same starred Books as Rated, ordered best star first instead.
Recently Released New catalog releases from the last 90 days, limited to Authors the household has requested before and not given up on.
Upcoming Future-dated catalog Books by that same set of Authors, with no cutoff on how far out.
What to Read Next Your personal recommendation queue — see Discover.
Recently Catalogued Every acquisition Request anyone in the household has made, newest first — pending, ready, cancelled, or failed alike; it shows each request's status only, with no acquire control of its own.

Recently Added stays first

Recently Added is the one Automatic Shelf you cannot hide. Its See all link opens its own full page when the carousel preview is not enough.

Desktop

A dark desktop Recently Added section on the Shelf, pinned first with no Hide control.

  1. Recently Added has no Hide control — it is pinned first and always shown.

A dark desktop Recently Added section on the Shelf with its See all link in the section header.

  1. See all opens this section's own full page for more than the carousel preview shows.

Phone

A dark phone Recently Added section on the Shelf, pinned first with no Hide control and a See all link.

  1. Recently Added has no Hide control — it is pinned first and always shown.
  2. See all opens this section's own full page for more than the carousel preview shows.

A manual Shelf shows exactly the Books you've added, in the order you put them. A Saved Search shows whatever currently matches its saved text against the Catalog and Library — open it again later and its membership may have changed on its own.

Hide an Automatic Shelf

Apart from Recently Added, an Automatic Shelf has a Hide control. The Hidden sections panel lets you bring it back.

Desktop

A dark desktop Bookmarks section on the Shelf with its Hide control visible in the section header.

  1. Hide removes just this section from your Shelf until you bring it back.

A dark desktop Hidden sections panel listing Bookmarks with its Show control after hiding it.

  1. Show restores a hidden section to its original position — never to the end.

Phone

A dark phone Bookmarks section on the Shelf with its Hide control visible in the section header.

  1. Hide removes just this section from your Shelf until you bring it back.

A dark phone Hidden sections panel listing Bookmarks with its Show control after hiding it.

  1. Show restores a hidden section to its original position — never to the end.

Create, edit, or delete a Shelf

Desktop

  1. On Shelf Home, name your new Shelf, choose Manual or Saved Search, optionally enter Saved Search text, then choose Create Shelf. A manual Shelf starts empty; a Saved Search starts live from whatever text you gave it.
  2. Open a Shelf you own to Rename it — or, on a Saved Search, change its search text — then choose Save.
  3. On a manual Shelf you own, add a Book with Add a Book by id, using the number shown in that Book's own page address. Remove or reorder a Book from the same page.
  4. Choose Delete Shelf to expand a confirmation, then Delete forever. This removes the Shelf itself; it never removes the Books on it from your Library.

Phone

  1. On Shelf Home, name your new Shelf, choose Manual or Saved Search, optionally enter Saved Search text, then choose Create Shelf. A manual Shelf starts empty; a Saved Search starts live from whatever text you gave it.
  2. Open a Shelf you own to Rename it — or, on a Saved Search, change its search text — then choose Save.
  3. On a manual Shelf you own, add a Book with Add a Book by id, using the number shown in that Book's own page address. Remove or reorder a Book from the same page.
  4. Choose Delete Shelf to expand a confirmation, then Delete forever. This removes the Shelf itself; it never removes the Books on it from your Library.

An Admin creating either kind can also check Shared. A Shared Shelf starts as a private Draft; only an Admin can choose Publish to make it visible to every signed-in Reader, or Retire (unpublish) to pull a published one back to Draft. Retiring never deletes it — only its publish status changes.

How a Shelf follows your activity

Most Automatic Shelves are a live read of your own activity, not something you maintain by hand:

Desktop

A dark desktop Currently Reading section on the Shelf showing Ashes Rising because its reading cycle is open.

  1. Ashes Rising appears here only because its reading cycle is set to Reading.

Phone

A dark phone Currently Reading section on the Shelf showing Ashes Rising because its reading cycle is open.

  1. Ashes Rising appears here only because its reading cycle is set to Reading.
  1. Set a Book to Reading (see Track Reading) and it appears on Currently Reading until you close that cycle.
  2. Choose Finished or Did not finish and the Book moves onto Read or DNF, and — once you star it — Rated and Top Rated as well.
  3. Bookmark or Watch a Book, Series, or Author to add it to Bookmarks or Unread Releases by Watched.