A name blurs. A citation won't resolve. A line refuses to settle. You leave to look it up—and the thread you were holding slips.
BetterReads is a reading system. It keeps you inside the book—to learn, research, and study without leaving the page. Progress and what you mark become a reading life log; Today's Review brings them back. Browse free public-domain books to start, or bring your own EPUB, PDF, and audiobooks.
Help beside the text—quiet when you don't need it.
Try it — tap the name
Then rose, and grief hung close about him, wondering if his father still lived, or wandered far from home.
Tap the name — see who they are without losing your line.
Tabs, summaries, and shelf apps each solve one piece. BetterReads keeps you inside the book—and builds memory from what you actually read.
The reading super-app
No other app ships this stack in one place—classics with insight, PDF research, your own EPUB/PDF/audiobooks, a shelf that tracks what you open, LibriVox listen-along, and Study—on iOS, Android, Mac, and web. Start free. Scholar unlocks full depth.
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A vast free public-domain library to start from—plus a growing curated set with chapter companions. Import your own EPUB, PDF, and audiobooks. LibriVox listen-along on many titles. Continue where you stopped—progress and reading time on the edition you opened.
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PDFs are read as books, not as downloads. Outline and citations, painted find, figure capture, and Ask that jumps to the page it quoted.
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Today's Review brings back glossary, characters, and notes on a spaced schedule. Optional coaching only after you've tried—never an answer vending machine.
Research
Import a PDF and treat it like a book—not a file you download and forget. BetterReads is for reading arguments: outline in a side panel, notes beside the page, and tools that stay attached to the line you're on.
Stay with the page for people, difficult lines, citations, and the notes you meant to return to.
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Tap it. A short card appears. Close it—and you're still on the same line.
Novels, plays, and verse each get their own lens—companions that match the shape of the text, not one template for every book.
Your place stays yours.
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Browse Discover for a vast free public-domain library. A growing curated set includes chapter companions—Scholars can request curation for more.
Import the EPUB, PDF, and audiobooks you already own—MP3, M4A, M4B, FLAC, WAV, AAC. Listen in the apps; the shelf stays with you on web too. Track a title you read on paper or Kindle when the file lives elsewhere.
The catalog is a beginning, not a fence.
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Glossary, notes, and saved passages become recall prompts on a spaced schedule—across every book you read here.
Try in your own words first, then reveal what you saved. Again · Hard · Good · Easy sets when it returns.
Memory built from reading—not from rereading a pile of marks.
Reading life
BetterReads is not Goodreads or Hardcover. We don't optimize for a social graph or a trophy shelf. What you actually do while reading—sessions, progress, highlights, glossary cards—stays on the book you opened.
Track because you read—not the other way around.
Open your bookshelfLibrary
Discover holds a vast free public-domain catalog you can preview and download. Some titles are curated with chapter companions—that set keeps growing, and Scholars can request curation for books they care about. Import EPUB, PDF, and audiobooks, or track a title you read elsewhere.
Switching from Goodreads?
On web, import a Goodreads CSV export. Shelves, dates, ratings, and read counts map onto your library so you can pick up in the reader—not maintain a parallel tracker. Manual edits you make in BetterReads are kept on re-import.
Goodreads import FAQ →
Mac, phone, tablet, and web
Read on your phone between things. On Mac, the library lives in a sidebar—each book, PDF, or audiobook in its place, with contents and notes beside the page. The browser gets the same reader and PDF tools when you want a larger screen.
One account. No ceremony.
Sign in to the same BetterReads account on phone, Mac, tablet, and web. No pairing codes, exports, or manual transfers.
Friction teaches quitting—not from laziness, but because each interruption makes returning heavier.
When you no longer have to decide whether to stop and look something up, you often simply keep reading. What you marked can come back tomorrow, instead of disappearing into a highlight graveyard.
Context-switching doesn't only cost time—it costs the understanding you were mid-way through forming.
We don't replace reading with summaries.
We don't flatten difficulty into slides.
We don't turn a book—or a paper—into another feed.
We don't ask you to curate a shelf instead of reading.
We stay beside the text—present when you reach, quiet when you don't.
Questions
Yes—download and browse freely. Scholar is optional, for full chapter companions and study depth.
A vast free public-domain library you can preview and download. A growing curated set includes chapter companions—and Scholars can request curation for titles they want next. Many include LibriVox audiobooks synced to chapters. Import your own EPUB, PDF, and audiobooks (MP3, M4A, M4B, and more—listen in the apps), or track a book you read on paper, Kindle, or elsewhere.
Yes—on the web bookshelf, import your Goodreads CSV export. Shelves, dates, ratings, and read counts map onto BetterReads. Edits you make here are kept when you re-import.
No. Guides sit beside the book, never instead of it.
No. Start a free chapter preview without signing up. Create an account when you want to save progress, import files, and sync with the apps.
iOS, Android, Mac, and the web—including tablet browsers. Same library and progress across the devices you already have.
If a book—or a paper—has ever cost you the thread, try staying with the page. Or browse the free library and start with a classic.
