💡 WiseUp! Vol. 93 — Sedaris, Sanderson, and Goodreads cross-posting

📍 Let's start with a reading recommendation

Understanding owls

We're trying something new: sharing a beloved essay from the past. First up is author and humorist David Sedaris's reflection on an inside joke about owls that overtook his house, and what it means to be known and seen. "Just when you think you're making progress, you remember the owl tobacco tin, and the owl tea cozy. Then there are the plates, the coasters, the Christmas ornaments. This is what happens when you tell people you like something. For my sister Amy, that thing was rabbits. When she was in her late thirties, she got one as a pet, and before it had chewed through its first phone cord she'd been given rabbit slippers, rabbit cushions, bowls, refrigerator magnets, you name it. 'Really,' she kept insisting, 'the live one is enough.' But nothing could stem the tide of crap."

Have a suggestion of a great essay for us to share, or just want to share what you'd like to see in the reading rec section? We read every reply!

From the support inbox

Have questions about using Highlights, Reader, or Books? 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 Highlights question from Henrique F:

Can I get highlights from my CrossPoint e-reader into Readwise?

You can now! If you read on a CrossPoint, CrossInk, or KOReader e-reader, look for the new CrossPoint tile on the Readwise Highlights import page. Tap Connect, link your Readwise account on CrossPoint Sync, and your highlights will flow into Readwise from there, ready for your next Daily Review.

❓ A Reader question from Christopher M:

Any chance the Text Width option will make it to Reader on my iPhone?

It's here! Text Width used to be tablet-only, so on a phone your text ran right up to the edges of the screen, which also made it fiddly to select words near the edge. Now you can open the Appearance sheet in the Reader app on your phone and adjust Text width to give yourself roomier margins. It works in the Readwise Books app too.

❓ A Books question from Daniel R:

Does Readwise Books post my activity to Goodreads?

It can, and you get to pick what it posts! Go to Settings > Integrations > Goodreads (or tap Goodreads in your Library) and choose what to cross-post: shelf changes, ratings and reviews, or reading progress from your sessions. Each one has its own toggle and defaults to off, so nothing shows up on your Goodreads profile until you turn it on.

📖 New help doc of the week

Lost a quote? Check the Library

Like any good librarian, the Library tab in the Highlights mobile app knows where everything is shelved. Our guide to finding highlights now reflects the app's current look, showing you how to browse by source or search your way to that half-remembered quote.

🎬 New video of the week

Brandon Sanderson delivers again!

This week we’re sharing fantasy booktuber Michael Cronk’s review of Brandon Sanderson’s latest releases: The Fires of December, and Worldsinger Symposium. P.S. — we’re sponsoring Sanderson’s Dragonsteel Nexus conference in December. Come say hi :)

📰 Oct 30 - Nov 6 updates

What's new in Reader, Highlights, and Books

Reader

📏 NEW! Text Width on Phones — The Text width option in the Appearance sheet only showed up on tablets, so on a phone the text always ran close to the edges of the screen, which makes selecting near the edge fiddly. Artem brought the setting to phones in the Reader app and the Readwise Books app, so you can pick wider margins anywhere you read.

🗂️ Improved iPhone Duo Navigation — On the iPhone Duo, the Reader app kept the bottom tab bar even on the closed outer screen, where navigation belongs on a vertical rail. Cam turned on the side rail for everyone so it shows on the closed Duo and when the Duo is open in landscape. Every other phone keeps the tab bar.

🔄 Improved Cross-Device Reading — If you had a document open on one device, read further on another, then came back, the first device stayed where it was, with no way to jump ahead short of closing and reopening the document. Thanks to Johannes, the Reader app and the Readwise Books app now show the return-to-reading button as soon as your newer position syncs, and tapping it takes you to where you left off.

🧠 Improved BYOK Models — If you bring your own OpenAI key to Ghostreader in Reader, you can now pick GPT-6 Astra, GPT-6.1 Sol, and GPT-6.1 Terra. Ibai added them to the model list, and chat and skills work with all three.

🔉 Improved Lifelike Voice Volume — The Lifelike voices in Reader's text-to-speech could play quietly, and the volume could jump from one paragraph to the next. Artem now evens out the loudness of every paragraph, so Lifelike voices play at a steady level that matches the other voices.

⚡ Improved Sync for Large Libraries — When the Reader app fully synced a library of more than 5,000 documents, it fetched the first batch twice and threw one copy away. Tristan cut the extra fetch, so big libraries should finish their first sync noticeably sooner.

✖️ Fixed Close Buttons — On iOS, tapping the X on the Continue bar at the bottom of the Reader app opened the document instead of closing the bar. The X in the expanded text-to-speech player and on the Daily Digest card on Home did the same. Tristan and Artem fixed all three, so each X just closes what it's on.

👀 Fixed Feed Swipe View — Flicking quickly through the feed's swipe view in the Reader app on iOS didn't always mark the articles you passed as seen, so they came back the next time you opened the feed. Tristan made every article you swipe past count as seen.

🎬 Fixed YouTube Next Video — Swiping from one YouTube video to the next in the Reader app on iOS played the new video's sound behind a black screen. Johannes fixed the player, so the next video shows up along with its audio.

🖋️ Fixed Italic Text — In the Reader app, italic text set in Public Sans displayed upright, so emphasis and italic passages in EPUBs looked like the rest of the text. Johannes pointed the font at its real italic file, so italics display as italics again.

🖍️ Fixed Highlight Resizing on iOS — Dragging the handles to resize a highlight in the Reader app on iOS turned the selection black, hiding the text you were trying to select. Adam fixed the selection color, so you can see what you're highlighting as you adjust it.

⬅️ Fixed Android Back Gestures — On Android 16, once you backed out of the Reader app to your home screen, every later back gesture skipped Reader's own navigation and sent you home, even from inside an article. Back also wouldn't close the share sheet, which saved the page again each time you pressed it. Johannes fixed both, so back behaves the way you'd expect.

📄 Fixed Page Turns While Selecting — Pressing a volume button to turn the page in the Reader app on Android while selecting text turned the page anyway, stretching the selection across both pages until the highlight was too long to save. Artem made the page wait until you finish selecting.

🏷️ Fixed Tags and Notes on Android — Switching between the Note and Tags tabs on a highlight in the Reader app on Android closed the keyboard every time, and the sheet jumped as it did. Artem kept both fields ready, so you can switch tabs and keep typing.

👉 Improved iPad Toolbar Swipes — Swiping the modern toolbar in the Reader app on an iPad in landscape took a drag across nearly the whole screen. Johannes shortened the distance, so a landscape swipe feels the same as one in portrait.

💬 Fixed Ghostreader Follow-Ups — In the Ghostreader sidebar on Reader web, selecting a new passage and asking about it later in a long chat could get you an answer about a passage from earlier in the conversation. Tristan now keeps each question's selected passage with it, so Ghostreader answers about the text you just picked.

🀄 Fixed Summaries for Chinese Documents — Ghostreader's Summarize prompt in Reader could reply that no article text was provided for long Chinese, Japanese, or Korean documents. Tristan fixed how Reader picks the key sentences from those documents, so long CJK articles get a real summary.

⌨️ Fixed Numpad Page Keys — With NumLock off, pressing PgDn on the number pad in Reader on web jumped to your Feed instead of paging down, because it triggered the 3 shortcut. Tristan made the numpad's PgUp, PgDn, Home, and End keys page through the document like the regular keys.

🔌 Improved Reader API for Books — Setting reading_progress through the Reader API worked for articles but not for EPUBs, which are the documents most people track progress on. Tristan added EPUB support, and Reader on web now opens the book in the right chapter for the progress you set.

📻 Fixed RSS Articles with Audio — Substack articles with a voiceover showed up as podcasts in Reader, and articles from a few news sites that attach a narration file lost their text entirely. Krzys now labels those feed items as articles, so you get the full text in your feed.

🛜 Parsing Updates — Krzys improved how Reader handles documents from nytimes.com, substack.com, github.com, newyorker.com, wikipedia.org, mp.weixin.qq.com, note.com, every.to, claude.dev, emcrit.org, and seangoedecke.com.

Highlights

📲 NEW! CrossPoint Sync — If you read on a CrossPoint, CrossInk, or KOReader e-reader, you'll now find CrossPoint on the Readwise Highlights import page. Its Connect button takes you to CrossPoint Sync, where you link your Readwise account, and your highlights flow into Readwise from there. Thanks to Ibai for adding the tile.

📑 Improved Book Pages on Web — Book pages in Readwise Highlights on the web were a single centered column, and the table of contents only appeared on very wide screens as a floating card. Ibai rebuilt them into two columns: the cover, details, and a full table of contents stay put on the left while your highlights scroll on the right, and the section you're in is marked. Smaller windows get the same layout as the app's book page.

🔠 Improved Fonts in Daily Review — The Readwise Highlights app switched to Plus Jakarta Sans a while back, but Daily Review, stats, book pages, and Ghostreader chat inside the app still used older fonts, so a sheet over a review card didn't match the card under it. Ibai moved those screens to Plus Jakarta Sans too, which also brings Vietnamese letters to Daily Review.

