What is new

Articles: how to pick an English book you will actually finish

The usual reason people drop an English book is not laziness but the wrong book: a notch too hard and it turns into a dictionary, a notch too easy and it is a dull exercise. So we opened Articles and put out the first three guides, one for each level.

• B1: your first whole novels — Books and audiobooks in English for B1: Alice, Tom Sawyer, White Fang, and one scene shown at three levels so you can see the difference yourself.
• B2: gothic and adventure — Books and audiobooks in English for B2: Dracula, Frankenstein, Treasure Island, a “two pages, three questions” check for B2 or still B1, and how not to drown in a long novel.
• C1: time for the originals? — Books and audiobooks in English for C1: how an original differs from an edition, why so many children’s books are on the list, and the most honest test of whether you are ready for nineteenth-century English.

Three more articles: starting out, listening, and finishing a book

The level guides answer what to read. These three answer how: where to start if B1 still feels far away, how to read and listen at the same time, and what to do so a book does not stop on page twenty.

• Before your first real book — English books for beginners: an honest answer for A1–A2, a 100-word page test, and five B1 editions to start with.
• Read with your ears — English audiobooks: why reading and listening together works better than listening alone, what a synthetic voice can and cannot do, and where to find free audiobooks read by people.
• Get to the last page — How to read books in English: a 14-day plan, which words to look up and which to skip, and when it is time to swap the book.

You see exactly how hard a book is: B2.3, not just B2

• A level with a decimal — every book card and book page shows a level like B1.4, so two “B1” books are no longer the same difficulty to you. Compare Pride and Prejudice with The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
• Measured, not guessed — the level of an original comes from measuring the text itself; where that has not been done yet, you see “≈B2” and a hint saying so.
• In the reader — the header reads “Title · Chapter · B1.4”, and a tap on the title opens a card about the book: the level of this edition and of the original, size and release date.
• Which edition is newer — the table of editions shows the release date and, for adaptations, the adaptation number.

Recorded narration: you choose who reads you the book

• Pick the voice — for books with a recorded edition the player offers several voices, each with a flag for its accent: US/CA, UK or AU/NZ.
• Starts at once — the sound is recorded in advance, so a chapter begins without a wait and the first words are not cut off.
• Natural pauses — the gaps between sentences fall in the voice’s own silence, so the reading flows instead of running on or stumbling.
• The word you hear — the highlight lands on the beginning of each word as it is spoken, so you can read along by ear.
• See it before you open — a book that can be heard carries an “audio” chip with the accents it comes in; browse the catalogue for them.

Words in the dictionary are voiced by the voice you picked

• Ready-made clips — tap the speaker button on a word and you hear a prepared recording, not a robotic readout.
• Your accent — choose American or British, a woman’s voice or a man’s, and the words follow your choice.
• Nothing is lost — a word without a prepared clip is still voiced, exactly as before.

You know what an edition is before you open it

• About this edition — under the table of editions on a book page, the chosen edition gets a description and an editor’s note on what was changed.
• About the level — a short note beside it explains what the edition’s level means in practice.
• Spelling at a glance — a flag shows whether an edition is spelled the American or the British way, and a hint gives example words.
• An honest label — at the end of an adaptation written by a language model, a calm note says so.

You can delete your account, with 30 days to change your mind

• Your decision — you can delete your account yourself, from your profile.
• A way back — changed your mind? Within 30 days, write to support@books.dev and the account comes back with all its data.

Sign in with Google or a code from your email

• One tap — “Continue with Google” signs you in or creates your account without making up a password.
• A six-digit code — prefer email? Enter your address, get a code, type it in: no password to remember.
• Your book stays — if you started reading before signing in, the book is still on your shelf afterwards.

books.dev speaks Spanish

• The interface — the whole site, from the catalogue to your profile, is available in Spanish.
• Translations in Spanish — choose Spanish as your native language and tapped words are translated into it.
• Any word — a word nobody has looked up in Spanish yet gets its translation the first time you tap it.

You can learn words inside a text, not just on a card

• A second way — pick “In a text” instead of flashcards in your vocabulary, and words come inside a story.
• Written for you — the text is built around the words that are due, and each of them turns up two or three times.
• Worth the read — it is not a bag of examples but a story or a case you can actually take something from.
• An honest check — when you reveal the answer the text blurs, so you grade the word itself and not the hint beside it.
• One progress — your grade feeds the same reviews as the cards, so you can switch between the two freely.
• What to read — you pick the length, the level, the topics and the format: a case study, a letter, a how-to or a story.

See how you are doing, over a week or a year

• Any stretch — pick a week, a month, a year or your whole history in Progress, and every chart follows.
• Reading time — shown in minutes or in hours: over a long period hours read easily and minutes no longer do.
• The exact number — tap a column and you see what that day actually was, on a phone too.
• Today is dashed — the unfinished day is drawn as an outline, so a short bar means it is still going, not a bad day.
• The bottom line — the sum, the average and the median for the period, so you see your norm and not just the good days.

