Reading and the Library

Reading lives at /read, where three things sit side by side: the Library of published work on Inkbreaker, your own reading list of books you are working through, and beta reading for other writers. All of it is free.

This page covers the first two. For beta reading, see Beta readers.

The Library

The Library is the public shelf of everything writers have published here. Browse it from /read, search by title or author, and filter to pieces, series, or both. A piece that belongs to a public series shows up once, as the series, so a long run reads as one entry instead of a wall of parts.

You decide whether your own published work appears here. Each published piece has a List in the Library switch in its sharing settings, on by default. Turn it off and the piece stays published and readable by anyone with the link, it just stops showing in the Library browse and search. See Publishing your work.

Picking up where you left off

When you read a long piece or a series, Inkbreaker remembers your place. The next time you come back, a Continue reading row at the top of the Library shows what you were in the middle of, with the page you reached, and takes you straight back to it. Open the piece again and it offers to pick up where you left off rather than starting you at the top.

This is per reader and private. It is on for everyone, and there is nothing to set up.

Reading mode

Open any published piece and look for the Reading mode button above the text. It clears away the rest of the screen and gives you one page at a time, sized to read on a phone, a tablet, or a wide monitor. It follows your light or dark theme, so it looks the way the rest of Inkbreaker does.

Turn pages the way that suits you: tap the arrows, swipe left or right on a touchscreen, or use the arrow keys on a keyboard. The two buttons at the top right make the text bigger or smaller, and that choice sticks for the next thing you read. A progress bar along the bottom shows how far through the piece you are.

When a piece belongs to a series, reading mode reads straight through the whole book. Turn past the last page of one part and the next part opens on its own, with no trip back to the series page. The Contents button lists every part so you can jump anywhere in the book.

Leave reading mode whenever you want, with Exit or the Escape key. You land back on the normal web view of the exact piece and page you were reading, so you never lose your place. Reading mode is free for everyone.

Your reading list

Your reading list is a personal shelf of books, separate from anything you write. Find it under the Reading list tab at /read.

Adding a book

Choose Add a book and search by title or author. The search uses Open Library, so most published books are already there with a cover. Pick the match and it fills in the title, author, cover, and year for you. If a book is not in the results, choose Add manually and type the details yourself.

Sort each book into one of four shelves:

• Reading now
• Finished
• Want to read
• Set aside, for a book you stopped without finishing. Set aside is private and never shows on your public profile.

Craft notes

Every book takes an optional craft note: a line or two on what it is teaching you about writing. The prompt is "What's this teaching you about writing?" Use it to keep the lesson, not just the title. Craft notes are free for everyone.

Showing your reading, or keeping it private

Each book has a Show on my public profile switch. When it is on, the book appears on your public reading page at inkbreaker.com/yourusername/reading, grouped into Reading now, Finished, and Want to read. Set-aside books never appear there. A short preview of your shelf can also show on your profile Overview. See Your profile.

When you add or finish a book, you can also share it to your activity feed, which tells your followers what you are reading. That is opt-in per book, and a book you keep private is never shared.

If a book taught you something worth discussing, share it to the Reading forum instead, and your craft note becomes the start of a thread in the What We're Reading category. See Forum.

Book reviews

You can rate and review any book you have read, from one to five stars with an optional write-up. Open a book from search or from your shelf and write your review in the Your review panel. Reviews are public by default and gather under My reviews in your reading list.

Reviews pass through the same content checks as the rest of the site, so a review that trips a check is held for review before it shows to others. A review you mark private stays visible only to you. Reviewing books is free.

What is free

The whole of this page is free: the Library, your reading list, craft notes, public reading page, reading mode, book reviews, sharing to your feed or the Reading forum, and picking up long reads where you left off. Nothing here needs Pro.