Top 5 Note-Taking Apps For Book Lovers

Context

Whether you're an avid reader, a student, or a professional researcher, note-taking apps are indispensable tools for capturing thoughts, highlighting key passages, and organizing information from your favorite reads.

As the market for these apps continues to grow, it can be overwhelming to choose the right one for your needs. That's why this article has compiled a list of the top 5 note-taking book apps that stand out from the crowd. Each of these apps offers unique features and benefits, catering to different note-taking styles. Whether you're looking for simple annotation tools or more advanced features like AI-powered summaries, there's something on this list for every book enthusiast.

Why do I need to take notes?

One might ask this simple question: Why would I need to take notes while reading when the books already have the printed words? Well, that's a fair question, but...

Have you ever read a long book?

• Maybe "The Brothers Karamazov"¹ and its complex character relations?
• Or "The Count of Monte Cristo"² and its many intertwined subplots?

Have you ever read a long series?

• Maybe "A Song of Ice and Fire" and its five heavy books of epic fantasy?
• Or the Poirot Series with over 30 novels and that many complex cases to solve?

Have you ever read a book with a long list of characters?

• Maybe "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and its over 200 named characters written 700 years ago?
• Or "War and Peace"³ and its 559 named characters with 200 of them being historical people? (Yes you read that right, 559 named characters.)

If such is the case, you might probably realized a few things:

1. It can be hard to remember all the primary and secondary characters and their names, let alone their traits and their backgrounds.
2. It can also be hard to remember all the important sub-plots that happened a few hundred pages ago.

Do "Wait, who is this again?" and "Wait, why did they have to do this again?" ring a bell? It happens to all of us. We do forget, even the important bits.

By writing down key ideas, questions and personal reflections, readers create a tangible connection with the material, improving comprehension and retention. This process encourages critical thinking as it requires readers to synthesize information and identify what matters the most.

Moreover, book notes become valuable resources for future reference, almost like a time capsule that we can open on New Year's Day to reminisce about the literary rides we had throughout the whole year.

In this article, we'll explore the key features, pros, and cons of each app, helping you make an informed decision about which one best suits your reading and note-taking habits. Let's dive in and discover the perfect digital companion for your literary journey!

Goodreads

Goodreads is a book catalog website created in 2006 and acquired 7 years later by Amazon. It's probably one of the most famous social networks specialized in books. It allows you to track books, write public reviews and, in relation to this article, you can add one little private note to each book.

The note-taking feature is very limited, the UI hasn't been updated in years and the iOS app is simply the website bundled as an app.

It is free.

Obsidian

Obsidian is a general productivity tool well-suited for creating a personal knowledge base. With its Markdown based editor and its graph view, users can easily create a network of thoughts and ideas. A templating system also exists, but you will have to search online to find one that would suit you.

It is recommended to know some Markdown before using it.

It is free for personal use and data sync across devices will have a cost.

Notion (with templates)

Notion is a versatile all-in-one note-taking app. For book lovers, it offers a flexible system to create detailed book notes, summaries, and even entire libraries.

One of its strengths lies in its customizability: you can create your own templates of content for books and share them with others. Thanks to the power of community, you can find a list of book templates here: Notion Books Templates. Some might fit you better than others and you can always tweak the existing ones to your own needs.

While Notion appears simple, it is in reality quite powerful. The learning curve might be too steep for new users who are looking for simpler tools.

It is free for personal use with a few limitations.

Outline

Outline is a document-based all-purpose app. Designed like a digital notebook with a hierarchical structure, the interface will feel familiar and will allow to create detailed notes saved locally on disk.

It has moved away from its premium model and is now a subscription based app.

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* These books are available for free on Project Gutenberg.

You can read them online following these links:

• ¹

  The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky

• ²

  The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (Père)

• ³

  War and Peace by Tolstoy