One dev collected 10,000 quotes from 160 classics to build their dream reading app
A developer gathered 10,000 notable quotes from 160 classic books to create a social reading app they always wanted but couldn't find. The project started as a personal wish to highlight and share favorite passages with others. It's a hands-on example of building your own tool when nothing on the market fits.
Frustrated by the lack of a good quote-sharing reading app, this developer went straight to the source: they manually curated 10,000 quotes from 160 classic (public domain) books, organizing them by book, author, and theme into a structured dataset.
Using that dataset, they built a social reader that lets users browse, highlight, and share meaningful passages. While this project isn't directly related to AI agents or cost reduction, it's a clear example of how collecting and structuring your own data can power a custom tool. The approach — identify the gap, gather the data, build the feature — is a transferable pattern for anyone building niche personal software.
Key points
- 10,000 quotes curated from 160 classic books and organized into a structured dataset
- Motivated by the absence of a social reading app that matched personal needs
- Quotes categorized by book, author, and theme for easy browsing and sharing
- Used public domain texts, so no copyright concerns with the source material
- Shows a practical pattern: collect your own data when no suitable dataset exists
Quick term guide
- public domain
- Material that is not restricted by copyright and can usually be reused freely.
- domain
- The web address people type to visit a site.
- structured data
- Information stored in organized categories (like date, mood, tasks) so it is easy to search or analyze later.
- dataset
- A large, organized collection of data ready to use for analysis or model training
- AI agents
- AI agents are AI tools that can carry out steps toward a goal, not just answer once.
- AI agent
- An AI program that can inspect information and suggest what to do next.
- agents
- AI helpers that follow your instructions and make changes for you.
- software
- Programs or apps that run on a computer or smartphone.