A dark, minimal reading interface with a single book open on screen

01 / 06 — Self-hosted Platform

A private reading platform, built for one reader.

Client
Personal project
Year
2026
Role
Design & engineering
Stack
Next.js · React · Tailwind · Docker · Cloudflare Tunnel

Overview

Phantom Library is a reading platform I built for myself. No storefront, no recommendation engine, no social layer — just a private library that holds what I actually want to read and then gets out of the way while I read it.

Visit live site
Phantom Library reading view — dark, typography-first
Fig. 1The reading view. Nothing moves.

01 — The challenge

Every reading app wants to be a marketplace. They push purchases, track reading habits, and bury the book behind a catalogue. What I wanted was closer to a shelf: open it, pick something up, read. That meant building the thing rather than finding it.

02 — The solution

A Next.js application with a deliberately restrained interface — dark by default, typography-first, no chrome competing with the text. It runs in a container on my own server and is published through a Cloudflare tunnel, so it is reachable from anywhere without opening a port or paying for hosting.

$0

Monthly hosting cost

100%

Self-hosted

0

Trackers or ads

Library grid showing book covers in a dark interface
Fig. 2The library grid.

Credits

  • Design & buildRahul Kumar Singh

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