💡 WiseUp! Vol. 32 — The best (book) is yet to come
This week, inspired by Jack Edwards, we're choosing to see collections of unread books as an act of optimism. We’ll also show you how to concatenate and add style to your highlights, so you can collect not just books but meaningful quotes, too.
On the app side, we're featuring the long requested Offline Hub (not the official name). We've also fixed a few minor bugs that affected tag searching and adding highlights to books. Read on for all the details or check out our log of weekly improvements.
Before we get into the tips…
📍 Let's start with a reading recommendation
The best book is the one you haven’t read yet
Jack Edwards, the “internet's resident librarian,” shares his book reviews and bookish thoughts on his Substack, Constant Reader. This week, he’s clapping back at bookish snobs. "Perhaps it’s more helpful to think of collecting books like collecting wine: you pick up novels you know you will enjoy at some time in the future. That time might be right now, or it might be next year. Like a bottle of Sancerre, you’ll bring it down off the shelf at the perfect moment, when you’ll enjoy it most. That’s okay, even encouraged, because the pursuit of literature is a deeply personal endeavour: it’s about reading things you want to read, when you want to read them."
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 Patrick M:
How can I import my Apple Books highlights to Readwise if my accounts are under different email addresses?
If your Apple Books or Kindle account uses a different email than your Readwise account, you'll need to add your email address to the approved senders list at readwise.io/import/email before emailing the highlights to Readwise.
This tells Readwise your messages are trusted, so anything you send from those apps will be saved to your account without a hitch.
❓ A Reader question from Robin G:
Is there a way to link highlights?
With concatenation, you can join separate highlights into one smooth note, so your thoughts feel whole instead of scattered. Add a note .c1 to the first highlight, then .c2 , .c3 , and so on. Readwise will link them together with “…” in between. The first tag always starts a new chain and you can connect as many as you like, turning fragments into a single, polished highlight.
📖 New help doc of the week
Add style and flair to your Readwise highlights
Did you know that you can use markdown formatting to bold, italicize, and hyperhighlight the passages you save to Readwise? Check out Cayla’s new documentation to learn the syntax, and get a fun workflow tip for automating Mastery flashcard formatting with Ghostreader!
🎬 New video of the week
Install these apps on your iPad
This week we’re sharing a video from the tech reviewer FromSergio, who included Readwise and Reader in his list of 13 apps that make his iPad worth it.
📰 Aug 23 - Aug 29 updates
What's new in Reader and Readwise
🧭 NEW! More Offline Control — Choose which categories of documents to make available offline. Individual documents will still download automatically when you open them or view them in a list. You can control these options from the offline documents section of the Account screen.
👈 Fixed Swiping Actions — Mati fixed a bug where swiping to manage articles in the feed was interfering with the sidebar menu gesture. It's now a lot easier to use swipe actions without accidentally opening the side menu.
👻 Fixed Chat with Documents — Ibai patched up a document syncing issue for Chat with Documents that sometimes caused it to error. Fetching documents to chat should be a lot more reliable, especially for folks with large libraries or big files.
📽️ Fixed iPad Video Margins — Mati got rid of some unnecessary black margins at the top of YouTube videos on iPad. Videos now use the full screen space available, giving you a better viewing experience without wasted vertical space.
🔁 Improved Export Reliability — Rasul continued improving how exports to third-party notes apps get scheduled and re-run. He also fixed some bugs stopping OneNote exports from properly completing.
🎨 Added OneNote Cover Images — Rasul tweaked our OneNote integration to support cover images. Notes should look a bit nicer now.
🔎 Fixed Bottom Sheet — Arek fixed a bug where multiple bottom sheets could stay open at the same time. Using “find in document” and similar options should be easier now.
🔖 Fixed Tag Searching — Arek fixed a bug where the Manage Tags screen would go blank during searches.
📚 Fixed Custom Book Button — Arek fixed a bug where Readwise’s button to attach highlights to a new book was invisible on iPad. The button is now properly visible when adding highlights to custom books.
🛜 Parsing Updates — Krzys improved how Reader handles posts from theparisreview.org, g1.globo.com, independent.co.uk, and technews.tw.
👍 Three featured finds
From support specialist Romi
Something to read 📖
If you're looking to explore foreign authors and aren't sure where to begin, Romi recommends "Chilean Poet" by Alejandro Zambra. It's an excellent introduction to this tender, thoughtful writer and serves as a perfect gateway to his broader body of work.
Something to focus 🧉
As most Argentinians, Romi drinks mate every day as a communal ritual, but she also uses it to help us focus while working. This set from Dr. Andrew Huberman's company offers an excellent way to start your own mate practice. Just remember: never stir your mate!
Something to unwind 🍪
Romi has been on a cookie-making spree, guided by Grace Fahey, a former Levain employee who shares excellent baking tips. Her freezer is now stocked with "mounts," and this toaster oven makes it possible to enjoy fresh-baked cookies in minutes.
💬 From the Readwise group chat
Never caught without a book
While some people are content to bring along their libraries on e-readers, Angie would be much happier if her book collection could travel with her around the world. If you ever spot her at Tomorrowland followed by a caravan of thousands of books, she’s probably won the lottery!
See you next week!
Warmly,
the Readwise customer support team