🔁 Fixed Repeating Mastery Cards — In Readwise Highlights, some mastery cards kept coming back in Daily Review however you graded them, and a few couldn't be graded at all. Skipping a few days of reviews could also show the same card once for every day you missed. Ibai fixed both, so a mastery card shows up once and moves on when you grade it.

🎙️ Fixed Silent Audio Reviews — An audio Daily Review in Readwise Highlights could play its intro and then go quiet for a minute or more while the script behind it got stuck. Tristan made the review notice a stuck script and retry within a second or two, so the audio should keep going after the intro.

🚫 Fixed Never Highlights in Widgets — Highlights you'd marked Never in Daily Review still turned up in the Readwise Highlights home screen widget. Johannes keeps them out of the widget now, and out of the highlights used for themed review and chat suggestions. Choosing Soon, Later, or Someday on a highlight brings it back.

📘 Fixed Supplemental Books — Syncing Goodreads to Readwise Highlights could add supplemental highlights for books you'd already highlighted yourself through clippings or a manual import, so your own books showed up twice. Ibai now matches those books by title, so new supplementals skip books you already have.

🕒 Fixed Kindle Sync Date — The Kindle "Last synced" date on the Readwise Highlights import page could be wrong in both directions: failed attempts moved it forward, and syncs you started yourself didn't count. Ibai made it show your last sync that actually finished.

📦 Improved CSV Exports — Exporting a very large Readwise Highlights library to CSV could run for many minutes, because each batch reread every remaining highlight. Piotr now reads highlights one batch of books at a time, so big exports should finish much faster.

📅 Fixed Renewal Reminder Dates — The email reminding you that an annual Readwise plan is about to renew could show the day after the real renewal date if you renew in the evening in the US, so you could miss the window to cancel. Tristan now shows the date in your own time zone.

Books

🔗 NEW! Goodreads Cross-Posting — If you connect Goodreads to Readwise Books, you can now have Books post to your Goodreads account for you. Open Settings > Integrations > Goodreads (or Goodreads in your Library) and choose what to cross-post: shelf changes, ratings and reviews, and reading progress from your sessions. Each one has its own toggle and starts off, so if you write your reviews on Goodreads you can leave that one off and still sync your shelves. When you finish a book, Books also sends your start and finish dates. Thanks to Mati for building this integration.

⚙️ NEW! Kindle and Goodreads Screens — Your Kindle and Goodreads connections in Readwise Books each have their own screen now, under Settings > Integrations or from your Library. From there you can refresh, disconnect Goodreads while keeping everything you imported, or delete an integration and its data. Refreshing runs in a small status pill, so you can keep using the app instead of waiting on a full-screen import. The Kindle screen is also where you'll find the Continuous scroll option for Kindle books. Thanks again to Mati.

📤 NEW! EPUB Uploads in the Books API — Thanks to Piotr, developers and AI agents can now add EPUBs to Readwise Books through the Books API and the Readwise MCP server, not only through the app. Upload one book or a batch and pick the shelf they land on. The readwise.io/books/upload page can now pick a shelf too.

🤖 Improved Books API and MCP — The Readwise Books app never pointed you to its API or MCP server, and listing a big library through MCP could return more text than an AI assistant could take in. Piotr added a Developers (API/MCP) row under Settings > Connections in the app. He also trimmed the publisher summary out of book lists by default and added small cover images. Audiobook length can now be set through the API too, so audiobook sessions logged that way show your progress.

📖 Improved Kindle Books on iPad — Kindle books in Readwise Books showed one wide column on an iPad in landscape, while the same book in Safari showed two. Mati taught the app to lay out two columns in landscape on iPad, so it reads like an open book.

🔘 Improved Kindle Books on Boox Devices — Reading Kindle books in Readwise Books on Boox devices had a few rough spots. The page buttons did nothing, the loading screen could pop up mid-read and move you back a few lines, and on Android the top bar stayed on screen over the first line of text. Mati fixed all three, so the page buttons turn pages and the reader stays out of the way.

🎧 Fixed Audiobooks During Calls — When a call came in during an audiobook in Readwise Books, Android kept playing the book under the ringtone and counted it as listening time, and iPhone paused it but never started it again. Johannes made audiobooks pause for calls and similar interruptions and pick back up when they end.

🎟️ Improved Invite Codes — A Readwise Books invite code stopped working after five friends used it, and the next friend saw "Invite code not found". Tristan now adds five more invites when a code fills up and sends the inviter a thank-you, so your link keeps working. Inviters also get the "joined Readwise Books" notification with their friend's real handle.

