book-research

---
name: book-research
description: Researches books, authors, and audiobooks via the Crawlora API — Goodreads (books, authors, reviews, lists, quotes) and Apple Books (books, audiobooks, series, reviews, charts) — returning clean JSON. Use when the user wants a book's ratings/reviews, an author's bibliography, curated reading lists, or audiobook details and charts.
---

# Book & audiobook research

Look up books, authors, reviews, and audiobooks across Goodreads and Apple
Books as normalized JSON from the Crawlora API — no scraping book-catalog pages.

## When to use this skill

- "What's the rating / reviews for this book?"
- "What has this author written?" (bibliography, quotes)
- "Give me a curated list" (Goodreads genre/lists pages).
- "Find this on Apple Books / is there an audiobook?"
- "What's charting on Apple Books right now?"

## Setup (one-time)

- Get a free Crawlora API key (2,000 credits/mo, no card) at [https://crawlora.net](https://crawlora.net?utm_source=github&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=crawlora-skills).
- `export CRAWLORA_API_KEY=sk_your_key_here`
- All requests: `x-api-key: $CRAWLORA_API_KEY` against
  `https://api.crawlora.net/api/v1`. Missing/invalid key → `401`.

## How it works

1. **Goodreads** — `/goodreads/search` (`q`) to find a book/author id, then
   `/goodreads/book/{id}` (+ `/reviews`, `/editions`) or
   `/goodreads/author/{id}` (+ `/books`, `/quotes`). `/goodreads/genre/{name}`
   and `/goodreads/list/{id}` (browse via `/goodreads/lists`) cover curated
   browsing.
2. **Apple Books** — `/apple-books/search` (`term`) to find a book id, then
   `/apple-books/book/{id}` (+ `/reviews`, `/similar`) or
   `/apple-books/author/{id}`. Audiobooks mirror this:
   `/apple-books/audiobook/search` → `/apple-books/audiobook/{id}` (+
   `/reviews`, `/similar`), with `/apple-books/audiobook-series/{id}` and
   `/apple-books/series/{id}` for series. `/apple-books/charts` shows what's
   popular by country/genre.

Full endpoint list, methods, and params: [`reference/endpoints.md`](reference/endpoints.md).

## Calling the API

```sh
# Goodreads:
scripts/crawlora.sh /goodreads/search q="Project Hail Mary" | jq '.'
scripts/crawlora.sh /goodreads/book/54493401 | jq '.'

# Apple Books:
scripts/crawlora.sh /apple-books/search term="Project Hail Mary" | jq '.'
scripts/crawlora.sh /apple-books/charts | jq '.'
```

Raw `curl` fallback:

```sh
curl -fsS -H "x-api-key: $CRAWLORA_API_KEY" \
  "https://api.crawlora.net/api/v1/goodreads/author/1221698.Andy_Weir" | jq '.'
```

## Endpoint reference

See [`reference/endpoints.md`](reference/endpoints.md) for every Goodreads
and Apple Books endpoint this skill uses.

## Examples

- **Author bibliography:** `/goodreads/author/{id}/books` (or
  `/apple-books/author/{id}`) for a full backlist, cross-checked against
  `/goodreads/book/{id}/reviews` for reception.
- **"What should I read next?"** — `/apple-books/book/{id}/similar` or a
  Goodreads genre/list page for recommendations in a category.
- **Audiobook vs. print check:** `/apple-books/book/{id}` alongside
  `/apple-books/audiobook/search` for the same title to see if a narrated
  edition exists.

## Notes & limits

- **Credits / pay-on-success:** billed only on `2xx`; free tier 2,000 credits/mo.
  Key at [https://crawlora.net](https://crawlora.net?utm_source=github&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=crawlora-skills).
- **Public data only** — public catalog/review pages.
- **Security:** key lives in `CRAWLORA_API_KEY` only — never hardcode, query-param, or commit it.
- Detail endpoints need the platform's own id — resolve via `.../search`
  first if you only have a title/author name.
- Reviews and lists are paginated (`page`/`limit`) — walk pages for full coverage.