An aesthetic digital bookshelf app with themes and decorations

Updated 3 November 2026

How Book Nook draws your bookcase

Book Nook draws a wall, a frame, a back wall, boards and the books standing on them, with soft shading under each board so every row reads as a recess. You drag books along a shelf or to another shelf, and decorations sit between them.

Each bookshelf has its own name, number of rows and theme, and you can keep as many as you like, so a dark fantasy shelf and a pink romance shelf can sit side by side. The virtual bookshelf app post covers the bookcase in more detail.

The five Book Nook shelf themes

Pick a theme from the theme menu on the bookshelf. The menu shows them as Oak, Midnight Study, Fairy Cottage, Love Letter and Matcha Cafe; the headings that follow give each style first and its menu name in brackets.

Simple (Oak)

Light oak boards on an off-white wall, with no frame around them. Every second board is a slightly paler oak.

Dark Academia (Midnight Study)

A charcoal wall and a near-black back wall, with a slate grey cabinet: side panels and rails at the top and bottom. Star outlines are drawn on the face of every board, and a pale gold moon and stars ornament sits on top of the bookcase.

Cottagecore (Fairy Cottage)

A pale sage green wall and back, warm brown wood in two shades, and a curved band arch across the top shelf. A lavender wand and sparkles ornament sits above the arch.

Coquette (Love Letter)

A blush pink wall, a cream back wall and dusty pink boards, with a lower curved arch over the top shelf. A row of hearts runs above each shelf.

Matcha Cafe

A caramel wall around a moss green cabinet. The back wall is matcha green with horizontal planks, and a deep green teacup ornament sits on top.

Designing a custom shelf theme

The theme editor starts from any of the five themes, with a live preview as you edit. You can set:

• Colours for the wall, the back wall, the boards and the frame.
• The frame: Floating, Panels, Cabinet, Curved top, Arch or Victorian.
• Board thickness (thin, regular or thick) and edge (square or rounded).
• The back wall pattern: plain, planks, vertical planks, dots or stripes.
• An accent: hearts, stars, sparkles, leaves, flowers or snowflakes.
• An ornament for the top: moon and stars, teacup, wand and sparkles, open book, plant, lamp, cat, Christmas tree or gift.
• The font of the shelf title, from 17 faces including Playfair Display, Cormorant Garamond, Cinzel, Caveat and Great Vibes.

Save applies the theme to the bookshelf you are on, and Apply to all bookshelves gives every bookshelf the same theme.

Decorations by section

Add decoration opens a picker with 65 items in eight sections:

• Illustrations (19): green and pink candles, pink and purple candlesticks, pink and green lamps, red and blue mushroom lamps, a plant, a succulent, a hanging plant, peach and pink tulips, a purple crystal, black, gold and sage dragons, and pink and white marshmallows.
• Autumn (6): autumn leaves, a pumpkin, a cauldron, a reading ghost, a gargoyle and a stained glass window.
• Winter holidays (6): a Christmas tree, a gift, a bell, a star, a snow cloud and a party popper.
• Lighting (4): table and floor lamps, each unlit or lit.
• Tea Time (7): tea cups, mugs and wine glasses, empty or full, and a birthday cake.
• Celestial (11): moons, sparkles, clouds, a snowflake, a rainbow and mountains.
• Animals (4): a rabbit, a tortoise, a dog and a cat.
• Collectibles (8): a teddy bear, a crown, a hat, sunglasses, desk clocks, a fossil shell and a camera.

Each decoration can be resized, raised or lowered on the shelf, duplicated and dragged along the shelves. The 40 items outside Illustrations and Autumn also take any colour, so a moon can match a lavender theme.

Shelf lights

Shelf lights in the bookshelf menu turns on a light strip under every board. Each row gets a warm glow at the top that fades towards the books below, and a Brightness slider runs from 10 to 100. Under a curved arch the light follows the curve.

Spines, covers and tilting books

Any standing book can face out with its cover or turn spine-out. Book Nook draws each spine from the book's cover: its main colour becomes the spine, a second colour forms a label or bands, and dark hardcovers get gold or silver lettering. Three spine designs vary from book to book, so a row of spines looks like a real shelf. Show all spines and Show all covers turn every book on a bookshelf at once and line them up along each shelf.

