Books provide a welcome alternative to the onslaught of negative news and hot takes. Read on for some free sites and apps I recommend for finding and enjoying books this summer, whether you prefer paper or digital.
Libby is the most useful library app. It’s an update of the old OverDrive, now used by libraries in 78 countries and 90% of those in the U.S. I rely on the app to check out free e-books for my Kindle and the Kindle app on my phone. The Libby app also offers its own e-reader, so you can check out digital books and read them within the same app.
Features: As with a Kindle, you can click on a word in Libby’s e-reader to get its definition, or to see where else in the book a name or phrase appears. You can highlight passages you want to return to or share. Libby also has a built-in audiobook player. My family uses it to listen to audiobooks on car trips, though we’ve mostly been listening to podcasts lately, like the great Business Wars podcast series about the Haagen-Dazs vs. Ben and Jerry’s battle.
Bonus feature: If you’re fortunate enough to have cards for multiple libraries, you can use them all with the Libby app without having to log out or create multiple accounts. That makes it easy to find out which library has the book you want.
Limitation: It doesn’t let you check out physical books. For that, you’ll have to use a separate app or your local library’s site.
World Cat tells you which libraries near you have a particular book. It works in multiple languages and connects to more than 10,000 libraries globally. It lets you search for any format or language, whether you need a book in print, ebook, braille, audio, or other format.
Kanopy, also owned by OverDrive, provides free access to feature films and documentaries, accessed by logging in with your library card. I love that once you have an account set up, you can watch on the Web or on an iOS or Android device, or on your SmartTV app (Roku, Samsung, Amazon, etc). There’s a great kids section that has Sesame Street episodes; video versions of books by Eric Carle, Mo Willems and other great children’s authors; math and science lessons for kids; and a variety of age-appropriate short films.
Limitation: libraries set limits on the number of things you can watch in a month, so don’t expect unlimited viewing with Kanopy.
Hoopla is an alternative to Libby that works with 3,100 library systems in the U.S. and internationally. Like Libby it hosts audiobooks and eBooks, but also bundles in comics, movies, TV shows, magazines, and music. You can check out any of that for free from the Web or on your phone or tablet.
Find your next read
Storygraph is handy for finding new books to read. Start by selecting your preferred genres. You can also import your reading history from Goodreads, an Amazon-owned book discussion community.
My first time using Storygraph I ended up with several useful book recommendations. I like that the service highlights lots of books written between 1995 and 2015, often ignored by contemporary-focused book reviews.
What Should I Read Next? offers an even simpler starting point. Type in the name of a book you love and get a list of 20 or so related books. When I recently typed in Endurance and Unbroken, two fantastic non-fiction survival adventure books, I got recommendations that included some other adventure books and some that were unrelated. It’s easy to scroll through and pick one that looks interesting. The site also happens to have a useful quote search engine, where you type in a word or two and a list of famous quotes with those words pops up.
Whichbook’s World Map is a fun way to pick a book about a particular part of the world. Pick a spot on a digital globe and you’ll get a list of books to transport you — via reading — to that region.
Daniel Roberts shared some good sources for book reviews.
Books for kids
Sora is basically Libby for kids. Schools use it to make books available to students, and kids use it to read ebooks or audiobooks. It’s designed to work well with graphic novels, picture books, and everything else from comic books to textbooks.
Epic is another popular kids ebook app. I have mixed feelings about it. My younger daughter’s school offered access to it during the pandemic and it opened up a lot of great nature books. It’s easy to use.
However, the app leans into gamification and extrinsic motivation - applying social media’s screen temptation tactics to entice kids to repeatedly open the app. I know that rewarding kids for reading is popular, but it can signal that books are a chore to be finished. Epic’s parent dashboard shows minutes read and books finished as if reading is about volume, speed, and checking things off of a list, rather than pleasure.
Other useful reading apps
Bookbub is handy for bargain hunters. It shows discounted and free ebooks. Available as a newsletter or just check the site for deals. It’s how I found out that Amanda Ripley’s excellent High Conflict is free as an ebook this month.
Abebooks is my go-to for buying used books. It’s a platform for used-books shops and often a cheaper alternative to Amazon. The collections provide a digital alternative to walking through musty stacks of old paperbacks.
My reading list is where I park titles I’m looking forward to. I use Craft (see my post on why I love it). For making a quick book list, Listy is also handy and has a built-in book lookup. Other templates you can use to keep track of your own book list:
Here’s a free Notion book tracking template, and a $34 one called NotionReads.
Here’s a free book list template for Airtable and a collaborative one.
Organize your book collection with a Coda.io template
📚 What reading resource do you find most useful? Leave a comment 👇
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This browser extension is amazing: https://www.libraryextension.com/
When you're visiting a page on Amazon, GoodReads or a bunch of other sites, it checks your local libraries for books, ebooks, and audiobooks and adds a block to the page showing availability.
Another great resource? An actual librarian! Many are trained in readers' advisory services and love helping people find that next great read based on the books they've enjoyed in the past. Same goes for music and movies. So much has gone digital now that it's sometimes easy to forget the live people standing by willing and able to provide tangible services that tablets and smart phones just can't quite provide...yet, anyway. Thanks for the library love, by the way - Kent State School of Library and Information Science graduate here! :)