You can see what grows your English

• Four sources — reading, audiobooks, new words and reviews all raise it, and your profile shows what each one brought.
• Audio counts too — an hour of listening gives about as much as half an hour of reading, so a commute or a run counts.
• The gain right away — after a chapter, a card session or when you leave a book you see how much level it brought.
• In numbers — your profile spells out what 20 minutes of reading, 10 new words or 20 cards are worth.
• Days by source — in Progress every column is split into reading, audio, words and reviews.

You choose which words to review

• Freshest first — reviews start from the words you added last and move back in time, not the other way round.
• Just the last day — a separate mode takes words from the last 24 hours, so yesterday’s reading gets locked in at once.
• By filter — narrow the list by book, source or search, and you study exactly what is left on the screen.
• Counters show both — above the list you see how many words are left after the filter out of the total.

Now you can see how many words you know

• A vocabulary test — three to sixteen minutes, and out comes the number of words you know and a band from A1 to C2.
• Claims get checked — say you know a word and you are asked what it means, with the right option shown right there.
• A breakdown, not one number — a profile by level sits above the ruler, with published ranges for learners and natives beside it.
• You see what it is worth — made-up words are mixed in, and reliability and an honesty index sit right under the number.
• A detailed report — one button opens the whole attempt: word, answer and time, filtered by traps, checks or misses.
• Misses become cards — the words you tripped on go into your reviews in a single tap.
• Refine it later — your answers already count: to narrow the estimate the test simply continues with new words.

Practice and test, from the keyboard

• Rate without a mouse — press 1–4 or Q/W/E/R, Space reveals the answer, Backspace undoes a stray one.
• Help on 5 and 6 — examples and a hint open from the keyboard too, whatever layout you type in.
• Key caps on [ALT] — the key caps switch on from a button, a single Alt press or a switch in settings.
• The test as well — the vocabulary test runs on numbers and arrows, with a screen counter on top.

Your reading level grows with you

• A number, not a letter — the level reads B1.5578 and sits by your account icon, so a week of growth already shows.
• It grows by itself — reading and reviews push it up, and the gain sits in lime right under the level.
• A vocabulary chart — Progress shows the number confirmed by the test beside the estimate for today.
• Retest when you like — we say when the gain is big enough to show, and a fresh measurement can never lose it.

The book plays with the screen off

• Lock-screen controls — play, pause and skip sit on the lock screen and in the notification shade, next to the cover.
• Your headset works — the button on your headphones turns a page or repeats a sentence without taking the phone out.
• Choose the output — send player and dictionary sound to headphones or a speaker right from the book.

A calmer, smarter dictionary

• The popup fits in — in the paper theme the word window turns paper too, instead of a dark patch on the page.
• Sharper breakdowns — the dictionary moved to a newer model: word and phrase lookups come out noticeably cleaner.

Park a stubborn word for later

• A “Postpone” button — takes a word out of your reviews without losing its history: bring it back any time.
• We say when it is time — the app offers to park a word after a few misses in a row, or when it is too rare for your level.
• All of it is adjustable — when to hint, how often, and whether to hint at all.

Audiobooks come alive: voices, thoughts, scene sounds

• You hear who is speaking — characters’ lines carry a light room around them while the narrator stays dry: dialogue is easier to follow.
• Thoughts sound from within — a thought drifts into a soft echo dead centre, a shout grows louder and wider, a whisper quieter and slower.
• Transitions are audible — a clock behind the wall marks a scene change, and a pencil rustle marks an illustration caption.
• Every effect switches off — the player settings give each one its own switch and a ▶ button to hear it before you decide.

A new look across the platform

• A calmer violet — the accent moved away from bright lime: softer on a dark background, less of a pull from the page.

Take the book with you

• A button on every version — download the original or any adapted level, with the format written on the button.
• Adaptations too — a simplified version is assembled into a real EPUB with cover, illustrations and contents.
• Read it anywhere — the file opens in any reading app or e-ink device: it is not locked inside NewGen.

Your whole word list at once

• Paste and import — paste words from your notes or a course: translations arrive on their own and nothing saved is duplicated.
• Where each word came from — from a book, added by hand or imported: every word carries its source, and the list filters by it.
• A goal without a ceiling — the daily quota of new words can be switched off entirely: learn as many as they come.

Practice forgives a slip

• Undo a rating — the back arrow brings the previous word back and cancels a stray “Easy”.
• Ratings on both sides — “Again · Hard · Good · Easy” sit on the front as well: you can rate a word without flipping it.
• Examples come up fresh — they appear in a new order each time, so what sticks is the word rather than the screen.

Tap-to-translate across the whole app

• Not just in the book — a tap on an English word opens the dictionary in practice examples, book descriptions and footnotes.
• A dictionary inside the dictionary — a word from an explanation, or any synonym, taps right inside the popup, and a new card opens on top.
• Full cards in your vocabulary — an eye button in your list opens the full card: translations, meaning, origin and examples.

