As an avid reader, I cannot help but wonder how technology facilitates the process of book choice. The number of apps for tracking books that give you personalised recommendations is growing rapidly.
Although you may have already tested Goodreads, newer alternatives will give you a fresh perspective, helping discover exciting fictional universes or good-quality applied science books.
Long gone are the days when people needed to search through dozens of bookshelves just to find literature to their liking. At the same time, scrolling through myriads of e-book listings is not always easier.
Benefits of book tracking apps
The variety of choices is overwhelming and you might end up sticking to familiar authors. Targeted advertising may only aggravate the situation, showing you items you’ve already read or browsed through. Although that’s not necessarily bad, discovering something new and exciting to read may be harder than it seems.
Here is when apps for tracking books truly come in handy. Besides, the apps for tracking books have a range of additional functions. For example, they may keep a record of the books you’ve read from your wish list, monitor your reading progress, define your reading preferences and habits, and let you make notes as you read. Besides, app users can honestly review books to help the reading community with future choices.
We have prepared a short list of the most recent and innovative book reading trackers as of July 2023.
StoryGraph
The app is available for both Android and iOS users. The intuitive interface will help you quickly discover currently popular books and customise reading recommendations.
To personalise the book selection, you should take a quick 5-question survey. In addition, you may improve the recommendations by describing your preferences more precisely, either right after taking a survey or later. The answers are up for amendment at any time, as your preferences and moods may change frequently. The app does not only define what you prefer, but also takes into account what qualities of a book plot you don’t enjoy. Besides, apart from the traditional genres, it offers you to choose a preference of themes (e.g. feminism, LGBTQ+, etc) you’re interested in.
Recommendations appear with brief descriptions of a genre, pace of events, character of storytelling, and general mood of the book (e.g. funny, sad, mysterious). As you dive into more details, community reviews shed light on character development, whether the book is plot- or character-driven, and types of potentially inappropriate/undesired content you may come across in the book.
Along with recommendations, the app features reading challenges, giveaway contests to win print book copies, reading statistics, a community feed where you can follow readers similar to you, and more.
Finally, the paid ‘Plus’ subscription brings StoryGraph users additional benefits such as advanced stats, priority support, the ability to vote and comment on upcoming features, and more advanced personal suggestions without limits.
Bookly
If you look for apps not only for tracking books, but also for encouraging robust reading patterns, Bookly can help you train and develop your reading skills.
The app acts like a personal reading coach, helping you to reach pre-set reading goals. It creates a personal reading schedule based on how many books you wish to read in a year and how much time you are willing to spend on reading daily.
Bookly is useful for all the people who find it hard to stick to their resolutions. With a predictable pattern and daily reminders, reading can easily become a habit. To make the process more fun and competitive, readers get to set goals, pursue reading achievements and check their reading scores (like speed, best reading days, etc). Besides, you can participate in ‘Readathons’ where you need to have a long reading session to win gift cards, vouchers, and other prizes.
App users can also make notes as they read, either saving an important book quote or recording their own thoughts on the subject or plot.
The ‘Pro’ paid subscription provides app users with unlimited access to books, while the standard app version has a stored book limit. The advanced subscription tier also provides a cloud backup for your books, unlike the free-to-use version.
Libib
The app allows you to create catalogues of various media content (e-books, music, movies, and video games). It does not have many additional functions but is a good tool for organising your library in a simple and orderly manner. You can also share your lists at public site URLs for other people to see.
The good news is that there are up to 100 libraries available in the free tier which can host about 5,000 separate media items. While that may be perfect enough for an individual, the app can be also used by schools, organisations, and libraries. In this case, there’s a need for a larger capacity (up to 100,000) which can be achieved with the premium tier.
For organisations and school districts that need to manage multiple accounts with a centralised dashboard, Libib also offers the District product.
Tertulia
Tertulia is a Spanish word that means a social gathering with literary or artistic overtones. The name describes the essence of the app quite well, as here you can find reading advice from public figures and experts in many fields.
This app for tracking books is designed specifically for iOS users. To be more exact, it is a perfect tool for iPhone owners. While it also functions on MacBooks, the UI is optimised for smartphones only, so you won’t get a seamless user experience on your laptop.
The app curates the personal book selection with a quick survey, defining your preferred fiction and non-fiction genres. The choice is quite limited, though, broadly generalising your preferences. Next, Tertulia users have to choose whose literature-related opinions are interesting to them (journalists, artists, book critics, poets, business leaders, and more).
Besides daily recommended books tailored to your interests, you can explore featured reading lists compiled by those categories of experts or authors you have previously selected. Some of the lists feature award-winning pieces of literature or suggested reading for those interested in particular social issues/media phenomena etc. For instance, you may come across “15 best books to read if you love Black Mirror” or “The best books for fans of Succession” and check the reviews of your favourite influencers.
In addition, there’s a ‘Trending’ category with the most talked about books. The app uses machine learning to scan online book discussions and create a ‘popular’ list. Tertulia users can purchase the discovered books directly from the app if they live in the United States.
Bookmory
Bookmory is a well-rated reading tracker that helps you achieve your reading goals. Users can add paper, electronic or audiobooks they’re currently reading (listening to) to a list. That enables you to better control and manage your reading habits, track your progress, and see your reading achievements.
Bookmory has separate lists for books currently in progress and those must-reads set aside for the future. You can assess reading progress with a book calendar, as well as daily and yearly stats. Handy timers help you stick to your daily reading goals as well.
To memorise key book moments, readers get an option to make notes on the added books. Notes can be customised with background images and themes, while the note text can be either manually inserted or scanned from the camera image. They can also be shared on social media or exported as a text file.
Besides generated ideas or favourite quotes, there’s a function to note places where you’ve bought or rented the book for future reference. You can also set reminders for those borrowed books with deadline return terms.
