reading list

A  reading list  is a collection, potentially comprised of bookmarks, of articles that one intends to read later usually on a specific topic, sometimes also called a  readlist  which unfortunately looks more like jargon and sounds more ambiguous (could be past or future). These have been likened to an analog "mixtape, but for reading" and are similar to a playlist.

While ostensibly similar to keeping lists of books one would like to read later, the user interface and range of standards for sharing such lists is different enough that treating (online) articles and books. See: personal library for book related examples.

Jim Nielsen
Jim Nielsen built https://readlists.jim-nielsen.com/ for his personal use, but it is available for public use as well. It allows one to "Collect information across the web and package it up into a nice little ebook for reading on your favorite device."

"Readlists are saved locally in your browser (using ). You can save the data of a Readlist to a JSON file, host it at a URL, and then allow others to import it themselves. It falls to you to save and distribute (the URLs for) your Readlists. Yeah it’s more work for you, but hey, on the flip side the data is all yours. Do whatever you want with it."

The site will allow one to save collections in JSON format as well as to export them as .epub book files and .html pages.

The project is available on Github. His article (Re)Introducing Readlists describes some of his motivation and provides examples of files for use.

Previous Examples

 * ReadLists, a part of Readability, was a service shut down in 2016, that was curatorial in nature. The bookmark driven site allowed users to save URLS in collections and then embed, email, save and even export them as ebooks (.epub, .mobi, and .pdf) to various platforms and e-readers.
 * Examples of how some users shared collections can be found on ReadLists' Twitter feed.

Tools
There are a variety of tools and browser extensions that provide similar sorts of functionality, though they don't always allow one to easily self-host the intermediate data or lists.


 * EpubPress is a browser extension for Chrome & Firefox for turning your favorite web content into ebooks.


 * Save as ebook is a Chrome/Firefox/Opera Web Extension that allows one to save a web page/selection as an eBook (.epub format).



Brainstorming

 * 2022-03-26: I've written some ideas and questions on my own site here: https://boffosocko.com/2022/03/26/indieweb-readlists-tools-and-brainstorming/