Retrieve public reading lists and personal bookshelves directly from Google Books. Export complete volume catalogs to Excel (.xlsx), CSV, JSON, BibTeX, Markdown, and TXT with full ISBNs and author metadata.
Copy the link directly from your browser's address bar when viewing your bookshelf. We will automatically parse the User ID and Shelf number into the parameters below.
A 21-digit numeric identifier. Pre-filled with an active public library so you can test instantly. Sample Active
User-created bookshelves typically receive numeric IDs starting from 1001.
Shelf ID: 0 • User ID: -
| Cover | Title & Subtitle | Author(s) | ISBN-13 / ISBN-10 | Publisher & Year | Pages | Rating |
|---|
Exporting your public reading lists and personal book collections from Google Books requires no coding or API registration. Follow this four-step walkthrough to extract your entire library to Excel, CSV, or BibTeX:
Open books.google.com, click My Library, and copy your browser link or the 21-digit number following uid=.
Verify your chosen bookshelf has its visibility set to Public. The Google Books API strictly restricts private shelves to protect user privacy.
Select a shelf (Favorites, To Read, Have Read, or Custom ID) and click Fetch & Preview. Our backend automatically paginates through batches of 40 books.
Choose your target format—Excel (.xlsx), Goodreads CSV, BibTeX (.bib), JSON, or Markdown—and click Download.
Google Books has indexed tens of millions of titles and serves as an everyday personal catalog for avid readers, researchers, and librarians. However, Google Books offers no native one-click "Export All" button for personal bookshelves. Users who spend years curating collections are trapped in Google's ecosystem unless they manually re-type each entry. Our tool unlocks your catalog and gives you complete ownership of your reading data.
When migrating reading histories to social book platforms like Goodreads, The StoryGraph, or LibraryThing, catalog managers require clean CSV files with standardized column headers (Title, Author, ISBN-13, Publisher, Year, and Page Count). Our export engine generates CSV files formatted specifically to pass through external import wizards without field-mapping syntax errors.
The official Google Books API enforces a strict limit of 40 volume records per single HTTP request. For users with hundreds of books on their "Have Read" or "Favorites" shelf, writing custom scripts to handle token offsets and offset pagination is tedious and error-prone. Our server backend automatically cycles through batch requests in parallel, retrieving up to 1,000+ volumes seamlessly.
Academic researchers, university students, and thesis authors frequently collect scholarly books in Google Books. Converting these collections into standard BibTeX (.bib) entries for LaTeX dissertations, Overleaf projects, or reference managers (Zotero, Mendeley) is normally time-consuming. Our tool formats clean, ready-to-use BibTeX citation blocks with verified ISBNs and author names.
Book records in raw API payloads frequently store ISBNs in irregular arrays under mixed identifiers. Our normalization engine parses both ISBN-13 and ISBN-10 values, formats them into dedicated spreadsheet columns, and preserves leading zeros so barcode scanners and inventory systems can index them immediately without spreadsheet data truncation.
Google's API Gateway blocks shelf volume requests with a cryptic 403 error whenever a shelf is marked private. Rather than showing a raw technical error, our tool explains the exact root cause and provides a clear 3-step checklist to toggle shelf visibility to public inside Google Books.
See how Decision Maker's free Google Bookshelf Exporter compares against generic web scrapers, browser extensions, and manual copying:
| Feature / Capability | Decision Maker | Generic Scrapers | Manual Copy-Paste |
|---|---|---|---|
| API Key Requirement | Zero Key Required (100% Free) | Requires GCP Setup | None |
| Automated Batch Pagination (40+ Books) | Yes (Up to 1,000+ volumes) | Often Capped at 40 | Manual (Page by page) |
| URL Auto-Extractor | Yes (Instant regex parsing) | Rarely Supported | No |
| Multi-Format Downloads (.xlsx, .csv, .bib, .json, .md) | 7 Comprehensive Formats | CSV or JSON only | Plain text only |
| Full ISBN-13 & ISBN-10 Extraction | Yes (Preserves leading zeros) | Often Missing ISBN-10 | Frequent data loss |
| Public Shelf Auto-Discovery | Yes (One-Click Discovery) | No (Manual ID input) | No |
| In-Browser Privacy & Zero Storage | 100% Client-Side Processing | Varies | Private |
Google Books preconfigures several default bookshelves for every user account. Each permanent shelf is assigned a fixed integer ID, while user-created custom shelves receive numeric IDs starting from 1001:
| Shelf ID | Bookshelf Name | Default Privacy | API Export Eligibility |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Favorites | Public or Private | Supported (When Public) |
| 1 | Purchased Books | Private (Google Play Policy) | Restricted (OAuth required) |
| 2 | To Read (Reading Wishlist) | Public or Private | Supported (When Public) |
| 3 | Reading Now | Public or Private | Supported (When Public) |
| 4 | Have Read (Completed) | Public or Private | Supported (When Public) |
| 7 | Reviewed Books | Public or Private | Supported (When Public) |
| 1001+ | Custom User-Created Shelves | Configured on shelf creation | Supported (When Public) |
By default, Google Books designates many user shelves as private. If you receive an "Access denied (403)" message, your bookshelf visibility is currently private. Follow these instructions to make it publicly readable:
