Read on.
Never lose the thread.
Press a word and see what it means in this very sentence. Forgot who someone is? Ask. Back after a month? Read what happened so far — and not a word past your page.
Contents
A reader first
Before anything clever, BookCat is a calm place to read. Pages turn like paper, the typography is yours to set, and on iPad the book opens as a two-page spread.
Your shelf, your place in every book and your bookmarks follow you between iPhone and iPad through your own iCloud.
- Light, sepia and dark themes; your font, size and margins
- Two-page spreads on iPad
- Bookmarks by theme, quotes as pictures
- Listen: the page reads itself and turns
A word, in its sentence
A dictionary tells you everything a word can mean. BookCat tells you what it means here — and then the rest, under its own heading, for the next time you meet it.
Press any word for its meaning or for a translation into your language. Select a passage you didn't quite get, and BookCat explains it in plain words.
“Gunwale” is the top edge of a boat’s side. Now you know what the cat was walking along.
What happened, and who is who
Long books and longer fics wait for you for weeks. BookCat retells what you have already read — early chapters in broad strokes, the latest in detail — and never a word past your page.
Ask once, and you get everyone you've met so far: who they are, what they did, how they are tied to each other. After that, press a name in the text — the answer is already there.
Made for iPad, too
A two-page spread, answers beside the text, and room for everyone in the book.
Your own vocabulary
Save a word straight from its card, with the sentence it came from and the book it lives in. Your vocabulary sorts itself by language and by what you asked.
A short review a day brings the words back: see the word, remember it, check yourself. Words you know move further away, words you forget come back sooner — until they're learned.
- Words with their sentence and book
- Spaced review in a minute a day
- Export to CSV
How much you've read
Pages, words and time, by day, week and month; your reading streak and every book you've read. All of it is counted on your device and stays there.
A note on AI
We know how many readers and writers feel about AI, and why. So, plainly:
BookCat sends an AI model only what a question needs, and only from what you have already read. Before the first question, the app asks your permission. Text passes our server in transit — we don't store it or log it. OpenAI, which answers the questions, doesn't train on it and keeps requests for up to 30 days only to check for abuse.
Reading, importing, your shelf, the vocabulary, review, statistics and the voice are free, and will stay free.
— the cat, and the one person who makes BookCatFree
Everything you need to read — forever.
- Reading, shelf, sync
- Vocabulary, review, statistics, listening
- A starter allowance of AI answers
BookCat Pro
or $39.99 a year, with 7 days free.
- About 7,500 words or 3,000 pages of translation a month
- Recaps and characters for whole books
- Cancel any time
Questions
Which books can I read?
EPUB and FB2 files you already have — without DRM, from anywhere.
Is it an official AO3 app?
No. BookCat can open works from Archive of Our Own, but it is an unofficial reader and is not affiliated with AO3 or the OTW.
Can I use my own API key?
Yes. With your own OpenAI key, questions go straight to OpenAI, without our server and without a monthly limit.
Does BookCat collect data about me?
No ads, no tracking, no analytics. The details are in the Privacy Policy.