Why I Turned My Bookshelf Into a Website

Part 1 of 2: The why

In early 2021 I wrote about a goal I borrowed from Charlie Munger: go to bed smarter than when you woke up.

At the time, in the midst of a global pandemic, the world felt uncertain. I couldn’t control much of what was happening around me, but I could control how I spent my time. I wanted to use it deliberately: to learn, improve, and come out a little better than I started.

Today, with AI changing how we work, the future of work feels just as uncertain. If anything, that makes the goal even more important. When the tools keep changing the ability to keep learning is what lasts.

I believed then, and still believe now, that reading is one of the best ways to do that. Books give us access to the experiences, ideas, and lessons of people who have spent lifetimes figuring things out.

Making the Habit Visible

In Atomic Habits, a book I revisit often, James Clear stresses making habits obvious and progress visible. Seeing evidence of our efforts encourages us to keep going.

My physical bookshelf serves that purpose for me. The books I’ve read show the time I’ve invested in learning, the books I haven’t read remind me to keep going, and adding another finished book to the shelf gives me a surprisingly satisfying sense of progress. Over time, the shelf has become more than a place to store books. It’s a reminder of a habit I want to keep and an identity I want to reinforce: a lifelong learner.

Recently, though, I’ve run into two problems. First, I’ve been listening to more audiobooks and unfortunately Spotify hasn’t figured out how to put those on my shelf. Second, I’m running out of space. I needed a bookshelf that could grow with me.

Making the Thinking Visible

More shelf space only solves part of the problem. In the years since I last wrote in 2021, I’ve come to appreciate an important distinction: consuming information is not the same as acquiring knowledge. Shane Parrish of Farnam Street describes the goal as “mastering the best of what other people have already figured out.” Finishing a book is only the start. Learning takes more than repeated exposure to information.

That’s why I’ve also developed a habit of annotating books, capturing quotes, and writing down key ideas I want to take with me. Writing forces me to slow down, organize my thoughts, make connections, and engage with what I’ve read.

The bookshelf makes the habit visible. Writing makes the thinking visible.

However, this introduced another problem – one I have struggled to address for years. My notes are everywhere. Some live in notebooks, others in my phone, Google Docs, OneNote, or the margins of books I haven’t opened in years. Good ideas are easy to capture and just as easy to forget when there’s no reliable way to find them again.

It occurred to me that what I needed was more than a bigger bookshelf. I needed a system for remembering, revisiting, and building on what I’ve learned for years to come.

A Bookshelf That Can Grow

That’s what inspired me to turn my physical bookshelf into a virtual one: a single place to track what I’ve read, make progress visible, collect ideas worth remembering, and return to them when needed.

Every book gets a rating, a note on my reading approach (skimmed, read, or studied), and space for the quotes and takeaways I want to keep. The best ones land on a “Worth Revisiting” list, so I actually go back to them.

I decided to share this because learning in public has always kept me honest. A shelf other people can see is a nudge to keep reading and to keep thinking about what I read. However, it’s certainly not finished. This is just a starting point. The shelf is built, but most of my notes still exist elsewhere. Consolidating them is the next step. Like any good learning habit, I fully expect to iterate on this system and for it to get a little better every time I use it.

Reading, Writing, Revisiting

Reading introduces me to new ideas. Writing helps me understand them. Revisiting helps them stick.

The goal isn’t to collect the most books. It’s to get more out of the ones I read and to build a system that makes lifelong learning a little more intentional. You can browse the shelf on my Books page or in the full Notion bookshelf.

I’m always looking for the next good book, and the best recommendations come from other people. If you think I’m missing one, send it my way!

In Part 2, I’ll walk through how I built it.

Stay curious.