Import Your Goodreads Library to Notion + Add Book Covers (No API, 2-Click Solution)

Recently, I migrated my Goodreads content into Notion. With that came the need to add book covers, as the Goodreads export doesn’t include hyperlinks for the cover images. While Goodreads no longer appears to support their API, I’ve found that we can manage adding cover images with a very easy method (in two clicks) using the Open Library database and a simple Notion formula.

Note: you can use this method to add cover images for any library that you create in Notion, whether sourced from Goodreads or not, as long as you have an “ISBN” property in your database. The cover images will generate based on the ISBN.

Here’s how to do it:

Exporting your Goodreads library

1. Log into your Goodreads account
2. Click on “My Books” in the top navigation toolbar
3. Click on the “Import and export” hyperlink in the Tools submenu
4. Click “Export Library”
5. Download the .CSV file from the link that is generated

Importing into Notion

1. Duplicate the base template (link at the bottom of this post). This has a few basic columns already added that have some formulas pre-populated.
2. Click the ellipsis next to the database title, and select “View database”
3. In the top-right corner of the page, click the ellipsis and select “Merge with CSV”
4. Navigate to the Goodreads .CSV file (downloaded in the previous section), and select
5. The database will populate

Now that we have our library imported, let’s add the cover images.

Adding Cover Images

1. Click and drag down over the “Cover Formula” column to select all of the URLs
2. Click the “Copy to clipboard” icon in the corner of a highlighted cell
3. Click and drag down over the “Book Cover” column to select
4. Click “CMD + V” on Mac or “CTRL + V” on Windows to paste the cover image URLs

If there is a match on the ISBN number, the cover images will populate! Note, there may be some that do not generate. If this is the case, these covers will need to be added manually.

In addition, the Rating column will display star icons for any numerical ratings for the books you’ve read.

Tagging

Optionally, you may convert the “Exclusive Shelf” (these are the names of your various bookshelves) property from a text property to a select property, then colorize the select options as you wish. This will allow for easier sorting and filtering from various database views.

Once you’ve completed any customizations that you want to add, click into the “Gallery” view to see your bookshelves display with cover images.

The complete process of migrating your library and populating cover images shouldn’t take more than a few minutes. I hope this little tip helps some other folks who need to do the same, saving you some time!