5 of the best apps to track your reading and discover new books • TechCrunch
As 2022 draws to a close, you may be looking for the best reads of the year that you may have missed, or you may want to start compiling a list of books you want to read in the new year. There are plenty of apps out there designed to help you keep track of your reading and discover new books, so we’ve compiled a list of some of the best to help you choose one that strikes your fancy.
Some of the apps on this list are somewhat new, while others have been around for a few years. Amazon-owned Goodreads, arguably the most popular book-related app, is not included in this list because we’re focusing on newer, lesser-known platforms.
StoryGraph
Image credit: History graph
StoryGraph is an Android and iOS app that lets you track your reading and get personalized recommendations. You can mix and match the app’s set of filters to find your next perfect read. The app offers many reading challenges, such as reading one book from every country in the world or reading one book per week across several genres. StoryGraph also includes a built-in reading journal and annual reading and page goals.
The app’s rating system is unique because it asks users a series of questions that the platform will then use when recommending a book to another user. For example, if you say that the book you are reading would be good for someone who likes emotional and fast-paced novels, StoryGraph can recommend that book to someone who is looking for such a read. The rating system also allows you to rate with full, half, or quarter stars, unlike Goodreads, which only allows you to rate on a full star system.
StoryGraph is great for people who want something similar to Goodreads. The app is free to use, but also offers a $4.99 per month subscription that unlocks additional features, such as advanced statistics and more personalized suggestions.
Tertullia
Tertulia is a somewhat new iPhone app that differentiates itself from other similar book discovery platforms by using machine learning to scan online discussions to see what books people are talking about. The app starts by asking you to specify what kind of books you want to read. You can choose to get recommendations from people you follow on Twitter, along with fiction writers, feminist voices, journalists, book critics, researchers, and more. The app will then give you daily recommendations tailored to your interests, which will improve the more you engage with books in the app.
The app lets you browse books that are popular at the moment, while helping you keep track of what you want to read. If you find a book that interests you, you can buy it directly from the app if you live in the US. Tertulia’s app is easy to use and has an intuitive browsing experience.
Tertulia is great for people who want to discover what books are currently trending on social media, podcasts, and the web. The app is free to use and will launch soon on Android.
Basmo
Image credit: Basmo
Basmo is an Android and iOS app designed to help you create a reading habit while tracking your books. The app is mainly aimed at people who want to become a better and more efficient reader. Basmo tracks the time you spend reading and gives you an overview of your overall reading progress. You can also create a personal reading plan to help you easily tackle your goals one page at a time.
As you read, you can use Basmo to digitally write your thoughts and ideas about parts of a book that you find interesting. You can also scan and highlight your favorite passages as you read. When you finish a book, you can track how it made you feel. For example, you can note whether the book made you feel excited, happy, angry, bored or confused.
The app is great for people who don’t care about the social or community aspects of reading and instead want to focus on goals and progress. Basmo is free to use with standard features. The app also offers a $5 per month subscription that unlocks unlimited functionality and additional features.
Reading
Image credit: Reading
Readerly is a book discovery app for Android and iOS that helps you track your reading and find new books. Unlike all other apps in this roundup, Readerly does not include a 5-star rating system. Instead, the app provides context with each review, showing you how much your tastes overlap with the reviewer, books you’ve both read, and topics you both enjoy. The point of this is to prevent you from passing by a book that you might actually end up liking, regardless of what it’s rated on another platform.
The app is also moving away from long reviews and instead features Gists, which are the app’s short review format. Key Points prompts users to write a TL;DR version of a review in 200 characters or less. Main content is then converted into an Instagram Stories-like format. Once you’ve created your Gist, you can add additional slides with your favorite quotes, characters, or other additional information that you think others might find useful. When it comes to book discovery, the app will surface content from readers with similar reading tastes to you.
Readerly is great for people who want to try a unique book discovery platform. The app is free to use and also offers a monthly subscription fee of $2.99 for users who want to support the new platform and receive personalized reviews.
TBR bookshelf
Image credit: TBR bookshelf
TBR Bookshelf is a fairly new iOS app that mainly caters to #BookTok, a popular TikTok sub-community focused on popular books and literature. The app offers a simple and tidy user interface. Like other book tracking apps, TBR Bookshelf lets you track books you’ve read, want to read, and are reading. The app’s ranking system lets you outline your favorite characters and quotes. You can also note if you are re-reading a book or if you didn’t finish a book at all.
The app has specific rating categories for different genres that go beyond star ratings. For example, if you’re reviewing a self-help book, you can give it separate ratings based on how inspiring and helpful it was. Or, if you’re reviewing a classic book, you can give it different ratings based on how heartfelt and interesting it was.
TBR Bookshelf is a good app for people who are part of #BookTok, as many of its features are aimed at these users. The app is free to use, but also offers a $4.99 monthly subscription that unlocks extra features, including things like season ratings, playlists, and ratings for TV shows and movie adaptations.
