Written by Liz Boccolini
The rise of the bookworm grows each year with readers creating their own blogs to review and promote books and sharing their bookish love through the form of photography on social media such as Instagram. These days, there are plenty of websites and applications for readers to sign up to, whether it be to review books, listen to audiobooks, or make some fellow bookish friends!
Read on to discover nine bookish apps that you should be downloading right now to try out!
Apple Books (iOS)
Apple Books comes preinstalled on Apple devices and offers e-books as well as audiobooks. Navigating to “Reading Now” takes you to where you last stopped reading and if you’re reading multiple books at a time, the app splits your “Reading Now” into “Current” and “Recent” so you can pick which book you feel like continuing. You can also file titles under your “Want to Read” list, and you can create your own library and organise it however you want. Apple Books gives you recommendations based on your purchases and puts out lists of books, including “Read It Before You See It” for books recently turned into movies and “Critics’ Picks.” Finally, Apple Books lets you read a sample of a book before you buy to ensure the money you spend is worth it.
Libby, by Overdrive (iOS and Android)
Libby lets you borrow e-books and audiobooks from your local library, and it even lets you send e-books to your Kindle. All you have to do is download the app, find your library (either by searching or having Libby guess based on your location), and put in your library card information. You can even sign into multiple libraries or library systems if you have more than one card like I do. Libby gives you the option of downloading books for later offline listening or reading (great if you’re travelling or just don’t have access to WiFi) or stream them. Like Apple Books, you can try a free sample of a book before you download it. You can tag books to make your own collections, like “Wishlist,” “Books I Love,” or “Books I’ll Get to Eventually.” Your loans, holds, and reading/listening progress are synced across your devices, and everything is on a single shelf so you don’t have to search.
We Read Too (iOS and Android)
While you can’t read books directly on this app, this is a great resource for finding books by diverse authors with diverse characters. We Read Too features picture, chapter, middle grade, and young adult books featuring main characters of colour, written by authors of colour. The app lets you browse books by level (picture book, chapter book, etc.), view the book’s details, share the book online, add it to your Goodreads account, or buy it. You can also suggest a title be added if you think anything is missing.
Let’s Read (iOS)
Let’s Read allows you to record personalised versions of the app’s collection of picture books. According to its description in the App Store, “Let’s Read provides a fun, easy way to record video & audio narrations for your kids. The app synchronises your video/audio recordings with the illustrations from our award-winning collection of picture books. Then share your personalised stories on a private, secure family network.” The app was originally developed to engage children in healthy screen time, and stories can be shared across up to five devices.
Bookly (iOS)
This app, formerly known as Bookout, serves as a book and reading habit tracker. You can set up collections of books, track your reading times, keep track of favourite quotes, take notes, and play ambient noise while you read. The app tracks your total reading time, total pages read, reading speed, reading time and pages read per day, and number of reading days in a row. You can set monthly and/or yearly goals and even borrow books from other people.
Gutenberg (iOS and Android)
Gutenberg is the app version of Project Gutenberg, which offers free public domain books as e-books. There are over 50,000 titles to choose from, including Pride & Prejudice, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and the complete collection of Shakespeare’s works. Gutenberg has a multitude of categories, some general like “Fiction” or “Fantasy,” and others more specific like “World Wars” and “African American Writers.” You can even see the most popular reads from the previous day, the last seven days, or the last 30 days.
Goodreads (iOS and Android)
This is the app version of the Goodreads website! The app lets you scan your books or search for them to add them to the “My Books” section. Searching for books lets you browse genres and featured lists such as “Books That Everyone Should Read At Least Once” and “Best Dystopian and Post-Apocalyptic Fiction,” and scanning a book lets you scan either the barcode or the cover of a book and add it to a pre-defined or custom list. You can update your progress on books you’re currently reading (as of writing this I’m 25% through Persuasion). You can also rate books you’ve read out of five stars, write a review, add the dates you read the book, read a sample of a book, and view a book’s details. Connecting with friends lets you see their reviews and ratings, and signing in with Amazon gives you personal recommendations if you read on a Kindle or through the Kindle app. Finally, you can set a reading goal for the year and Goodreads will tell you what to do to achieve it. For example, it might say you have to read three books in December if you want to hit your goal.
Google Play Books (iOS and Android)
Like Apple Books, Google Play Books gives you access to millions of e-books and audiobooks available for download. The app gives you personalised recommendations based on what you’ve read, and you can preview a book before you buy it. You can also take notes that sync with Google Drive, which you can then share.
Amazon Kindle (iOS and Android)
Despite its name, you don’t have to own a Kindle to use this app! You can read books, magazines, and newspapers, sample books before you buy them, and borrow from the library. If you do have a Kindle or multiple devices with the Kindle app, you can sync your progress, purchases, and samples across devices. Plus, if you have Amazon Prime, you can choose one free Kindle book per month through First Reads. If you don’t have a Kindle but you have Amazon Prime, you can still get First Reads hardback books for $9.99 each.