Books read like the original edition

• Footnotes at the bottom — tap a number and the footnote opens at the bottom, as in a paper book; its words translate too.
• The contents page works — the “Contents” page and other internal links are tappable now.
• Italics, poetry, formulas — the author’s emphasis, superscripts and subscripts survive, and stanzas keep their line breaks.

Illustrations are back in books

• Artwork right in the text — the engravings of the original editions show inside the chapters again: the classics have Tenniel back.
• Full screen — tap a picture to open it full screen with zoom, so the details are clear even on a phone.
• Live captions — words under a picture tap into the dictionary, turn into flashcards and get read aloud like any other.
• Your own books too — pictures are kept in the EPUB you upload as well.

Your book waits at the bottom of the screen

• Back in one tap — after a break the book you left shows up below: cover, progress and a [Read · Listen] pair.
• Never nags — the cross dismisses it, a switch in settings turns it off for good, and finished books are never offered.

Swipe any way to turn the page

• Vertical swipe — pages turn up and down as well, whichever way the phone sits in your hand.
• The screen edge behaves — on iPhone a swipe from the very edge now turns the page instead of throwing you out of the book.

See yourself reading faster

• A speed chart — Progress now charts your daily reading speed: in words or characters per minute, your choice.
• Pace by book — each book shows your pace beside the time you spent, so it is obvious where the text flows.
• Counted honestly — time in the dictionary, listening to the narration and quick page-flipping do not count.

Listen to a book in one tap

• A Listen button — the book page now offers a [Read · Listen] pair: the book reads itself aloud from where you left off.
• Rewind and pace — step a sentence or a page back and forward, and set the speed to suit you.
• A sleep timer — the player fades out by itself after fifteen minutes or at the end of the chapter.
• You can hear each chapter — a second voice reads the start of each chapter, cued by a soft chime and a faint hall echo.
• Lifelike pauses — sentences, paragraphs and chapters get natural pauses, and you choose how long they are.

The lookup popup, smoother and smarter

• No more jitter — the tabs stay put, with calm placeholders while the translation loads.
• Meaning right there — the explanation, the word’s origin and a memory hook now sit right in the tab, with no separate card.
• Idioms, explained — set phrases like “no longer” or “go down” are explained as a whole rather than word by word.

Comfier reading: on desktop and full-screen

• On a computer — pages turn with the mouse wheel, a trackpad swipe or a click on the edge of the page.
• Full-screen — the browser bars tuck away, and the app installs to open straight from your home screen.

Your word list and cards got handier

• Search and add — one field both to find a word in your dictionary and to add a new one by hand.
• The form you met — a word keeps the form you met in the book: found, not find, with the base form always beside it.
• Recall it first — before the answer you can take a three-level hint or five real sentences with the word.
• A memory kit — the answer is laid out in tabs: meanings with examples, the word’s history, an association and an icon.

Words are easier to hear and keep

• Buttons at hand — the translation popup lets you replay the word, save it to your list or open the audio settings.
• Voices to choose from — speed, voice and autoplay tuck into a dropdown, and the labels are clearer: US/UK and male/female.

A bigger catalogue, easier to browse

• Twice the books — the choice has doubled to 39 books at A2–C1, from Black Beauty to Crime and Punishment.
• Fitting covers — drawn to match what the book is about, so the shelf is nicer to browse and opens fast.
• Sort and top picks — sort by popularity, level or length; the most sought-after ones wear a top-N badge on the cover.
• Colour-coded levels — green through red as difficulty rises, so a book that fits you stands out at a glance.

Word lookups, fuller and clearer

• More translations — they are grouped by part of speech: you see at once that a word can be a verb and a noun.
• In plain words — beside it, a two-line plain-words explanation of what the word means and how it is used.
• A richer card — the full word card now carries meanings with examples and synonyms.

Jump to any page in seconds

• The page counter — tap it to skip 10 or 50 pages at a time, or type the page number you want.

Reading that feels like paper

• Swipe and rustle — swipe to turn pages like a paper book: each turn gives a soft rustle you can quieten or switch off.
• Seven fonts — pick the reading font that is easiest on your eyes, with alignment and paragraph indent.
• A Paper theme — grain and dog-eared corners make reading cosier.

Your shelf and the catalogue, sorted

• Shelf and search apart — the home page shows only your books, while search and picking new ones live on their own page.
• Level on the cover — each cover shows the level of the original, making it easy to pick a book that fits.

Books can read themselves to you

• A natural voice — the book is read aloud, with each word highlighted exactly as it is spoken.
• Words aloud — tap a single word and you hear its pronunciation right away.

A full catalogue and your own books

• A catalogue with covers — 21 books to filter by level, genre or title.
• Your own book — upload your own favourite in EPUB or TXT and read it the same way, with the dictionary and audio.
• Language your way — keep the interface, translations and explanations each in its own language.

Progress and an account

• Words on every device — create an account and your books, words and cards go with you everywhere.
• How much is left — a page count for the whole book, a progress bar and contents are always at hand.
• The Progress page — shows how much you read and how many words you learn.