Apple Books Launches New 'Year in Review' Feature

[MacRumors]

Apple today announced that its Books app now offers a "Year in Review" recap in select countries, including the U.S., U.K., Australia, Canada, France, and Germany. The feature requires an iPhone or iPad on iOS 17.1 or iPadOS 17.1 or later, and it can be found within the Read Now tab under Top Picks, for users with at least three titles marked as finished.

Year in Review allows Apple Books users to view personalized highlights about the books and audiobooks they read in 2023, including their total time spent reading, the longest book or audiobook they read, their most-read author and genre, their highest-rated book, and more. The recap can easily be shared with others.

How to mark books or audiobooks as finished:

To add books or audiobooks, readers can tap and hold on any book in the app and choose Mark as Finished. To change the finished date shown, users can hold down on the book and select Edit Finished Date. For titles read elsewhere, such as in hardcover or paperback, users can search for them in Apple Books and select Mark as Finished to add them to their Year in Review.

When the "Reading Goals" option is turned on in the Settings app, under Books, users can also view their longest reading streak, the average number of minutes they spent reading in a month, and other statistics in Year in Review.

Year in Review can determine a user's personal reading type:

There are six reader types to discover, including The Contemporary for readers of trendy titles; The Completist for readers of multiple books in a series; The Seeker for nonfiction readers; The Wanderer for multigenre readers; The Deep Diver for single-genre readers; or The Free Spirit for readers with wide-ranging interests across the book world.

Apple also shared the most popular books in the Books app in 2023:

Top Nonfiction Books of 2023
1. Spare by Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex
2. The Woman in Me by Britney Spears
3. The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann
4. Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity by Peter Attia and Bill Gifford
5. Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson

Top Fiction Books of 2023
1. Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
2. Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros
3. Happy Place by Emily Henry
4. Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
5. The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese

As the end of 2023 nears, Apple has started sharing year-end content, including award-winning apps and the the most popular podcasts. In addition, the complete Apple Music Replay experience is now available for 2023, and Taylor Swift was named Apple Music's Artist of the Year.

Article Link: Apple Books Launches New 'Year in Review' Feature

 

[toobravetosave]

Books is good but I wish it wasn't cloud storing all my epub files as directories

 

[Apple Fan 2008]

Makes sense, this works kind of like the "Replays" in Apple Music.

 

[Davidalan]

Does anyone known if there will be and Apple Guide for iOS 17 and one iPadOS 17 like for past versions of iOS?

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

I can't see this feature in my iBook app for some reason, not that it would be that informative as my reading has been just ever so slightly dominated by one series...

 

[Mac Fly (film)]

Still no eBook reader on the market that I love.

 

[WestonHarvey1]

I wonder if mine will say something motivational like my Apple Watch does when I don't work out. "Don't worry, there's still 32 days left to read a whole book this year!"

 

[thejoshuabradshaw]

Now, if they would incorporate this into the Apple One, then it would be complete. So far behind the rest, it terrible.

 

[tonywalker23]

1. I remember an April fool's blogpost from I think good -ereader and they had a writeup about the new apple ebook reader. im usually smarter than that but for a few seconds I fell for it. wish there was a nice e-reader made by apple...

2. slow reader and very busy life, so not as far in it as probably others, but have really enjoyed what I've read of Isaacson's Musk

 

[omiks]

If only the app were decent.

 

[jdawgnoonan]

Personally, without an e-ink capable device with access to Apple Books, the platform is not interesting to me.

 

[iPay]

Cool! They can train their IA to read these books and provide fine reviews, indulge in drama to keep a lively forum, and finally write some of these books. Bright future ahead!

 

[Cameront9]

Don't see this in my Books app. Maybe they're rolling it out slowly?

 

[Shanghaichica]

It’s a nice feature but I don’t read on my iPhone/ipad. I prefer reading on my kindle.

 

[Shanghaichica]

Personally, without an e-ink capable device with access to Apple Books, the platform is not interesting to me.

Exactly this. If they could make an e-reader with an eink display or allow the kindle or another e-reader to access Apple Books then I would invest in Apples book store.

 

[svish]

Good to know. Interesting list of fiction and non fiction books

 

[Otaviano]

I read a lot on my iPad and use the Apple Books app regularly. It's an app I have a lot hate relationship. I use it all the time but there are so many bugs and quirks.

I wish there was a great third party ebook reader for Apple's platform, since there isn't I guess I am happy to see someone is working on the app although I feel is probably just superficial.

 

[adib]

Exactly this. If they could make an e-reader with an eink display or allow the kindle or another e-reader to access Apple Books then I would invest in Apples book store.

Apple Books only offers out-of-copyright books in my corner of the world. Those that one can download from Project Gutenberg. Thus, the Apple Books service looks like one of Apple's "hobby projects" to me.