I find some level of trusted recommendations valuable and also love talking about books with friends.

Just because you only care about a small sliver of the product doesn't mean that others feel the same

Avid book readers might make a similar statement about writing code :-)

To be more clear, when a database (with multiple fields, and better workflows) is clearly the right tool, why would you try to implement it one ad-hoc in a simplistic text file/editor!?

And if someone says Emacs+orgmode, that’s basically a nice framework for implementing applications backed by structured data stored in our format :-)

If someone wants to go the plain-old-text-files route for books, I'd stan for GNU Recutils over org-mode.

This is the kind of thing recutils is specifically designed for, where org-mode is merely capable of it by virtue of its kitchen-sink nature.

IMHO recutils should be the first choice if you find yourself wanting both a database and a text file simultaneously.

Unfortunately, you really can’t tell in advance what fields you need. All these precious specialized tools are frustrating.

Plain (-ish) text is flexible and searchable.

But how will all your friends know? /s

I’d trade all of Facebook and Instagram for a single decent lit social network /no-s

What would ‘decent’ mean?

Or just add them to your wishlist on amazon

I've found the Amazon app to load very slowly when the LTE connection isn't great, which is often the case in bookstores, at least where I live.

I agree with the grandparents comment. I just use a list in Apple Notes.