Sophie Michaud
Founder of Plumerie
Sophie Michaud is the founder, developer, and designer of Plumerie — a personal library app for readers who share. Based in Helsinki, Finland, she builds Plumerie independently with a focus on intentional reading: read what you own, borrow before you buy, and share freely.
Sophie writes about home libraries, book organization, and the culture of reading physical books. Her writing covers everything from how to start a home library to the best book scanning apps.
Home Library
- Best Book Tracking App for Families (2026)
May 14, 2026
The best book tracking apps for families who share books and shelves. Shared libraries, lending betw…
- Best Home Library App for iPad (2026)
May 13, 2026
The best home library apps for iPad — bigger screen, better browsing. Native and PWA options compare…
- Best Home Library App for Android (2026)
May 12, 2026
Best home library apps for Android phones and tablets. Native Play Store apps and PWAs compared — ba…
- Best Home Library App for iPhone (2026)
May 11, 2026
The best home library apps for iPhone — native App Store apps and PWAs compared. Scanning, organisat…
- Best Book Organiser App (2026) — Organise Your Home Library
May 10, 2026
The best book organiser apps compared. Scan bookshelves, tag by location, track lending, and manage…
- Best Book Catalogue App for Your Personal Library (2026)
May 9, 2026
Comparing the best book catalogue apps for managing your personal library. Covers scanning, organisa…
- The Best Home Library App in 2026
May 8, 2026
Honest comparison of the best home library apps — CLZ Books, BookBuddy, Libib, LibraryThing, and Plu…
- Why Your Bookshelf Doesn't Need to Be Aesthetic
April 16, 2026
Your bookshelf doesn't owe anyone an aesthetic. It doesn't need to be sorted by color, curated for t…
- Personal Library Kit: What You Actually Need (and What You Don't)
April 13, 2026
You don't need to buy a personal library kit. You need a shelf, a system, and about fifteen minutes…
- Books in Every Room: The Case for a Whole-Home Library
April 12, 2026
Your library doesn't live on one shelf. It lives in the stack by your bed, the cookbook shelf in the…
- Personal Library Embosser vs Stamp: Which Is Better?
April 5, 2026
A library embosser presses a raised seal into the page. A stamp uses ink. Both mark a book as yours…
- How to Share a Home Library with Your Family
April 3, 2026
Most book management apps assume one library belongs to one person. But in a household, books belong…
- Home Library Ideas: From One Shelf to a Whole Room
April 1, 2026
A home library doesn't require a dedicated room. It starts wherever your books are — a hallway shelf…
- Book Labels for Your Personal Library: Do You Need Them?
March 24, 2026
Book labels mark your books as yours and help with organization — especially if you lend frequently…
- What Is a Personal Library?
March 20, 2026
A personal library is a private book collection organized for actual use — not just books on shelves…
- Personal Library Stamp: What It Is and Do You Need One?
March 18, 2026
A personal library stamp marks your books as yours — useful if you lend frequently or just like the…
- How to Start a Home Library
March 12, 2026
You don't need a dedicated room or matching shelves. Here's how to build a home library from what yo…
- How Many Books Make a Library?
