💡 WiseUp! Vol. 46 — It’s the final showdown
The eternal debate lands in our dear WiseUp!: Ebooks vs. paper books. We’re sharing a piece that digs deep into the controversy and makes some excellent points. Who’s going to win, and who are you rooting for?
On the app side, we’re still celebrating the release of Podcast Transcripts, our most requested feature, and Erin has recorded a new video to show it off. We also fixed a bug that was blocking TTS for EPUBs. Read on for all the details or check out our log of weekly improvements.
🎄 ICYMI: Our team has put together a Holiday Gift Guide, perfect for serious readers. That can be you or someone you care about. You'll find the guide link at the end of the recommendations.
Before we get into the tips…
📍 Let's start with a reading recommendation
Ebooks vs paper books: The final showdown
As makers of a reading app, we’ll admit we have a soft spot for ebooks. Still, we have a deep appreciation for the standalone magic of a paper book, so it’s no surprise we loved Jonathan Pincas’ witty side-by-side comparison. “When I start a book I can never find [a bookmark] handy, so I end up using a piece of toilet paper or a photo of an ugly baby. When reading outside they always get blown away, which is why our pool skimmer was always blocked by photos of ugly babies. Unsurprising that I love Ebooks ability to mark a page with zero effort.”
From the support inbox
Have questions about using Readwise or Reader in your workflow? We'd love to be your guide! Reply to this email with your question and you might be featured in an upcoming issue. Even if your question isn’t featured, we’ll respond to every message.
❓ A Readwise question from Cindi H:
Can I import highlights from books I borrowed from a library rental app?
Never lose the thoughtful notes you make in library books again. By connecting your library app from the Readwise dashboard under Import and Library, your highlights are safely saved in Readwise. They stay with you even after the loan ends.
❓ A Reader question from Arvind T:
Which of my saved items are supposed to show up in the daily summary email?
You can get a clear snapshot of your latest documents delivered straight to your inbox every day. Documents saved in the last twenty-four hours that are not archived and have a summary generated will appear automatically. The email also pulls in a couple of earlier documents you might have missed, so you can keep moving forward with a clean slate.
📖 New help doc of the week
Hop, skip, and jump your way through TTS playback
Have you ever scrolled away from the playback location while using text-to-speech and been unsure how to go back, or wanted to jump to a new spot without having to stop and restart? This week’s documentation update shares new info about how to use Reader’s return and jump features to navigate TTS playback like a pro.
🎬 New video of the week
Our most-requested feature…
There’s one feature you guys wanted more than anything else in Reader, and it’s finally here! Take a listen to how it works 😉
📰 Nov 22 - Nov 28 updates
What's new in Reader and Readwise
🔊 Fixed EPUB TTS — Johannes fixed a bug where text-to-speech and chapter breaks stopped working on some EPUBs.
🎙️ Fixed Podcast Transcripts — Mati fixed issues where some Spotify and Pocket Casts podcasts were saving incorrect transcripts, particularly for non-English content.
🎴 Fixed Mastery Cards — Ibai fixed a bug showing blank cards after completing a Mastery review session.
🔗 Fixed Markdown Links — Ghostreader chat handles markdown link URLs containing parentheses better now, thanks to Ibai.
↕️ Fixed iPad Settings Scroll — Ibai fixed a bug where the main settings list would scroll back to the top when returning from a sub-page.
🖼️ Fixed Discover Layout — Arek fixed a race condition that could cause layout issues on the Discover Documents screen.
🍫 Fixed Android Status Bar — Arek fixed a bug where the Android status bar had black icons instead of white ones in dark mode.
📧 Improved Email Controls — Arek improved how paged scroll controls work with emails in original mode. The appearance menu now shows pagination options for emails.
🪝 Improved Webhook Reliability — Rasul tweaked webhook creation so that if you try to create a webhook with a URL that already exists, Reader will now return the existing webhook instead of failing.
🛜 Parsing Updates — Krzys made improvements to how Reader handles posts from community.openai.com, arstechnica.com and theverge.com.
🎄 A Gift Guide for Serious Readers
From the CX team
Something to read on Christmas 📖
The rumor is true: you can never be too old for a Young Adult novel. Especially if it was written by John Green. Let it Snow features all the holiday classics: waffles, communication issues, a little romance, and a lot of snow. Read it or gift it this season.
Something to stuff your stocking 🪙
If you're ever undecided about whether to read another chapter or wrap up for the night, let this coin decide your evening's fate.
Something to upgrade your reading experience 🕯️
There’s something extremely luxurious about lighting a candle as you prepare for a reading session. The holidays are the perfect opportunity to treat yourself (or someone you love) to a little bit of warmth and luxury. This candle will be a showstopper, and it might even spark memories for many holiday seasons to come.
💬 From the Readwise group chat
All I want for Xmas... is a golden pierogi
You may think this is AI, but I like to think our remote-based devs got together for this shot. They don’t look much like themselves, but it’s hard to notice when there’s a golden pierogi involved (or an empanada, if you’re on my side of the world).
See you next week!
Warmly,
the Readwise customer support team