Obskurnee

Obskurnee is a lightweight web application designed to help book clubs propose books, run voting rounds, track current and past reads, and collect member reviews and recommendations. It focuses on a small, opinionated workflow to keep the app simple and easy to use.

Key Features

• Create voting rounds where members can suggest books or topics and vote to choose the next read
• Add recommendations and copy a Goodreads URL to scrape book metadata automatically
• Member profiles with optional Goodreads integration to load "Currently Reading" shelf
• Shelf of previously read books with ratings and Markdown-formatted reviews (supports spoiler markup)
• Real-time activity updates and voting using SignalR / WebSockets
• Docker-ready with a single-container quickstart and persistent-data docker-compose example

Use Cases

• Coordinate book suggestions and democratic selection of the next book for an in-person or online book club
• Maintain a shared club history of books read, member reviews, and recommendations
• Load members' current reads from Goodreads to surface what people are reading now

Limitations and Considerations

• License restricts use to personal/non-commercial purposes only
• No built-in HTTPS; intended to run behind a reverse proxy for TLS and WebSocket proxying
• Minimal feature set by design; some common features (e.g., open user signup, advanced admin tooling) are intentionally limited or absent

Obskurnee is suitable for small to medium book clubs that want a focused, privacy-friendly tool to coordinate reading choices and store club reviews. It emphasizes simplicity, real-time voting, and Goodreads interoperability.