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Help Importing

Importing Your Collection

If you already track your cookbook collection somewhere else — LibraryThing, Goodreads, Eat Your Books, or a spreadsheet — you can bring it over to Cookbooker in one go using the import tool.

Go to Bookshelf → Import your collection to get started.

How it works

  1. Export from your current service — each guide below explains how to get your export file.
  2. Choose your source and upload the file — select where your export came from, then drag the file onto the import page or click to browse.
  3. Review the results — Cookbooker matches your books against its catalogue and groups them into sections: already on your shelf, ready to import, titles to add to Cookbooker, and titles without an ISBN.
  4. Confirm — select the books you want and click Import. Done.

What gets imported

  • Books — matched against the Cookbooker catalogue by ISBN. Books found in the catalogue are added to your shelf.
  • Ratings — imported to your shelf for LibraryThing and Goodreads exports.
  • Written reviews — imported from LibraryThing and Goodreads only, with your consent. You'll see a checkbox during the import to control this.

What happens to books not in the catalogue?

If a book in your export has an ISBN but isn't in the Cookbooker catalogue yet, it appears in an Add to Cookbooker section. Check the ones you want and Cookbooker will create a basic entry — title, author, and ISBN — and attempt to fetch a cover automatically from Open Library.

What about books without an ISBN?

Community cookbooks, church fundraiser books, and self-published titles often have no ISBN. These appear in a No ISBN section. For each one you can search the Cookbooker catalogue to find an existing match, or choose to create a new entry from the title and author in your export file.

Covers for no-ISBN books can't be fetched automatically. Once the import is complete, visit the cookbook's page and click Edit to upload a cover manually.

Book covers

Covers are fetched in the background after import and will appear on your shelf shortly. If a cover doesn't appear after a few minutes, you can add one manually from the cookbook's edit page.

Can I import the same file twice?

Yes — Cookbooker checks what's already on your shelf and won't add duplicates. Books already there appear in a separate Already on your shelf section so you can see them, but they won't be imported again.

Supported sources