Reading was my escape and my comfort, my consolation, my stimulant of choice: reading for the pure pleasure of it, for the beautiful stillness that surrounds you when you hear an author’s words reverberating in your head.

Paul Auster

Reading is one of my favorite things to do. I feel like that’s a ridiculously obvious statement but now, but if you’re new here now you know! I’m old school in that I love physical books much more than e-books, but you do you friends! Audiobooks are also the best thing since physical books were invented where reading is concerned.

Nerding out to reading data is a guilty pleasure. Knowing how many books I read? My book stats? New ways to connect with book lovers? Storing my want to read list? Oh man, you’re speaking my language. Doing this makes reading even more fun for me. I use a ton of apps to help enhance my reading and I wanted to share some apps that I love in case you love this as much as I do.

These are not your average apps and they’re even more amazing because they’re all free.

Libby

Libby is my favorite reading app of all time. All you need is a library card (which is also free) and you have thousands of books at your fingertips. The app is linked to your library system, so as long as your library has the book, you can place holds and check out books. I listen to so many audiobooks each year on this app and it’s so user-friendly. They have just as many e-books if you’d rather not listen to your books.

You can search by genre, popularity, type of book, and more to make it easier to find something you love. There are also sections for recommended books in different categories such as librarian favorites, themed months, and more. My only wish is that I could filter out the books I’ve already checked out when searching for a new audiobook. I’ve listened to so many that I want to be able to exclude those. Other than that, this app is basically perfect.

Goodreads

If you track books that you read and want a great place to do that, Goodreads is incredible. While I wish there were more stats for me to track (more on that in StoryGraph section) it’s fantastic for tracking where I am in each book I’m reading at a given time, tracking my read books, and my want to read books. They also do a reading challenge each year for more reading motivation.

There are also always giveaways going on, so you can enter into as many as you’d like. I’d also love to be able to give book reviews in 1/2 star increments. I haven’t found a site or an app where I can do that, but hopefully it’s coming too. Goodreads is also great for adding books to their system. If you don’t see a book you’ve read (it’s extremely rare) you can add a book! You add friends on the app as well and leave reviews on each book you’ve read. The social aspect of the site isn’t a priority, but it’s there if you choose to use it!

Wattpad

Calling all writers! Wattpad is an amazing app that’s perfect for getting your original work seen by readers. Whether you’re there just to enjoy discovering new authors or you want to publish your stories, Wattpad is a great way to launch yourself right into the book world.

The app’s aim is to create communities around the stories and remove as many barriers as possible between an author and a reader. It gives you the freedom to interact directly with the authors/readers and start conversations around the stories. Quite a few of the stories originally published on the app have been picked up by streaming services, so it’s definitely catching the eye of some amazing companies to springboard careers and grow an audience. I don’t personally have this app, but I’m actually writing some short stories, so I’m going to download this and give it a shot!

Litsy

Much like Instagram, Litsy is a visual-focused social network but just for book lovers. It’s definitely a great app for readers who love to leave reviews, talk about books, share favorite passages, and see what everyone else is currently reading. You can also keep track of books you want to read that you’ve seen on the platform by adding them to your stack which can be viewed any time.

Instead of a general book post like you might see on Insta, Litsy’s posts are all tagged to a specific book so everything for that book can be found and discovered in one place. Another cool thing is the Litfluence score. Your score will go up the more active you are and the more your impact on the community grows. This feature also displays how many books and pages each user has read which is always a fun stat to track!

I do love that the Litfluence score never goes down, so it doesn’t feel like you’re beholden to keeping a score and tethered to the app.

Bookly

If you like reading in set chunks of time versus a read whenever you have time, this app is for you. Plus, it comes with a whole set of cool features if you love tracking your reading data. In the app you can set yearly, monthly, and daily reading goals. Then you’ll see your progress tracked throughout that time and you’ll be able to see how long it will take you to finish a book based on your reading speed.

If you don’t see a book you want to start tracking, you can add a book to the database which is always a great feature. You can track your reading time right in the app, pause it at anytime, and manually add in reading sessions you previously did. Another cool feature is the ability to play ambient noise to help you concentrate. The app also allows you to jot down your thoughts/notes, capture favorite quotes, and set countdowns.

While you don’t get rewarded for your reading, you can earn badges and diamonds that can be exchanged for new mascot outfits or app icons. This app is full of statistics which I love, but it doesn’t sync with Goodreads, so if you use both you’ll find yourself logging books twice.

StoryGraph

Technically, this isn’t an app, BUT it can be used like one on your phone. It’s more of a super-cool website much like Goodreads. StoryGraph is like Goodreads on steroids. You can take a quiz to help you find your next read and the stats go into a LOT of detail. You can track not only what you’re reading, how many books/pages you’ve read, but the mood/pace of a book, genres, format, and most-read authors.

Since they went so heavy with the stats, I do wish they had a few more such as how diverse my reading was as far as authors went. It’s got some other great features like the giveaways and you can see what the community is reading to get more inspiration as well. As a stat-loving reader, this app has that extra-special aspect for me that makes me want to use it more.

Which App Is Your Favorite?

I use Libby daily and absolutely adore Goodreads. StoryGraph might be a close 3rd since I love the stats so much. Let me know which ones you liked in the comments below. If you know of more apps like these, you know I want to hear about them!