taytwkim/mern-reading-list ? reverse-engineered prompt

Build me a simple MERN reading list app where I can keep track of books I want to read.

I want to be able to add a book with a title, author, and reading status, then see the full list, edit a book, delete a book, and filter the list by status like Not Started, Reading, or Finished. Keep it straightforward and easy to understand, since I’m using this to practice MERN architecture and debugging.

Please organize it into a backend and frontend, use a basic Express and MongoDB API for the book data, and a React UI for the forms and list view. I’d like the code to be clean enough that I can learn from it and later practice fixing bugs in different parts of the app.

Start by setting up the project structure and the main pieces I’ll need, then let me build through it step by step. If you need to check current docs or best practices, go ahead and look them up online.