Bookly → Literal
Move from Bookly to Literal
Bookly is a great reading session tracker. Literal is a community-first book platform. They're different products — here's what carries over and what doesn't.
These are different products
Bookly is built around session tracking — reading time, pages-per-minute, focus stats. It\'s genuinely useful for readers who want to gamify their habit. Literal isn\'t trying to compete with that. We track books and the social life around them: reviews, ratings, shelves, clubs, year in books.
If you loved Bookly\'s session timing, you may want to keep using it alongside Literal. The two don\'t conflict. If you\'re looking for a single tracker with a community and want session timing too, Literal\'s simpler "started / finished" model is what we offer today.
How to bring your library across
- 1
Export your Bookly library
In Bookly: Settings → Backup & Sync → Export. You get a CSV with your books, dates, ratings, and review text. - 2
Import the CSV into Goodreads first
Goodreads accepts a wide range of book CSV imports. Use Goodreads\' import tool to land your Bookly library on a Goodreads profile (existing or new). - 3
Run Literal's Goodreads importer
Once your Goodreads has the books, point Literal\'s Goodreads importer at your profile and your library lands on Literal.
What Literal adds on top
A community of readers
Follow people whose taste maps to yours. Bookly is solo by design; Literal is social by design.
Reviews and ratings
Full reviews with no length limit, ratings on a 1–5 scale, all attached to the book and visible on your profile.
Book clubs
Join or run clubs with reading schedules and discussion threads.
Author profiles
See everything an author has written, follow them, and discover their next release.
Custom shelves
Organise your library however makes sense — "owned", "spicy", "audiobooks", whatever.
Year in books
Annual reading wrap-up with stats, top books, and reading patterns.
Frequently asked questions
- Does Literal track reading time per session?
- Not at the granularity Bookly does. Literal tracks dates and overall reading status, not per-session minutes. If detailed session tracking is core to you, keep Bookly running alongside.
- Will my Bookly reviews be preserved?
- If they're in the CSV export and Goodreads accepts them, they'll come through to Literal. Length limits on Goodreads CSV are generous.
- Will you build a direct Bookly importer?
- When demand justifies it. The Goodreads bridge covers most users without us building custom Bookly support.
- Can I run both apps?
- Yes. Bookly for sessions, Literal for everything else. They don't conflict.
