The very best apps for studying, monitoring and listening to books

Ask me what I’m studying at any given second and I’ll most likely rattle off at the very least three titles, to not point out comics and the occasional textbook I might also be chipping away at within the background. Studying a number of books concurrently may sound chaotic (at the very least, folks all the time inform me it’s), however there’s a diploma of group to all of it: every ebook in my pile of present reads is in a special format. I will have one bodily, paper ebook, an e-book and an audiobook in progress at a time, so I all the time have one thing readily available to learn regardless of the place I’m.

Whereas I used to hold round a devoted ereader, I’ve shifted extra towards utilizing my telephone for the job nowadays, particularly since getting a foldable. Consequently, I’ve tried out a bunch of various apps for studying and logging my books. These are those I like most.

Libro.fm

Audiobooks have actually grown on me over the previous couple of years, virtually fully changing podcasts because the factor I will throw on after I’m cleansing, taking a stroll or going for a protracted drive. Whereas I attempted to make do at first by solely borrowing audiobooks from the library, I rapidly discovered that the extraordinarily restricted choice from my library system coupled with actually lengthy wait instances simply would not reduce it if I needed to remain up on new releases. After researching all of the choices, I settled on Libro.fm, an audiobook platform that shares a portion of earnings (about half, in keeping with a 2022 interview) with unbiased bookstores. And even higher, you get to choose which bookstore to assist together with your purchases.

I wasn’t anticipating to seek out my favourite native bookstore — a tiny store in a small city in New York’s Hudson Valley — on Libro.fm, so I used to be pleasantly stunned when it turned up within the search. With that, and the truth that all audiobooks from Libro.fm are Digital Rights Management (DRM) free, so you’ll be able to really obtain the recordsdata and do with them as you please, I used to be offered. You have got a couple of choices for getting audiobooks by Libro.fm: you’ll be able to subscribe for $15 monthly, which provides you one audiobook credit score and a 30 % low cost on all purchases; you should buy credit score bundles to avoid wasting on purchases with out a subscription; and you should purchase particular person titles at their full, non-member value. There are additionally loads of free books to select from.

Bookshop.org app

The second I discovered that Bookshop.org had launched ebooks and an app to read them on, I made the positioning my sole vacation spot for getting digital books and have not seemed again. Similar to Libro.fm, Bookshop.org helps you to select an area bookseller to assist together with your purchases. It has been doing this for bodily ebook gross sales for the final 5 years — and in keeping with its tally has raised over $38 million for unbiased bookstores in that point — however till now, there hasn’t been an analogous possibility for ebooks. The brand new app is a no-frills ereader app the place you’ll be able to browse the Bookshop.org catalog to avoid wasting titles to your wishlist (purchases should be made on the positioning) and browse all of the ebooks you have purchased. There are some issues I would like to see it achieve sooner or later, like comics and the choice to show pages facet by facet for studying book-style on a foldable, however it’s an important begin as it’s, particularly in case your major concern is supporting small companies.

Proper now Bookshop.org’s e-book service would not sync with any of the mainstream ereader gadgets, so that you’re locked into studying on Android, iOS or an online browser, however the firm stated it is engaged on Kobo integration and we might see that occur earlier than the top of this 12 months.

Libby

Libby, aka the library app, is my app of selection for older, much less in-demand ebooks and audiobooks, or for when I haven’t got something explicit in thoughts and simply wish to browse the catalog to see what jumps out at me. It helps you to hyperlink a number of library playing cards, that means you doubtlessly have an enormous pool to drag from, and because you’re borrowing books somewhat than shopping for them, it is fully free. Libby additionally connects with Kindle, and you’ll have your titles robotically despatched to your ereader. Some Kobo gadgets assist OverDrive (the distributor behind Libby) too.

Whereas utilizing an app is probably not fairly as satisfying as perusing the stacks IRL, I actually like Libby’s tag system, which helps you to arrange your borrowed books and To Be Learn titles in no matter method works greatest for you. You possibly can have a devoted TBR tag, or create a number of totally different tags to group issues by style, temper, and many others. Libby can also be an important place to seek out magazines.

Moon+ Reader (Android solely)

Moon+ Reader is the very best app I’ve used but for cases the place I’ve the precise file for a ebook or doc. It helps a ton of various file varieties — together with ePUB, PDF, AZW3, MOBI and plenty of extra — and permits you to spotlight and annotate textual content, along with providing auto scroll and text-to-speech so the textual content may be learn aloud to you. It is actually customizable, too. You possibly can select issues like font, font colour, background, margin width, line spacing and extra for every doc, and save the ultimate construct as a theme so you should use it once more later. Designwise, the app feels virtually like a relic of a bygone digital period, organizing your whole books in a skeuomorphic digital bookshelf, and I find it irresistible. There are a couple of model choices for the bookshelf too, or you’ll be able to flip off the bookshelf and simply see your books in a regular grid.

There’s each a free and paid model of the Moon+ Reader, and this can be a state of affairs the place getting the paid model (Moon+ Reader Pro) is definitely price it. It is a one-time buy of $10, and going that route will do away with advertisements and open up extra customization choices. Along with importing your personal recordsdata into the app, Moon+ Reader has Project Gutenberg built-in so you’ll be able to instantly entry that library of over 75,000 free books.

The Storygraph

Naturally, I want a approach to sustain with all of the studying I am doing, and that is the place The StoryGraph is available in. The StoryGraph is a data-focused app for maintaining observe of all the pieces you are at the moment studying, all the pieces you have learn and the ever-growing record of titles you wish to learn. It even permits you to mark books as “didn’t end.” I really like that I can have 5 in-progress books logged at a time, and might even replace every entry to notice how far alongside I’m, which is good for these I am dragging my ft on finishing.

Whenever you go away a evaluate, you could have the choice to be actually detailed about it, going past a star score and a blurb. Reviewers can point out whether or not the ebook would enchantment to readers who like a specific temper, with over a dozen choices. You charge the tempo and reply primary questions concerning the plot and characters, like whether or not there’s character improvement or if the characters are even likeable. There’s additionally the choice so as to add content material warnings.

The place The StoryGraph actually shines, although, is within the stats. There are tons of precise graphs constructed into the expertise to point out you a complete breakdown of your studying habits, from the genres, moods and pacing you favor, to how a lot fiction you have learn versus nonfiction. You possibly can set challenges for your self, like a yearly studying objective, and you will be proven a Studying Wrap-up on the finish of the 12 months. It’s going to let you know how lengthy it takes you to complete a ebook on common, and examine your studying stats to earlier years.

There’s a delicate social part to the app, however it’s tucked away in its personal tab and never shoved in your face, which I admire as somebody who tends to draw back from these issues. In order for you, although, you’ll be able to take part in or create readalongs, begin buddy reads and ebook golf equipment (and even write out a code of conduct for the latter) or simply see what different folks with comparable pursuits to yours are studying. The StoryGraph crew additionally actually appears to take customers’ suggestions into consideration, and is consistently including new issues to the app and tweaking present ones to enhance the expertise, which is all the time good to see.