Looking for the best bookish apps? You’ve come to the right spot! Whether you’re looking for apps to read books for free, apps to catalog your books, or apps to just make your bookish life better, these are the best apps for book lovers that you are sure to love!
1. Libby
Looking for the best apps for books to read? Libby should be at the top of your list!
This app allows you to download books from your library for free and read them on your phone or other devices like a tablet or Kindle. It’s streamlined and easy to use, and an all-around excellent reading experience on the app as well. So check it out and enter your library card number to start downloading free books today!
2. Hoopla
Another of the best book apps is Hoopla, which is another library reading app but one where you don’t have to wait to borrow ebooks or audiobooks!
Unlike Libby, where you have to wait your turn in line to borrow an ebook if someone else has already checked it out, Hoopla allows you a certain number of downloads each month (my library allows 5) and then you can read any ebook or listen to any audiobook for free immediately!
No waiting time makes this one of the best free apps for books, and one you should definitely have in your arsenal of book apps if you have a library card and want access to great digital content!
3. Kindle
If you’re looking for the best free apps for book lovers, then you also won’t want to miss out on the Kindle app!
The app itself is another reading app for your phone that is free to download, and you can often find ebooks you can download for free on Amazon making this a totally free reading experience! But there are tons of other books on Amazon that you will have to pay to buy, so while the app itself is free not every book you can find through the app is free as well.
But Kindle books are usually a fairly low cost, and there are always new free Kindle books being added as well. Additionally, you can read even more books free if you’re a Prime member or you can pay a low monthly membership fee to read as many Kindle Unlimited books as you want each month! So this reading app gives you lots of options of free to low cost reading, with an always-free Kindle app download and a nice interface for reading!
4. Audible
Any list of apps for literature lovers wouldn’t be complete without a mention of Audible!
Audible makes this list of the best apps for readers because it has such an incredible selection of audiobooks, which means you can really find anything you want there on demand! It’s also one of the best audiobook apps because you can get audiobooks for a great price with the monthly subscription to Audible (but the app itself is free and you don’t need a subscription to download it). You can learn more about how Audible works here, or you can check out the latest free listens to find free audiobooks, podcasts, and more to enjoy!
5. LibriVox
If you’re interested in audiobooks in the public domain, then the LibriVox app is another app to add to your collection.
LibriVox is a site that compiles free audiobooks that various volunteers have recorded, and allows you to listen to any of them for free! There is a free app as well that you can use to browse the audiobooks and listen to them directly from your phone, rather than having to use the website. You can get the app for Android or iOS to start listening to free audiobooks today!
6. Libib
When looking for apps for books, Libib is another cool book app you’ll want to check into. It’s one of the best apps for cataloging your books, so if you’re wanting to organize your shelves and keep track of all the books you own then this is a great choice!
With this app, you can scan or manually enter all the books you own and track up to 5,000 items on the free plan! There’s also a paid plan if you need to track more books than that, but for most users the free plan should be more than sufficient. So if you’re ready to get your books organized, this is one of the top literary apps you should consider adding to your phone!
7. Goodreads
Another of the most popular apps for book lovers and best apps about books is Goodreads, which is a book app with a social component that allows you to track your reading and discover new books as well!
Goodreads has both a website and app version, and within the app you can follow friends or other book lovers to see what they’re currently reading and their reviews. This makes it a great book recommendation app, as if you find other people who like the same books as you then you can get book recommendations from them! They also run a yearly book reading challenge where you can set your reading goal for the year, and you can keep track of the books you read and the books you want to read. It’s one of many excellent ways to track your reading, so check it out if any of this functionality sounds enticing to you!
8. Scribd
Scribd is another audiobook/ebook app and subscription service that you might enjoy if you’re an avid reader who enjoys digital content instead of (or in addition to) reading physical books.
Scribd calls themselves “the world’s largest digital library”, and offers millions of ebooks, audiobooks, magazines, and more for subscribers to access. It gives subscribers (mostly) unlimited access to all the materials in its library, which means subscribers can read as many ebooks and listen to as many audiobooks as they want each month! There are lots of good book apps out there, but if you’re looking for a combined ebook/audiobook app then Scribd could definitely be the way to go.
9. Instagram
Another app for book lovers is one that doesn’t fall specifically into the realm of literature apps, but is used by many book lovers and may be something you’re interested in too—and that’s Instagram!
If you haven’t yet used Instagram for books, then welcome to Bookstagram! It’s a fun online community where people share what they’re reading, give reviews of their recent books, share pretty pictures of books and book-related items, and just generally enjoy meeting and interacting with other book lovers. You can use your main Instagram account to participate in Bookstagram if you’d like, but many readers find they like to curate an account specifically related to reading. So dream up your new Bookstagram handle and join us on Instagram for bookish fun!
10. Chirp
And lastly, another app that will make your book life better is Chirp. This site and app is another audiobook related app, but is different from the others in that you can get excellent deals! We’re talking buying audiobooks for $1-5 kind of deals!
Chirp curates a rotating selection of incredible audiobook deals on popular audiobooks and new audiobooks, so it’s worth downloading the app and keeping an eye on this site in case you find any audiobooks you want to listen to on sale. You can find my full review of Chirp here, but feel free to check Chirp out here and get 30% off your first purchase!