I’ve always believed that a collection tells people more about us than any biography ever could. The books we hold onto, the ones we return to, they are footprints of how we have learned to see the world.
I started archiving my personal book collection on Libib back in 2019. Exploring its features initially and eventually fell in love with its use.
If you are unfamiliar, Libib is a cloud-based cataloguing platform that lets you build your own library online. You can scan books by barcode, enter details manually for older titles, and organise everything into neat, themed collections. The basic plan is free, and the collections can be made public, which is what allowed me to open the door to mine.
What I like most is how visual and intentional it feels. It’s not just dumping books into a list. It’s curating.
Seeing the titles lined up digitally, side by side, across time and interests, reveals patterns I didn’t even notice were there.
You will find:
- Malay maritime and port-city histories
- Material culture studies, especially on keris traditions
- Regional anthropology and identity narratives
- Seemingly unrelated works that, if you tilt your head a little, connect back to everything above
Some books were bought on deep dives.
Some were inherited, or passed to me with stories.
Some I hunted for years, waiting for one copy to finally surface.
And I thought… instead of letting these sit quietly on my shelves, why not share the library as a living map of how I think, study, and create?
So here it is:
My library on Libib:
Feel free to browse slowly. Imagine the weight of the pages. And if a title calls out to you, let it.
We grow by reading each other’s shelves.