💡 WiseUp! Vol. 38 — Has a book ever changed your life?
This week, we’re sharing a project that visualizes all the books people say have “changed their lives.” Has a book ever had that kind of impact on you? We’d love to hear about it and maybe add it to our ever-growing To-Read list.
On the app side, we've fixed an issue with videos using enhanced transcripts, iPad resizing, and how code blocks behave in the app. Read on for all the details or check out our log of weekly improvements.
Before we get into the tips…
đź“Ť Let's start with a reading recommendation
The most life-changing books, statistically
Joe Hovde shares data-driven observations on his Substack, Residual Thoughts. His latest entry explores a question right up our alley: which titles earn the most “life-changing” reviews? His spreadsheet highlights A New Earth, Man’s Search for Meaning, and Autobiography of a Yogi. The latter “heavily influenced The Beatles’ George Harrison and apparently attendees at Steve Jobs’ memorial service each received a copy. It has an extremely high rate of life-changing reviews for its scale, at 16% of the 377 reviews in this dataset.”
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.
âť“ A Readwise question from Steve K:
What’s the difference between refreshing and deleting books in Readwise?
Refreshing highlights gives your notes a quick update from the original source, keeping everything tidy and up to date. Deleting a book will delete all of its notes and highlights, clearing them out for good.
âť“ A Reader question from Grace C:
How do I favorite an article in the Reader app?
Whether you’re reading on your phone or computer, it’s easy to stay organized with your favorite pieces. On mobile, swipe left to right to tag something as a favorite. On the web or desktop app, press the F key to do the same. Later, create a filtered view (Shift+F) to find them all using tag:favorite
đź“– New help doc of the week
What does the “unsubscribe” button really do?
Have you ever used Reader’s built-in “unsubscribe” button to remove an email newsletter, then tried to forward emails from that same sender and not seen them show up in your account? Cayla’s new FAQ answers what the unsubscribe button does, shares best practices about managing and unsubscribing from email newsletters, and offers a trick to find the newsletter’s own unsubscribe link inside of Reader.
🎬 New video of the week
This website 3x'd our typing speed
A Readwise user developed this clever typing trainer that improves the speed and accuracy of your typing — all while reviewing your Readwise highlights 👀
đź“° Oct 11 - Oct 17 updates
What's new in Reader and Readwise
🎥 Fixed Starting Videos — Mati fixed a bug where videos would skip to the middle when using enhanced transcript mode, instead of starting from the beginning.
📊 Fixed Sidebar Behavior — Sidebars no longer pop out when reading articles in continuous scroll mode, thanks to Mati.
↕️ Fixed iPad Resizing — Mati fixed issues where resizing windows on iPadOS 26 was slow and glitchy. Content should now adjust to the new dimensions much more smoothly.
✨ Fixed Highlight Navigation — Arek fixed a glitch preventing Reader from jumping to the correct highlight location when following a "view highlight" link from Readwise or exported notes.
🎨 Fixed Discovery Display — Some extra code was making the text difficult to read in dark mode of the Discover Documents section. Tristan removed that code and the summaries now all match.
🔧 Fixed Android Login — Arek cleaned up the empty space on the Android login screen.
🗑️ Fixed Trash Button — Arek fixed the "Empty Trash" button color in dark mode so it now has proper contrast.
🧱 Fixed Code Blocks — Krzys fixed a bug where line-breaking hyphens were incorrectly inserted into code blocks, which could interfere with copying and using code snippets.
🛜 Parsing Updates — Krzys improved how Reader handles posts from espn.com, epsilontheory.com, linikedin.com, theinitium.com, spectrum.iee.org, techcrunch.com, bloomberg.com, royalroad.com, newyorker.com, reddit.com, chrzaszcz.dev, maggieappleton.com, france24.com, huxiu.com, science.org, and heise.de. Reading times and word counts for the New York Times should also be more accurate now.
đź‘Ť Three featured finds
From quality assurance specialist Eleanor
Something to read đź“–
The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold has the best religion system Eleanor has ever seen in any standalone fantasy novel. It features an incredibly realistic, medieval world that gets the politics and threats just right, and a protagonist who mingles world-weary, dogged practicality with a deep-seated sense of honor.
Something to focus đź“’
Eleanor is really loving these notebooks because they fit in her pocket but are oriented in portrait mode. She even wrote about them in her Konik Method for Making Analog Notes piece.
Something to unwind 🧦
Eleanor loves these thermal socks. She got them for herself, her mom, and her mother-in-law, and they all agree they’re incredibly cozy and perfect for fall. Plus, they're great with boots!
đź’¬ From the Readwise group chat
Reader, but make it chaos
We use Reader for a clean, ad-free reading experience. But what if you’re feeling spicy and want the exact opposite? Well, Mati found just the extension for that!
See you next week!
Warmly,
the Readwise customer support team