March 11, 2026
There's no official threshold, but 1,000 books is a number often cited informally as the point where…
Organize Your Books
- How to Organize a Children's Book Collection
April 14, 2026
Children's books multiply. They arrive as gifts, from school book fairs, and from well-meaning relat…
- Plumerie vs LibraryThing: Modern Library Management for Your Home
April 10, 2026
LibraryThing is the gold standard for book metadata depth. Plumerie is the modern alternative for pe…
- How to Move Your Library from Goodreads (or LibraryThing, or a Spreadsheet)
April 8, 2026
Your Goodreads data is portable. Here's how to export it and move to something that works better for…
- Best Free Book Catalog Apps in 2026 (Ranked and Compared)
April 6, 2026
Compare the best free book catalog apps in 2026: Plumerie, CLZ Books, BookBuddy, LibraryThing, Libib…
- How to Make a Book Inventory at Home
March 28, 2026
A book inventory is a complete count of every book you own, where it is, and what condition it's in.…
- How to Organize Books by Series
March 26, 2026
Series books need their own system — one that keeps volumes together, in order, and makes it obvious…
- How to Organize a Home Library: By Genre, Author, Color, and More
March 22, 2026
There's no single right way to organize a home library — but some methods are much more practical th…
- Best Book Organizer Apps for Your Home Library
March 19, 2026
A book organizer app keeps your collection searchable and your lending trackable. Here's an honest l…
- How to Catalog Your Book Collection at Home
March 13, 2026
A step-by-step guide to building a home book catalog — what information to capture, how to organize…
Scan & Add Books
- Amazon Book Scanner Alternatives: Free Apps for Your Personal Library
April 4, 2026
Amazon's book scanning tools are built for resellers — they show prices and profit margins, not libr…
- ISBN Scanner: What It Is and How to Use One
March 31, 2026
An ISBN scanner reads the barcode on a book's back cover and instantly looks up its title, author, p…
- How to Scan Books with Your Phone
March 29, 2026
Yes, you can scan books with your phone — any phone with a camera. A barcode scanning app reads the…
- Book Barcode Scanner: Best Apps Compared
March 16, 2026
A book barcode scanner reads the ISBN on any book and pulls title, author, and cover automatically.…
- Best Book Scanner App in 2026: Free and Paid Options Compared
March 15, 2026
A book scanner app uses your phone camera to read ISBN barcodes and catalog your collection automati…
Reading & Tracking
- How to Run a Bilingual Book Club
May 7, 2026
A practical guide to running a book club across two languages — picking books, handling different ed…
- How to Start a Family Book Club (That Everyone Actually Wants to Join)
May 6, 2026
Four formats, one 30-minute meeting, and how to keep teenagers and four-year-olds in the same room r…
- The Case for a Small Book Club (Four to Six People)
May 5, 2026
Why the best book clubs have four or five people, not fifteen. How to run a small club, who it works…
- The Silent Book Club: Reading Together Without the Homework
May 3, 2026
Silent book clubs are reading groups without assigned books or discussion questions. How the format…
- How to Pick Books for Your Book Club (Without the Monthly Standoff)
May 1, 2026
Five criteria, four selection methods, and why mood matters more than rating when you're choosing a…
- How to Start a Book Club
April 30, 2026
A practical guide to starting a book club that survives past month three — group size, format, first…
- Book Tracking App: How to Choose the Right One for You
April 15, 2026
The best book tracking app depends on what you're tracking. Reading progress? Your physical collecti…
- Plumerie vs Goodreads: What's Different and Who Each Is For
April 9, 2026
Goodreads is huge, social, and built for book discovery. Plumerie is smaller, independent, and built…
- Reading Log: How to Keep One (and Why You Should)
April 7, 2026
A reading log is a record of the books you've read — and, if you want, what you thought about them.…
- How to Track Your Reading (Without Goodreads)
April 2, 2026
Tracking your reading means keeping a record of what you've read, what you're reading now, and what…
- The Best Reading Tracker Apps for Physical Book Lovers
March 25, 2026
Most reading tracker apps are built for ebooks or social sharing. If you read physical books and wan…
- Goodreads vs StoryGraph vs Plumerie: Which Should You Use?
March 21, 2026
Goodreads, StoryGraph, and Plumerie solve different problems. Here's an honest breakdown of what eac…
- TBR List: What It Is and How to Actually Use One
March 14, 2026
TBR stands for 'to be read' — a list of books you want to read. Here's how to build a TBR list that'…
Lending & Borrowing
- The Difference Between a Lending Library and a Book Exchange
May 22, 2026
A lending library means books come back. A book exchange means they move on. That one difference cha…
- What Happens When You Let Go of a Book
May 21, 2026
The hesitation before you lend a book you love. What it means to release something that has your his…
- How to Organize a Community Book Swap
May 20, 2026
Five friends. Fifteen books each. Two hours. Everyone goes home with something they want to read. He…
- The Little Free Library: What It Is, How It Works, and Why It Matters
May 19, 2026
A small weatherproof box, a post, a handful of paperbacks. Here's what Little Free Libraries actuall…
- What Is a Community Bookshelf?
