Help me replace my no longer supported ereader app

May 16, 2023 9:26 AM

I read on my ipad, and I read voraciously. Sometime in the last decade I found the perfect app for that after much trial and error. The devs seemed to have stopped working on the one I use, though. Please help me find a new ereader app (primarily for epubs) that will fit the bill. Am willing to pay for the right app, but do not want a subscription model (Readwise, for example). I manage my books in Calibre, so I don't need any organizational stuff out of this.

This is probably the fiftieth time I have come here over the last several years, fully intending to ask this, and then talking myself out of it ("surely I can find one, new apps come out all the time, maybe someone else who loves my app made an alternative" and "I just need to google better/smarter to find it"). I give up. I'm here. Maybe y'all can help me out.

Apps I have tried:
Kobo, ibooks, kindle, Libby, and various others I can't recall now due to this search going on through many many years in my life.

I used to love Marvin. Then the same company made Gerty and I fell in love. Gerty has been getting glitchy for a long time though, and I find I've developed a bunch of workarounds for broken things. I used to have it integrated with my dropbox, and I could just tap on "get books" and go straight to my files and select what I want to read next. That broke years ago, so I switched to opening the dropbox app, sharing the file to my device, then opening in Gerty. I'm worried it's going to completely stop working and I'll just be left here using something I hate. I don't think what I want is super crazy (??) but I'm having a hell of a time finding it and installing/trying/deleting apps is getting tedious.

Basically what I need is:
1. An ereader app that allows me to add new books via integration with dropbox or similar cloud storage sites.
2. The ability to highlight a word and look up its definition.
3. The ability to keep track of highlighted passages, annotations and words looked up in the dictionary. Gerty puts this in a "journal" which is awesome for reminding myself why I loved/hated a book or which words I need to remember the meaning of for next time.
4. The app should track when books were started/finished. Also - If I forgot I read a book already and add it again, when I open it, it should show 100% completion so that I can go, "Oh duh, I already read it."
5. The ability to turn the page by tapping on the side - not being restricted to up/down scrolling.

Nice to have:
1. Quick changes between nighttime and daytime themes
2. Integration with Goodreads would be nice, but not critical
3. Would be nice if I could track my progress in a book across devices. Gerty also did this (as does Marvin), and if I am stuck waiting somewhere and only have my phone I might dip into my current read.
4. Capable of reading not just epubs but PDFs too (this seems to be an easy ask - a lot of them do)

What I don't care about and can't be bothered with:
1. Categorizing books or building "libraries" in the app although the ability to make shortlists of books to read would be kind of cool maybe. If I use it.

Does this unicorn of an app exist? I know Gerty did, and I still use it. But it's dying, and I need to get off of it before it stops working entirely.

posted by routergirl to Technology (10 answers total)

Best answer: Have you tried Yomu?
posted by aeighty at 12:29 PM on May 16, 2023 [1 favorite]

I think Pocketbook does most of this - not sure about #4. It’s from a Swiss company that makes e-ink readers, which might bode better for sustainability than an app that is only for tablets. I got it for reading pdfs because it is one of the few reading apps that lets you read a pdf without animating the page turns, but I’ve found it handy for general ereading, and it can handle Adobe DRM for both epubs and pdfs, which is nice.
posted by yarrow at 4:18 PM on May 16, 2023

The Gerty app is by Appstafarian, their blog has an article about Dropbox syncing which may be useful in looking at the issue; I also found an email address that you could try. While it does appear that development has stopped, perhaps they can help keep you going for a bit longer. I did not find anywhere that it had been open-sourced, so I don't think finding someone else to maintain it is an option right now.
posted by TimHare at 10:11 PM on May 16, 2023

I use MoonPlus Reader with calibre and Dropbox sync, and it works well. I don't know for sure about your entire feature list but it's highly customizable so I'd guess it has most of what you want.
posted by medusa at 7:37 AM on May 17, 2023

Response by poster: TimHare: Yep. Tried emailing them - even asked if they'd be willing to release the code to anyone. No response. That was 3 years ago, though, I could try again. The article is what I had already set up and had working when it suddenly stopped. Boo.
posted by routergirl at 11:27 AM on May 17, 2023

Maybe try KyBooks3. I'm a Marvin 3 devotee who is looking for something new because Marvin has never handled all the file types I need it to. KyBooks3 does epub, mobi, various comics, PDF, and djvu if you get the full unlock (which is like $5). It also has a sketching feature to take notes on the page.

I actually think Goodreads integration might be the biggest ask here, since Goodreads is owned by Amazon.

Moon+ Reader is great but I believe it's Android-only.
posted by verbminx at 8:19 PM on May 17, 2023

Side note: the easiest way to get ebooks into an app on an iPad is through the Files app and iCloud, then you can share right to your reader app. I don't use Dropbox at all. It is also easy to move files from Google Drive or probably Dropbox or etc to iCloud on your tablet within the cloud services' apps.
posted by verbminx at 8:22 PM on May 17, 2023

Best answer: I’m also trying to find a Marvin replacement. When filtering possible candidates, I’m ruling out anything that isn’t actively being updated. I don’t want to end up in the same situation.

So far, I’m liking Yomu best (I paid $10 for the Pro version with extra Karma). It doesn’t do everything on your list, but among the things I like are an extensive support site, and the way it syncs between devices. They also responded within a day when I emailed them.
posted by elphaba at 11:24 AM on May 18, 2023 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: For now I am trying out Bluefire Reader, which does allow for notes and easy dropping of books into it. But Yomu I am going to check into as well. It's frustrating that Appstafarian just kind of...stopped developing. Marvin was a great app, and Gerty was what took me away from it.
posted by routergirl at 11:29 AM on May 22, 2023

Response by poster: Ok all, thank you. Yomu appears to be the winner.
posted by routergirl at 8:15 AM on May 23, 2023 [1 favorite]