Readwise Launches a Bookstore That Also Tracks How You Read
Readwise has launched Readwise Books, a service where you can buy books, read them and talk about them with other readers. It is in beta, which means it is still being tested. You can join by invitation, or if you already pay for a Readwise subscription, according to The Verge.
Readwise was started by Tristan Homsi and Daniel Doyon. The company already offers two products. Readwise saves the highlights you make in Kindle books. Readwise Reader handles newsletters, PDF files and articles you save from the web. Readwise Books adds a bookstore and a social feature to that list. The company says it lets you buy, read, and track all your books in one place.
Readwise's terms of service call the store the Readwise Bookshop. It sells ebooks, audiobooks and printed books. Readwise has made deals with all five major US publishers to offer their titles.
The reading tracker is what sets the service apart from a typical ebook shop. The founders call Readwise Books "Strava for reading." Strava is an app where runners and cyclists log their workouts and share them with friends. Readwise Books tracks how long you read, how much you read and how fast you read. You can share those numbers with friends inside the app. The home screen is a feed of what other people are reading, with comments and recommendations.
If you use a Kindle, the app connects to your Kindle account and tracks books you bought from Amazon. It does this by taking pictures of the first and last pages of each reading session. That lets Readwise record your progress on books it did not sell you. Readwise Reader also lets you upload EPUB files, a common ebook format, so you can read them alongside your newsletters and articles.
The company's long-term goal is to get people to stop buying Kindle books and buy from Readwise instead. That is a goal, not something it has achieved. The beta and invitation-only launch suggests the book selection, prices and Kindle syncing are still being tested with a small group.
In my view, the Kindle connection is the part to watch most closely. Readwise depends on Amazon continuing to allow it to read progress from a Kindle account. The information it collects is personal, more so than a playlist or a fitness log. Anyone considering the service will want to know how the company handles that data, and whether the syncing holds up as more people join.
The broader context here is an older issue with digital reading. The highlights, progress and notes you make have mostly stayed inside the store where you bought the book. Readwise is betting that your reading history matters more to you than to the seller, and that a shared view of reading will attract people. If the book selection and tracking work well together, someone who already saves highlights in Readwise gets one place to buy, read and compare notes. For people who read heavily for work, that could be a practical benefit.