A book can lean against its neighbour. On iPhone and Android a two-finger twist tilts a book, and on every platform Tilt in the book menu opens a slider. Books can also lie flat in stacks. Real book sizes, in the bookshelf menu, draws mass market paperbacks shorter than hardcovers, from the measured height of your edition or of another edition from the same publisher, and otherwise from its binding.

Ideas for themed shelves

• Spooky autumn reads: Dark Academia with lights on, the pumpkin, cauldron, reading ghost and gargoyle.
• Romance shelf: Coquette with the pink candle, pink tulips and marshmallows, books cover-out.
• Fantasy shelf: a custom theme with the Victorian frame, the gold dragon, the purple crystal and the stained glass window.
• Cosy cafe reads: Matcha Cafe with tea cups, mugs and the succulent.
• Winter shelf: a custom theme with the snowflakes accent and the Christmas tree ornament, plus the gift and the bell.

A themed shelf pairs well with a themed reading goal; see reading challenge ideas for 2027.

Sharing your bookshelf

Your bookshelves appear on your profile's Shelves tab, drawn in your theme with your lights and decorations. Show on profile in each bookshelf's menu decides whether it is listed, and a privacy setting picks which books show, from none to everything. The share button at the top of your profile sends a link to trybooknook.com/u/ followed by your username.

From a bookshelf on your profile, the share button offers Post to feed on all three platforms, which puts a picture of the shelf and your caption in your followers' feed. On iPhone and Android it also offers Instagram story and Share image, a 1080 by 1920 picture, the 9:16 size Stories and TikTok use. When you finish a book, Share this finish makes a card with the cover on a board in your shelf's colours, your rating and your books this year. Reading Wrapped pages share at the same size.

The bookshelf widget

The Bookshelf widget puts one of your bookshelves on the home screen, drawn as in the app with its theme, decorations and lights. It comes in several sizes on iPhone and Android; the bookshelf widget post has the sizes and setup steps.

How other reading apps show your books

We checked eight other reading apps on 3 November 2026. Goodreads, The StoryGraph and Hardcover show lists and grids of covers. Fable shows lists of covers. Bookmory has a library, collections and a cover calendar, with app themes, and custom themes in its Premium plan. LibraryThing shows catalogue lists and covers, Libib a cover grid or list with a light or dark app theme, and Bookshelf collections of covers. None of them shows your books on a bookshelf.

Goodreads checked on 3 November 2026: App Store listing, goodreads.com/about/us, help.goodreads.com/s/article/000001100. The StoryGraph checked on 3 November 2026: App Store listing, roadmap.thestorygraph.com/requests-ideas/posts/reading-timer, roadmap.thestorygraph.com/requests-ideas/posts/storygraph-currently-reading-widget, roadmap.thestorygraph.com/requests-ideas/posts/monthly-book-wrap-up. Hardcover checked on 3 November 2026: App Store listing, hardcover.app/supporter, roadmap.hardcover.app, docs.hardcover.app/api/graphql/schemas/readingjournals. Bookmory checked on 3 November 2026: App Store listing, play.google.com/store/apps/details. Fable checked on 3 November 2026: App Store listing, fable.co/blog/fable-reading-challenges-for-january-2026, help.fable.co/article/187-whats-included-in-fable-plus, help.fable.co/article/91-can-i-read-books-on-my-laptop-can-i-access-my-club-discussion-on-a-computer. LibraryThing checked on 3 November 2026: App Store listing, blog.librarything.com, librarything.com/topic/376363, play.google.com/store/apps/details. Libib checked on 3 November 2026: libib.com/pricing, App Store listing. Bookshelf checked on 3 November 2026: getbookshelf.com, App Store listing.

Of the nine apps, Book Nook is the only one with all 16 features in the table, and no other app has more than 12. Themes, decorations, lights and the widget are all free.

Setting up your first aesthetic shelf

1. Create an account on the web, or download Book Nook for iPhone or Android.
2. Add books by search, by barcode scan, or by import from Goodreads, StoryGraph or Fable (see moving from Goodreads).
3. Pick a theme, choose covers or spines, add decorations and turn on the lights.
4. Share the shelf from your profile or add the Bookshelf widget.