How to Make a Book Tier List From Your Goodreads Shelves

If you track your reading on Goodreads, you already have the hard part of a book tier list done: a shelf of every book you finished, with covers. What used to take an evening of searching titles one by one (or exporting a CSV and uploading cover images to a generic tier list maker) now takes one paste. Bookadoro's free Goodreads import reads a shelf from your public profile and drops the books, covers included, unranked into the book tier list maker. Here is how a Goodreads book tier list works, which shelf to start with, and what to do with the books once they are in.

Import a Goodreads shelf into a tier list

Why your Goodreads shelves are the best start for a book tier list

A tier list is only as good as the pool of books you rank. Picking that pool from memory means forgetting half of what you read in March, overrating whatever you finished last week, and quietly skipping the books you did not enjoy. A Goodreads shelf is the opposite: a complete, dated record you built without thinking about it.

• It is complete — every book you marked as read is there, including the ones you would never think to search for.
• It is already sorted — your custom shelves (favourites, 2025-reads, romantasy, dnf) are ready-made tier list themes.
• It has the covers — each entry carries the cover of the edition you shelved, so the list looks like your actual bookshelf.
• It keeps you honest — ranking a full year of reads, three-star books included, makes a far more interesting list than ten favourites in a row.

The old way: CSV exports and cover uploads

Until now, getting a Goodreads shelf into a tier list meant one of two chores. You could open the tier list maker and search every title again, which is fine for ten books and miserable for sixty. Or you could use Goodreads' export, which gives you a CSV spreadsheet of titles and ISBNs but not a single image. A generic tier list maker only understands pictures, so you would still hunt down, crop and upload a cover for each row of that spreadsheet.

Both routes end with the same problem we described in why a book tier list maker should never ask for uploads: half an hour of prep before you rank anything, and a finished list full of mismatched, blurry covers. The import skips the spreadsheet and the uploads entirely.

How to import Goodreads into the book tier list maker

The whole thing takes about two minutes. You do not log in to Goodreads, and nothing is written back to your account.

• 1. Make sure your profile is public — the import reads the public shelf feed Goodreads publishes for every profile. If yours is private, go to Goodreads Settings → Privacy and allow anyone to view your profile (you can set it back afterwards).
• 2. Paste your profile link — open the Goodreads import and paste the link to your profile page (it looks like goodreads.com/user/show/12345678-jane), a shelf page, or just your username. Tap "Load my shelves". A big library loads in pages of 100, with a counter so you can see it working.
• 3. Pick a shelf — read, currently reading, to-read and every custom shelf show up with a book count, next to an "All books" option. Everything on the shelf is ticked; tap a cover to leave it out.
• 4. Choose the tier list maker and open it — the books land on the unranked bench under the tiers, covers and all. Tap a cover, tap the tier it belongs in, repeat. Drag works too.

What you get in the tier list

The maker opens with six bookish tiers (Loved it, Warm fuzzies, Glad I read this, Literary junk food, Forgettable, Not for me) and your imported books waiting below them. Rename tiers, change their colours, add a DNF row, and turn on "Show titles & authors" if you want the book names listed under the board for people who do not recognise the covers.

When you are done, download the list as a sharp PNG for TikTok, Instagram or Reddit, or save a share link anyone can open. Both are free and need no account.

Which Goodreads shelf makes the best tier list?

Importing your entire read shelf is tempting, but a tier list of 400 covers is a wall nobody scrolls. The lists that get shared are 20 to 60 books with a clear theme, and Goodreads shelves hand you those themes for free:

• This year's reads — if you keep a 2025-reads or 2026-reads shelf, it is the classic year-end tier list. No shelf? Import "read" and untick older books; they load newest first.
• Favourites — rank the books you tell everyone about against each other. The "Not for me" tier stays empty, which is its own kind of brag.
• One genre — a romantasy, thriller or classics shelf gives you the "every romantasy I've read, ranked" video in one import.
• A series or an author — all of Emily Henry, every Cosmere book, the full Hunger Games run. Small lists, strong opinions, big comment sections.
• To-read — a hype tier list: rank your TBR by how badly you want to read each one, then post the follow-up once you have.
• DNF — the shelf nobody imports, and the most honest tier list on your feed.

Beyond the tier list: other things to make from a shelf

The import hands your books to any of Bookadoro's builders, so one Goodreads shelf can become several graphics:

• Bookshelf grid — every book on the shelf laid out as a grid of covers, drag to reorder. A favourites shelf becomes a top-10 in seconds.
• Year in books — a reading-wrapped card with your stats and the imported books as your top reads.
• Book bracket — your imported books show as one-tap picks for the eight slots; fill them from a favourites shelf and crown a champion.
• Reading bingo, reading calendar and year in reading — the same one-tap picks, so you place a book on a prompt, a day or a month without searching for it.

What the import does and doesn't do

• No login — you never enter a Goodreads password. The import reads the public RSS feed Goodreads links from every shelf page.
• Read-only — nothing is added, moved or rated on Goodreads. Your shelves stay exactly as they are.
• Nothing stored — the books are handed to the builder in your browser. Only the tier list you choose to save gets a share link; the import itself saves nothing.
• Public profile required — a private profile has no public feed. Switch it to public for the import and back afterwards if you like.

Tips for a Goodreads tier list people actually read

• Keep it under 60 books — pick a shelf or untick covers before you open the builder. The image grows with the list; a focused one reads better on a phone.
• Rename the tiers to your taste — "Would reread on a plane" beats "B tier". Labels are half the fun and most of the comments.
• Rank the bench to empty — the unranked row disappears from the export once it is empty, which is the cleanest finish.
• Turn on titles for big lists — the "Show titles & authors" toggle lists every book per tier under the board, so followers can read your ranking without zooming into covers.
• Post the before and after — import your to-read shelf as a hype list now, and the same books as a real ranking once you have read them. See our guide to making a BookTok tier list for formats that travel well.

FAQ

Can I make a book tier list from Goodreads?

Yes. Bookadoro's free Goodreads import reads a shelf from your public Goodreads profile and opens the books, with covers, unranked in the book tier list maker. Rank them, then download the image or save a share link.

Do I need to export a CSV from Goodreads first?

No. The import works from your profile link or username, not from the export file, and unlike the CSV it brings the cover images with it.

Why does the import say my profile is private?

Goodreads only publishes a shelf feed for public profiles. In Goodreads, open Settings → Privacy, set who can view your profile to anyone, and load your shelves again. You can switch it back once your tier list is done.

Can I import a custom shelf?

Yes. Every shelf on your profile shows up: read, currently reading, to-read and all your custom shelves, each with a book count. You can also import all books and tick the ones you want.

How many books can I import?

Up to 2,000, newest first. For a tier list people will actually read, aim for 20 to 60 and pick a themed shelf.

Does the import change anything on my Goodreads account?

No. It is read-only and never signs in. Your shelves, ratings and reviews are untouched.

Does it work with StoryGraph or other trackers?

Not yet; the import is Goodreads only. Any book can still be added to a builder by searching its title, and the Bookadoro app can sync your Goodreads shelves into a library that tracks what you read next.