Blog
Essays, author interviews, and reading notes from the Seekquel team.
Mood journaling for readers: how to remember how every book made you feel
One book can make you laugh, cry and lose sleep. Another just makes you grin for 400 pages. A star rating keeps none of it. Here's how to keep a mood journal while you read, one word per sitting, with Dungeon Crawler Carl, Memories of Ice and a Pratchett as examples.
Behind on your reading goal? Here's how to finish it anyway
You wrote a number down in January. It's November and you're behind. Here is a calm plan for the last eight weeks: check the real gap, pick lighter books, borrow time from chores and walks, and find the hour you read best.
How to add books from your Calibre library to Seekquel
Turn on Calibre's built-in server, add it to Seekquel once, then browse your library from your phone and add any book with one tap. Includes password and away-from-home setup.
Banned Books in 2026: What's Being Pulled and How to Read Them
All 11 books on this year's most challenged list, from Sold to A Court of Thorns and Roses: what each one is about, why it gets pulled, and how to get hold of a copy where you live.
Where to read: why we link to libraries and bookshops
Find a book through your library, independent bookshops, used copies or audiobooks. Here is why Seekquel skips Amazon affiliate links and how shop commissions work.
Books for Spooky Season: 14 October Reads, Sorted by Mood
Fourteen books for October, grouped by mood: gothic houses, haunted houses, folk horror, cozy reads and novellas you can finish in a night. Each comes with its length, its tropes and how scary it really is.
Goodreads alternatives: choose a tracker around your reading
Choose among The StoryGraph, Hardcover, Fable, BookWyrm, LibraryThing and Seekquel. Compare the task each supports and check your import before switching.
How to Write a Book Review: Structure, Hooks and Examples From Famous Critics
A five-part structure, seven ways to open, spoiler rules and a method for negative reviews that stay fair, with examples from Dorothy Parker, Mark Twain, John Updike and more.
One reading log across e-readers: what syncs and what does not
Compare what KOReader, Readest, Xteink and Calibre send to Seekquel. Start with one connection and check its result before adding another.
Why We Love to Track Our Reading
Why does finishing a book feel better when you record it? Research on memory, motivation, and identity explains our love of reading logs and organized libraries.
13 Good Audiobooks for Road Trips of Any Length
Thirteen road-trip audiobooks grouped by drive time, with narrators, runtimes, listening fit, and content notes for every car.
Automatic shelves: 26 rules you can adapt to your library
Create a shelf that keeps itself current. Includes 26 rule ideas, the difference between genre and tag matching, and a troubleshooting check for empty results.
How Seekquel gets built, and why it ships so often
Seekquel adds features most weeks, which usually reads as a warning sign. Here is the year of quiet groundwork behind it, the two people who build it, and the readers who steer it.
Series Recaps & A Way Back Into the Book You Left Behind
A short, spoiler-safe recap of every book in a series, written by readers and rewritten by an editor, so coming back after a slump doesn't mean an evening on a wiki.
Does Kindle tell you how long it took to read a book?
Understand the difference between Kindle time-left estimates and a reading-time log. Includes a manual method and the limits of a KOReader setup.
What Shipped in August: KOReader, Calibre, Adaptations, and Ask for a Book
Two e-reader integrations, screen adaptations on every book, community book recommendations, three new themes, and more. Everything Seekquel shipped in August, with a short setup guide for each.
Why You Stopped Reading in August (And 3 Fixes That Actually Work)
August is a genuinely bad month for a reading habit that depends on quiet evenings and a settled schedule. Here's why the slump hits now, and three small fixes that actually work.
The Horror Books That Are Actually, Genuinely Terrifying
Skip the horror books that never actually scare you. These ten novels, from Shirley Jackson to modern body horror, are the ones that keep readers up at night.
How to sync KOReader with Seekquel, including reading time
Install the Seekquel KOReader add-on, pair your reader, match a book and check what arrived. Includes a troubleshooting order for missing reading time.
Yes, audiobooks count as reading. The science is settled: can we stop now?
Do audiobooks count as reading? Neuroscience says listening and reading engage the same comprehension systems. Here's what the research actually found.
The Gender Gap in Fiction Reading: What the Data Shows
Women read fiction at nearly double the rate of men, and the split runs deeper than that. Here's what recent surveys reveal about who reads what.
How Many Books Does the Average Person Read in a Year?
40% of Americans read zero books last year. See how many books the average person actually reads, and what the committed 60% finished in 2025
Shelves, Tags, and Ownership in Seekquel: What Each One Actually Does
Seekquel tracks reading status, tags, shelves, and ownership as four separate labels on every book. Here's exactly how each one works and how to combine them.
Your Reading Life Isn't for Sale. That's Why We Built Seekquel
Goodreads stalled and Amazon owns it. Here's why a two-person team built Seekquel: no ads, no promoted books, and stats that fit how people actually read