💡 WiseUp! Vol. 16 — Chat with your highlights, trim your library, and more

📍 Let's start with a reading recommendation

Reading "business" books is a waste of time

While curating Wisereads, our editor Abi came across this sharp take from Quantitative Analyst and internet writer Jack, who calls out fluff in popular business books. Instead, he recommends books by academics—like Michael Porter's Competitive Strategy. "The most successful founders don’t memorize slogans. They absorb complexity, adapt intelligently, and think in systems. Most business books won’t help you do that. Write your own playbook—with decisions, not quotes." Add to Reader

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.

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❓ A Reader question from Chris R:

How do I bulk delete from my feed?

Handle dozens of documents in one go with Bulk Actions (Shift + B). Use filtering first (Shift + F) to narrow your list—by tag, search, or anything else—then apply actions to just that group. On mobile, tap '...' and choose Bulk Actions. It’s a fast way to get things done.

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❓ A Readwise question from Axel F:

Can I automatically create flashcards in Readwise?

Unlock the power of your saved highlights in Readwise with the flashcard feature, designed to boost retention through spaced repetition and active recall. Create Q&A mastery cards by tagging highlights with a special .qa note—just add your question and answer like this (brackets not required):

.qa [What is the answer to life and everything?][42]

📖 New help doc of the week

Chat with your Readwise highlights in Raycast

A couple of weeks ago, we shared a new guide for using the Readwise MCP server with Claude Desktop. Since then, Raycast (Cayla’s favorite Mac productivity tool) added the ability to use MCP servers directly in their AI Chat. So, naturally, she added some new documentation to help you set it up!

Read the guide

🎬 New video of the week

Introducing: Chat with your highlights in Claude

You can now query your entire library of Readwise highlights right inside of Claude, thanks to our MCP server! In this week’s video, Erin is sharing how to install the MCP, plus some tips and tricks for getting the best responses.

Add to Reader

📰 May 9 - May 16 updates

What's new in Reader and Readwise

🔊 Improved TTS Experience — Andrew fixed a bug where skipping 15 seconds at the end returned the audio to the beginning and pausing caused flickering. Artem replaced newlines with spaces to prevent problematic pauses.

📄 Fixed PDF Highlights — You can now properly delete PDF highlights on mobile, thanks to Arek fixing a bug that made highlights silently duplicate.

🎨 Fixed Animation Display — Thanks to Artem, reading on e-ink devices just got a lot nicer. More page animations can be disabled now.

🖍️ Fixed Highlight Handles — Highlights now have complete handles and proper underlines, thanks to Artem's tweaks.

📱 Improved Reading View — Reading documents on Android should be a bit nicer, thanks to Artem's efforts in making the webview more resilient.

🔧 Fixed Category Logic — Tadek fixed a minor bug in the category logic for Reader, which in some rare cases could lead to documents not parsing properly.

⤵️ Fixed Auto-Advance — On web, deleting the current document or using the shortlist keybinding now properly advances to the next document when auto-advance is on, thanks to Scott. (This fix will be coming to the mobile app soon.)

🖼️ Fixed Image Viewing — Image data is now properly reset when images are closed, thanks to Andrew. Now, gestures like zooming and changing positions will not affect the next image.

🛜 Parsing Updates — Krzys made improvements to how Reader handles posts from buttondown.com, epsilontheory.com, and apple.news.

👍 Three featured finds

From support specialist Romi

Something to read 📖
Any fan of SNL and rom-coms will appreciate this book from Curtis Sittenfeld, properly named Romantic Comedy. Romi went through its pages while sitting on train rides and waiting in lines for calamari bocata during her last trip to Spain.

Something to focus 🍝
What inspires Romi to hit the gym? Listening to this fun podcast about the love of food! Table Manners is hosted by the singer Jessie Ware and her witty and hilarious mom, Lennie. They interview great characters — think Tim Cook or Colman Domingo.

Something to unwind 🤱🏼
Long, meditative walks along the beach boardwalk or even hiking local parks are possible with a small 4-month-old baby — as long as you have a good carrier. Romi swears by this one, by Stokke.

💬 From the Readwise group chat

The mystery of the week

Our designer, Kris, brought up the investigation behind an iOS bug that buries messages if they mention "Dave & Buster's" – the barcade, of course. Coding, mysteries and air hockey tables? The kind of content our team lives for. Go down the rabbit hole with us.