A small beginning to an epic adventure.

Necessity is the mother of all invention

Once upon a time, my 15-year-old daughter was with me at a Barnes & Noble. Her siblings and I were just bumping around the shelves, looking for some pick-outs. (Down South, “pick-outs” are spur-of-the-moment gifts we grab for ourselves. Books are some of the best pick-outs, in my opinion!)

So my 15-year-old found a colorful, thick book her friend had recommended. She handed it to me and said, "What do you think?" I looked at the nice cover, flipped it over, and skimmed the blurb.

“Fairies, beasts, magical lands, romance, high stakes for a fairy world. Sure, we can get it.”

— Her impulsive father, at Barnes & Noble

We checked out with the rest of the kids and went home. Later, I chatted with my wife, and she got an odd feeling about the book. I looked it over again and thumbed through some pages. Nothing jumped out at first. So I went to Goodreads to see what others were saying.

Turns out, it was a BookTok sensation—hugely popular on social media. As I kept reading, I saw mentions of romance and some intense, gritty scenes. Then I saw comments about how spicy it got—definitely not what we were comfortable with for her age. After 45 minutes of digging through reviews and talking it over with my wife and daughter, we made the hard decision to take the book back.

I felt bad about the whole thing.

1. My daughter’s friend had recommended a book everyone seemed to love.
2. It just wasn’t material we were ready for her to dive into.
3. I’d spent real time researching it, only to realize most reviews didn’t even mention the red flags (for us).

Thankfully, my daughter understood and swapped it out for something more age-appropriate. But it’s still the worst feeling to take back a gift from your kid.

Small beginnings

That’s when it hit me—there should’ve been a tool I could’ve used right there in the store. What if I could scan a book and get a quick, no-nonsense summary of what’s inside? No fluff. No bias. No endless scrolling through mixed reviews.

Goodreads and StoryGraph rely on community reviews—which is great for some. But I wanted something quicker, something that cut through the noise. What mattered to me wasn’t always mentioned in the reviews, and everyone’s tastes and priorities are different. I just wanted a tool that gave me a clear, unbiased look at what was actually in the book—so I could decide for myself.

That was the seed of Book Scout.

I built a prototype using AI, and it worked better than I expected. That was two years ago. Life delayed things for a while, but I’m finally giving it the time it deserves.

Now, Book Scout is available for parents and thoughtful readers who want to know what’s in a book before committing to it. Time is a precious thing, and Book Scout’s job is to give it back to you by making book decisions easier.

A cool tool

Book Scout isn’t just about avoiding certain books—it’s about finding the ones that feel like they were made for you. It highlights both the good and the questionable, gives each book a movie-style content rating, and recommends similar reads. You can organize your books with custom shelves and share them with friends and family. And the more you use it, the better it gets at learning your taste. If you’re into the nitty-gritty, the Topics Tracker lets you explore recurring themes across the books you read.

If you’ve ever found yourself second-guessing a book pick—for yourself or your kid—give Book Scout a try. It was built for moments just like that.

Download Book Scout