Why I Built Quote Library

$ Introduction

Back in 2023 I had an idea.

I was never an avid reader myself, but I was always quite curious since I was a kid. This curiosity led me to seek knowledge, and oftentimes that knowledge was found in books, so I found myself reading quite a lot on a few different topics.

I would slowly make my way throughout a book, and highlight the bits which would resonate the most with me, often a few words or a couple of paragraphs. This so that next time I’d come back to that chapter, I’d already have the “gem” of that page dug up and on display.

Now, this approach had a couple of problems.

$ The Problems to Tackle

In case you’re reading a physical book and not its ebook counterpart, finding that one quote you’re looking for, is a total pain. Furthermore, if you read multiple books on the same topic, sometimes you kind of remember the quote, but you have no idea what book it came from. And you’re not going to read multiple books again just to find out. It’s like finding a needle in a haystack, ain’t nobody got time for that.

So at first, I created a text document which I would then add my quotes and highlights to, so they were easy to search for in the future, without needing access to the book in the first place. However, that document became quite messy really quick and it never felt easy to navigate, consume or edit, especially on mobile.

Now, if you’re reading ebooks instead, you often can highlight parts of the text and come back to them later, which is pretty neat and convenient, I admit. However, most ebook readers feel slow to use and lack a “search all” feature, so oftentimes my highlights just stood there gathering digital dust, not being re-visited ever again. Sad.

$ The Ideal Solution

Not having an efficient system myself, I searched for a service or app which offered a solution to these pain points, but none were really appealing to me. I wanted something that:

• Worked offline (since I often read in places with no Internet, ex: trains, planes, a remote place in the middle of nowhere…);
• Was ad-free;
• Respected my data and didn’t sell it to third parties;
• Allowed me do easily manage all my quotes and share them with others;
• Allowed me to categorize each quote, so I could easily find all quotes on a certain topic;
• Was free (since I didn’t want the access to my quotes to be gate kept from me behind a payed subscription);

I searched, and looked everywhere. And some apps came close, but not quite right. They either had a subscription model, or were left abandoned years ago and felt super outdated. Plus, there was always one of these pre-requisites that were never ticked.

So, I released my inner software developer, rolled up my sleeves and got down to business!

In a world where it seems like all the apps you use want to steal your data, are riddled with ads or completely stop working the moment you cease to have an Internet connection, I decided to get my hands dirty and prove that better alternatives are possible. Just often, not the priority of major companies.

$ “Quote Library” has joined the chat!

After a year and a half of multiple iterations, bugs and figuring out how developing for Android works, Quote Library was born! 🎉

It’s only available on Android at the moment, yet it ticks all the boxes I deemed critical:

• Works fully offline;
• No analytics or personal data processing. Your data is fully yours.
• Has no subscriptions or ads (although you can donate to support its development);
• Allows you to manage and curate your own library and share quotes with others if you wish to.
• Has a search feature, allowing you to find quotes by keyword, category and other filters;
• Feels fast to use, since all data is processed fully on device, which means close to no loading times;

All in all, I’m very proud of the app in its current state, and it brings me great joy to know other people are also using it to solve all their quote needs.

I plan on continuing to improve it, polishing what is already done and pushing new features where it makes sense (no needless AI chatbots, I swear).

I have a video demoing the app on my project’s page, so you can check it out if you’re interested!

If this post got you curious, click here to download the app from Google Play Store and try it out!