Bookidle
Name the day's book from a pixelated cover or from five clues that get easier.
Every day: One secret book a day, the same for everyone, played two ways: name it from a pixelated cover that clears with each try, or from five written clues that get easier, in five attempts each. Every past day is in an archive. New puzzle: Midnight UTC, as the How to Play page states.
Bookidle is a free daily book quiz with two games built on the same secret book. In Cover Guess you see a heavily pixelated cover that sharpens each time you guess or skip; in Clues Guess you start with the hardest clue and get an easier one each round. You have five chances in each, and the archive holds every earlier day.
About Bookidle
Bookidle is a small daily game for readers, run as a one-person project by a maker who prefers to stay unnamed. Each day it picks one book and builds two puzzles on it, so you can play either or both.
In Cover Guess, the book's cover starts out as a blur of large pixels. Each round you can guess or skip, and either way the next round shows a clearer cover. You type a title or author into a search box and pick from the suggestions. After five tries the full cover and the answer are shown.
In Clues Guess you get written clues instead. The first is the hardest, and each guess or skip brings the next, easier one, up to five in all. Both games use the same scoring squares: red for a wrong guess or a skip, and yellow when you have the right author but the wrong book.
Covers come from the Open Library catalogue, and the maker writes every clue. Progress saves in your browser with no account, you can copy a result to share, and the archives for both games go back months.
How to play Bookidle
- Open Bookidle and choose Cover Guess or the Clues Guess game.
- Look at the pixelated cover, or read the first clue.
- Guess by typing a title or author and picking a suggestion, or skip to see a clearer cover or the next clue.
- Watch the squares: red is a miss or skip, yellow means right author, wrong book.
- Name the book within five tries, then play the other game; it uses the same book.
Tips
- Play Clues Guess after the cover game, or the other way round: they share the answer, so the second is a check on the first.
- A yellow square means you have the author; spend the next guess on their other well-known books.
- Colour and layout on the blurry cover can point to a genre long before the title is legible.
- Missed a day? Both games have an archive of past puzzles.
Questions
When does Bookidle reset?
Both games update at midnight UTC.
Are the two Bookidle games about different books?
No. Cover Guess and Clues Guess use the same secret book each day.
What does a yellow square mean?
You named the right author but the wrong book.
Can I play past days?
Yes. Each game has an archive of dated puzzles.
Do I need an account?
No. Progress is saved in your browser.
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