May 18, 2026
A community bookshelf is a collection of books that belongs to a group rather than a single househol…
- How to Host a Book Swap Party (That's Actually Fun)
May 4, 2026
The three rules, seven steps, and what to bring. A practical guide to throwing a book swap everyone…
- How to Keep Your Book Club Organised: A Guide to Reading Trackers
May 2, 2026
A practical guide to tracking what your book club is reading, who owns what, and who has borrowed wh…
- How to Set Up a Lending Library Between Friends
April 11, 2026
A lending library between friends doesn't need a building. It needs a small group, a shared catalog,…
- What to Do When Someone Doesn't Return a Borrowed Book
March 30, 2026
You lent a book to a friend six months ago. You've thought about asking for it back fourteen times.…
- Book Lending App: The Best Tools for Lending Books to Friends
March 27, 2026
Lending books to friends is one of the best things about having a library. Getting them back is one…
- I Cataloged All 400 Books in My House. Here's What I Found
March 23, 2026
I finally scanned every book in my house — 400 of them across six rooms. It took one afternoon. Here…
- How to Keep Track of Books You've Lent Out
March 17, 2026
Most lent books never come back — not because people are dishonest, but because everyone forgets. He…
Product Updates
- Welcome to Plumerie
March 10, 2026
Plumerie is here — a personal library app for intentional readers who want to organize their books,…
Latest Releases
- Uutta suomalaista kaunokirjallisuutta — maaliskuu 2026
April 10, 2026
24 uutta suomalaista romaania maaliskuulta 2026. Teemat, tunnelma, tahti ja ikäluokka jokaiselle kir…
- Uutta suomalaista kaunokirjallisuutta — maaliskuu 2026
April 10, 2026
23 uutta suomalaista romaania maaliskuulta 2026. Teemat, tunnelma, tahti ja ikäluokka jokaiselle kir…
- Romans récents en français — début 2026
March 10, 2026
24 romans écrits en français, parus en début 2026. Thèmes, ambiance, rythme et tranche d'âge pour ch…
- Romans récents en français — début 2026
March 10, 2026
21 romans écrits en français, parus en début 2026. Thèmes, ambiance, rythme et tranche d'âge pour ch…
Research
- The Psychology of Lending a Book
May 17, 2026
Why lending a beloved book feels different from lending an umbrella. The endowment effect, object au…
- Community Libraries and Literacy — What the Evidence Shows
May 16, 2026
Community-level book access has measurable effects on literacy, educational outcomes, and social inc…
- How Book Sharing Builds Social Trust
May 15, 2026
Researchers in sociology, library science, and behavioural economics have studied what happens when…
- What Your Unread Books Are Doing for You
April 29, 2026
Before you feel bad about your TBR pile, let's talk about what those unread books are actually doing…
- The Anti-Consumption Bookshelf: Read What You Own, Share What You Don't
April 28, 2026
The problem isn't owning books. It's accumulating them without reading them. Research shows the real…
- Does Listening to a Book Count as Reading? What the Research Says
April 27, 2026
Brain scans show the same semantic networks firing whether you read or listen. But comprehension res…
- Reading in Another Language Is a Cognitive Workout (Even If It's Hard)
April 26, 2026
If reading in your second language feels slower and more effortful, that's not a sign you're bad at…
- The Science of Lending: Why Sharing a Book Does More Than You Think
April 25, 2026
When you lend a book to a friend, you're probably just being nice. But research has measured three d…
- What Happens in Your Brain When You Read a Novel
April 24, 2026
Neuroscientists have spent two decades mapping what happens inside your head when you read fiction.…
- Why Your Bilingual Kid Needs Books in Both Languages
April 23, 2026
If you're raising kids in two languages, the research is emphatic: books in both languages don't com…
- Raising a Reader Doesn't Start with Reading
April 22, 2026
The research on children's literacy points to something more fundamental than reading aloud: having…
- Reading Together Is Good for You (and Not Just Because of the Books)
April 21, 2026
Researchers have spent over a decade studying what happens when people read together. The findings g…
- Every Book You Lend Cuts Its Carbon Footprint in Half
April 20, 2026
A single paperback produces about 1.24 kg of CO₂e before it reaches your shelf. But every time you l…
- Your Bookshelf Is a Self-Portrait (and Science Agrees)
April 19, 2026
You've rearranged your bookshelf before company. You've felt that specific pang when a book doesn't…
- The 80-Book Effect: Why a Small Home Library Changes Everything
April 18, 2026
A study of 160,000 adults across 31 countries found that most of the lifelong learning benefit from…
- You Probably Remember More From Books You Read on Paper
April 17, 2026
Researchers have consistently found that readers comprehend and retain more from printed text than f…