Why I'm Building an Online Book Library

Hi, I’m Jh Kang, the creator of Library of All. In this post, I want to share why I decided to build an online book library.

My Journey: Time vs. Money

Growing up, I always loved reading through books. However, there were no libraries nearby, and I didn’t have enough money to buy all the books I wanted to read.

Once I started working, I finally had the financial means to buy books, but I found myself without the time to read them. Then, I watched an interview with Sam Altman about taking a sabbatical year. It made me think: maybe I should take a sabbatical to clear my schedule for reading (my goal was 30+ books a year) and work toward economic freedom. So, in March, I quit my job and started building my own projects.

Things didn’t go exactly as planned. I haven’t reached economic freedom yet, and I’ve only read about half of my target. I also need to find a job again soon. Fortunately, I have about five to six months of runway left, so I can keep building while I look for my next role.

My Mission

Since leaving my job, I’ve built five products and all of them failed. I learned a lot from those failures, but the most important lesson was realizing I had been too focused on making money rather than building what I truly needed.

So, I started looking for what I really needed, and I found it.

We all know the world is full of massive problems: famine, poverty, climate change, disease, and aging. Even if I dedicated my entire life to just one of these issues, I might only solve a tiny fraction of it. Why do I care about solving these problems? Because I want to live longer, and I want to explore the universe.

I know I can’t solve every problem myself, but I believe great people can. My humble mission is to help people become great. And to be great, I truly believe reading books is the best path.

The Problem I Want to Solve

Recently, alongside finding my mission, I realized something concerning: people, including myself, are losing our cognitive edge.

I listened to a podcast by Cal Newport, and his perspective on cognitive health really stayed with me. He pointed out that in the 70s, as office work became the norm, our physical health began to decline because our bodies weren’t built to sit all day. That’s why the fitness industry exploded. We had to actively exercise just to stay healthy.

He argues that we are now facing a similar crisis with our minds. In the age of social media and endless short-form content, we are losing our ability to focus. In a sense, we are becoming “cognitively weaker.” Just as we go to the gym to counter a sedentary lifestyle, we now need to consciously train our brains to stay sharp. I believe reading books is the ultimate gym for the mind.

I feel this decline myself. One day, I realized I couldn’t focus on a book for more than 20 minutes. I found myself re-reading the same sentence over and over. I had lost my deep focus and literacy. I still read, but not with the immersion I had as a child.

I want to rebuild my brain. I want my focus and deep literacy back. And I want to help others do the same.

My Commitments

Here is my promise to you:

• Public Domain Forever: Every public domain book on the platform will be free for everyone, forever.
• Weekly Updates: I will upload at least 3 English public domain books every week.
  • You can request specific books on our Discord.
• New Features: I will keep adding tools like note-taking and other features designed to help you learn and grow.
  • New features will initially be free for everyone, but may later require a subscription to maintain the service.
  • Some advanced features may be limited for free users in the future.
• A Lifetime Commitment: Currently, this is a side project, but I promise to keep building Library of All for the rest of my life.
  • I am currently looking for a job, so my pace might fluctuate. However, until I get hired, I am committed to building this full-time until I get hired.
  • Even when I return to work, this will remain my lifetime project. I will keep building, organized around my schedule, even if the pace slows down slightly.

Feedback

I am always open to requests for books and features. Join our Discord and let me know if you have any questions or suggestions.

What’s Next?

I will be sharing the current status and roadmap of Library of All in my next post. Thanks for reading.