NeighborBook

NeighborBook

About this app

You like books. Your neighbors have good books. NeighborBook is how you connect.

List the books you'd gift to a friend. Your neighbors do the same. When you find something you want, message the owner, meet at a cafe or park nearby, and trade it in person. Most Americans can't name five people on their block, and a book is a low-stakes reason to start fixing that.

HOW IT WORKS

1. Add your books to the app: Scan a barcode, or photograph a whole shelf and let NeighborBook read the spines.
2. Look around: Swipe through books from readers nearby, or explore the map.
3. Ask for a book: Request it to chat with the owner. Credits keep things even: start with three, lend one to earn one, spend one to borrow.
4. Meet and hand it over: Pick a public spot you like. A QR scan confirms the handoff, and the return if the owner wants it back.

Every swap puts two readers in the same place at the same time, which almost nothing else on your phone does.

AN ECONOMY OF GENEROSITY

Community Credits exist so books keep circulating instead of pooling on one shelf. No money moves through the app and nothing is for sale. You give a book to get a book.

When an owner wants a book back, loans run about three months and you can extend or gift it. Returns run on goodwill, not penalties — how it works when you lend a book to a friend.

FIND YOUR PEOPLE, AND YOUR BOOK CLUB

Real clubs at real places, browsable as a list, on the map, or by the night they meet. The club reading translated fiction on Wednesdays and the one arguing about biographies over beers are not the same club, and you already know which is yours. When a club finishes a book, members can list their copies so the book moves on instead of gathering dust.

BRING YOUR FRIENDS

NeighborBook grows in clusters. One reader is a listing; a dozen on the same few streets is a neighborhood library, and everything improves together. More books in range, more clubs, more reasons to meet a new friend.

So the most useful thing you can do is tell people: the building group chat, your club, the regulars at your coffee shop. For a limited time, if you're bringing NeighborBook to your community, we'll mail you a welcome packet: bookmarks, stickers, and while they last, a free book to pass along. Ask The Librarian in the app.

We're also building partnerships with independent bookstores, coffee shops, and local clubs to keep privately-owned books in circulation and support local business at the same time.

A FEW MORE THINGS

• Keep a Wanted list — we tell you when a copy turns up in range, once a day at most, never a stream of alerts
• Everyone passes an identity check (a quick selfie, run by our partner Persona) before they can message you or ask for a book. Browse first if you like; names and faces stay hidden both ways until you verify
• Your address is never shared. Neighbors see an approximate distance, and you pick where you'll meet
• Search by title, author, or genre; save books for later
• Invite a neighbor, earn a credit when they join

WHY WE BUILT IT

Two friends in Los Angeles started NeighborBook in 2025 to share books with the people around them — friends down the block, and the stranger reading outside the coffee shop.

Only about a quarter of Americans know most of their neighbors, and knowing six of them makes you far less likely to feel lonely. A shared book is a small argument that we have more in common than the feed suggests.

It's for fast readers who need to find their next book, anyone thinning an overloaded shelf, families passing along kids' books and textbooks, people hunting a book club that fits them, and anyone who'd rather borrow than buy.

Free, no slop, forever.

What’s new

Liked books now go into your "My Likes" cart instead of immediately starting a conversation. Improves the casual browsing experience.