The latest articles on DEV Community by Nafiz Fuad Khan (@thezenigma). https://dev.to/thezenigma https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F4085213%2Fa326b7eb-b19b-4287-affb-9573e4557945.png https://dev.to/thezenigma en Nafiz Fuad Khan Wed, 19 Aug 2026 15:59:07 +0000 https://dev.to/thezenigma/starter-level-python-project-py-book-search-4p3b https://dev.to/thezenigma/starter-level-python-project-py-book-search-4p3b <p>I have finally finished my python book search mini app. This is a command- line application that uses Gutendex API to search for books and show them with some information regarding the book and gives a way to download the book. It took me almost 2 weeks to do it and I used minimal AI related help, did it mostly looking at documentations and examples. This was a big leap for me as it helped clear a lot of python related syntax issues and also gave me a good experience on the file i/o and requests which I used the most for this project and it also strengthened the concepts regarding the data structures of python such as dictionary and lists. Check it out here: </p> <div class="ltag-github-readme-tag"> <div class="readme-overview"> <h2> <img src="https://assets.dev.to/assets/github-logo-5a155e1f9a670af7944dd5e12375bc76ed542ea80224905ecaf878b9157cdefc.svg" alt="GitHub logo"> <a href="https://github.com/thezenigma" rel="noopener noreferrer"> thezenigma </a> / <a href="https://github.com/thezenigma/Py-Book-Search" rel="noopener noreferrer"> Py-Book-Search </a> </h2> <h3> Discover and download public-domain classics from your terminal. Py Book Search queries the Project Gutenberg catalog through Gutendex, returning authors, summaries, languages, and download links — with lightweight user accounts and session tracking. </h3> </div> <div class="ltag-github-body"> <div id="readme" class="md"><div class="markdown-heading"> <h1 class="heading-element">Py Book Search</h1> </div> <p>A command-line book search system written in Python. Search the <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Project Gutenberg</a> catalog through the <a href="https://gutendex.com/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Gutendex</a> API, sign up or log in, and browse book details — all from your terminal.</p> <div class="markdown-heading"> <h2 class="heading-element">Features</h2> </div> <ul> <li> <strong>Book search</strong> — search the Project Gutenberg catalog by title via the Gutendex API, sorted by popularity.</li> <li> <strong>Rich results</strong> — each match shows the title, author(s), summary, languages, a plain-text download link, and the download count.</li> <li> <strong>User accounts</strong> — sign up and log in with a username/password (stored in <code>users.txt</code>).</li> <li> <strong>Session tracking</strong> — logged-in users get a session ID (stored in <code>sessions.txt</code>) that is validated before searches and cleaned up on logout.</li> <li> <strong>Configurable results</strong> — limit how many results to return per search (defaults to 5).</li> </ul> <div class="markdown-alert markdown-alert-note"> <p class="markdown-alert-title">Note</p> <p>Authentication and sessions are implemented with plain-text files for learning purposes only. Do <strong>not</strong> use real credentials — this is not a secure auth system.</p> </div> <div class="markdown-heading"> <h2 class="heading-element">How</h2>…</div></div> </div> <div class="gh-btn-container"><a class="gh-btn" href="https://github.com/thezenigma/Py-Book-Search" rel="noopener noreferrer">View on GitHub</a></div> </div> programming python beginners