BookStack Directory
Curate your what-to-read-feed from this list of 100+ quality BookStacks
Updated for 2025! A list of 100+ active and thought-provoking newsletters by people who spend their free time recommending books to strangers.
Sure, there are Substack Leaderboards on topics of Fiction and Literature in the app. Some of the folks on this list regularly appear there and some have sustained their place there over time. I am happy for them. If you’re on the app and you trust that algorithm to direct your attention to the best out there, you can ignore this list.
But if scrolling on the app to curate a what-to-read feed cuts into time better spent actually reading, I offer this list instead. I curated it with this criteria as a guide:
regularly posting about books and literature not written by the Substack author;1
thoughtful and confident in their own taste (especially when it’s not my taste);
warm in the comments, if sometimes opinionated and prickly in their posts— as determined by me and my human mind!
I’ve included a best-of selection of some newsletters by personalities who have built large audience and are making a living off selling content like reading guides, premium podcasts, in-depth guided read alongs, etc. But most of the newsletters on this list rarely if ever try to upsell. Please subscribe generously when you find your favorites to keep these writers inspired.
To help this list reach its audience, please heart, comment and restack this post on the app. If you’re named on the list2 and you’d like to help your subscribers find great reads, consider linking to this list in a post.
For future updates:
This is an old-fashioned alphabetical list of links and the short descriptions of the Substacks.3 You can subscribe directly by entering your email and I suggest you do so like the fate of literature depends on you, like you have just discovered the lost Library of Alexandria and every subscription helps to preserve “the place of the cure of the soul.”
A little dramatic maybe, but I’ve been at this for hours. Here you go!
Auraist: picking the best-written books of the month
Cambridge Ladies' Dining Society
Read the Classics with Henry Eliot
Final thoughts
If I had known how many newsletters there are, would I have even bothered to start The Booktender? If you’re here to check this out because you’re just getting started with writing about books on Substack, please don’t let this long list discourage you. You really can build a group of subscribers based on trust and meaningful interaction about books—this list is proof you can find your people.
Some of these writers might even help you do that. If you are reading this and you write as a Bookstacker yourself (tagged in this list or not) join us over at BookStack Social for some groupchat and mutual support. And if I missed you in this list, comment on this post to let me know you’d like to be considered for the next update.
Cheers,
Abra
I love an author Bookstack, but it doesn’t count if you only post about your own books.
Please don’t be mad if your Substack was linked in a previous version of this directory but no longer appears. Many have good reasons for no longer posting much, or for evolving a newsletter in a new direction. It’s possible I may have made an accidental deletion when updating. Feel free to link your latest post about a book in the comments for others to find, and to remind me you’d like to be considered for inclusion next time.
Thank you, Abra! The Substack book community is the best.
this must have took forever! Have you got room for 101??