The news hit the tech forums this week like a quiet thud rather than a dramatic crash - Readarr, the book automation tool that many of us relied on for managing our digital libraries, has officially been retired. The GitHub repository is now archived, and the developers have thrown in the towel, citing unusable metadata, lack of time, and a stalled community effort to transition to Open Library.

It’s one of those moments that makes you pause and think about the fragility of the open source ecosystem we’ve all come to depend on. Here’s a project that filled a genuine need - automating book downloads and library management in the same way that Sonarr handles TV shows and Radarr manages movies. Yet despite its usefulness, it’s now joining the digital graveyard of abandoned projects.