🗨️ Improved Book Page Reviews — The Reviews tab on a book page in Readwise Books repeated the whole book card, cover and blurb included, under every single review. Tristan turned each review into a compact card with the reviewer, stars, and date, and reviews from people you follow come first.

🕰️ Fixed Last Session Popup — The Last session recap in Readwise Books popped up nearly every time you opened a book, and its X sometimes didn't close it. Artem added a time limit, so it shows at most once every six hours per book, and Mati made the X always close it.

📍 Fixed Reopening After Listening — After you listened to a book with text-to-speech in Readwise Books and then kept reading, reopening the book could take you back to where the audio had been instead of where you stopped reading. Artem cleared the old listening spot, so books reopen at your latest position.

🏃 Fixed Missing Reading Sessions — Some real reading sessions in Readwise Books never showed up in the feed, like ones where you jumped back to an earlier chapter or saved your place back where you started. The reading recap could also show lower totals than Home for the same week. Tristan and Johannes fixed both, so your sessions appear in the feed and your recap matches Home.

🏆 Improved Readerboard History — Past weeks on the Readwise Books Readerboard could change after the week was over when a session synced late or was deleted, and the podium used a different week than the board. Piotr now locks each week's board at midnight Pacific when the week ends, and the podium follows the same week.

🛒 Fixed Kindle Shelf — A book you'd bought on Kindle after removing an earlier copy from Readwise Books could be left off your shelf, so the import said 25 books while your library showed 24. Tristan now puts new purchases on the shelf. Mati also added a note to the Kindle shelf's book sheet explaining that you need to move the book into your Library to read it.

🔀 Fixed Goodreads Connections — Connecting Goodreads in Readwise Books could sit on "Connecting to Goodreads…" indefinitely when the page hit a network error or an unexpected Goodreads screen, and imports could time out on their first page. Mati added a timeout and a fallback, so you either see Goodreads' sign-in page or a clear error, and a stalled import reloads and carries on.

🩹 Fixed Books That Wouldn't Open — Some ebooks bought from the Readwise Books store showed their cover and a spinner forever, because one of their stylesheets had a character our parser choked on. Tristan made the parser tolerate it, so those books open normally.

📕 Fixed Books Skipping the Introduction — Some ebooks you uploaded to Readwise Books and Reader opened at Chapter 1 and skipped the Introduction and other front matter before it. Samuel fixed how the reader picks the starting page, so books open where they actually begin.

🖼️ Improved EPUB Images — Small illustrations in some EPUBs rendered far too large in Readwise Books and Reader, and pages could shift as images loaded in. Artem now sizes each image from the book's own layout before it arrives and keeps it within the page, so pictures appear at the size the publisher intended.

📐 Fixed Foldable Margins — Opening a book in Readwise Books or the Reader app on the folded outer screen of an Android foldable and then unfolding it kept the narrow phone margins, so the text ran nearly edge to edge on the big screen. Cam made the margins follow the screen you're using.

🔍 Fixed Match to Bookshop on Android — Tapping a result in Match to Bookshop in Readwise Books on Android did nothing, so you couldn't link a book to its store edition. Tristan fixed the sheet, so picking a result works on Android the way it does on iPhone.

🆓 Fixed Free Ebook Checkout — Trying to buy a free ebook in the Readwise Books store with Buy Now ended in an error. Tristan fixed the free checkout path, so $0 books go straight to your library.

🙋 Improved Mentions and Bios — Typing someone's exact handle in a Readwise Books comment didn't put them first in the suggestions, and your own handle never appeared. A profile bio wrapped in quotation marks also showed only a closing quote. Tristan fixed both, so mentions find the right person and quoted bios display in full.

👍 Three recommendations from our team

From Principal Designer Kris

Something to read 📡
Kris loved Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Each chapter switches point of view and retells the same events through a different character’s eyes. It’s a beautifully told adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke’s “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” It’s short, and a great intro if you haven’t read any Tchaikovsky. Somebody should make it into a movie.

Something to focus ⏰
Kris has a Busy Bar on his desk: a little retro-futuristic LED display that runs focus sessions. It’s been a lot of fun to have Claude build little apps for, and the companion iPhone app has surprisingly great focus soundtracks and countdown timers.

Something to unwind 🧛🏼
Kris has been playing Vampire Survivors on Steam. It’s a retro throwback that’s really fun to zone out to, but once you get leveled up, it gets insane fast. Bullet heaven!

💬 From the Readwise group chat

Bartosz has entered the chat

Bartosz does not exist and has never existed. And yet Bartosz is somehow the most-mentioned coworker in our terminals this month. HR is looking into it. HR may also be Bartosz.