The reader’s guide

Updated 2 October 2026

Find your next book, keep your place, and share what you think with friends. New here or changing phones? Start with Get Blackletter.

Find a book and save it for later

Open Search and enter a title, author or ISBN. Check the author before opening a result. Scan a barcode is available on supported iPhones. If the book is missing, choose Can’t find it? Add it by hand.

The bookmark on a book adds it to You → Want; tap it again to remove it. Your Want shelf can sort by Recently added or Likely for you. A predicted score is based on friends’ tastes, not your own rating.

For a book already Reading, Read or Didn’t finish, confirm Move to Want to Read to change its shelf. Moving a Reading book stops tracking and clears its page or percent; your diary, ranking and writing remain. Cancel to keep your current place.

Keep your place

Open a book and tap Start reading. Update your position from Home, the reading bar, or Update page on the book. Choose Page or Percent and tap Save. Books without a page count use percent. You can track several books; swipe through their cards on Home.

Tap I finished it when you are ready to log the read. Saving 100% also opens logging; complete that flow to record a finished read.

Log a read and put books in order

Tap Log it, Log again, or Home’s +.
Choose Finished or Didn’t finish, check the date, and optionally add a start date. Turn on Reread for another read of the same book.
Choose Fiction or Nonfiction and your reaction, or use Log without ranking.
Answer which book you liked more. About the same records a tie; Can’t decide tries another comparison when one is available. Later lets you return through Rank one on You.
Review the result and tap Log book to save the ranked read. Undo last comparison lets you change an answer before saving. Each log creates its own diary entry.
After the read is saved, write an optional review and tap Save review & Done to publish it, or Done to close without adding a review.

Fiction and nonfiction have separate rankings, each grouped by your reaction. Scores come from the order and can change as you add books. Use More → Re-rank to change your opinion without adding another read, then confirm Save ranking. Open the ranked count on You and choose Reorder for a direct adjustment.

Correct or remove a read

Open You → Diary, then press and hold the entry and choose Edit entry to correct dates, Finished/Didn’t finish and Reread. Leave an unknown date unset. If an older entry is not linked to the book’s current status, saving can ask whether to update that status too; choose Keep current status to leave it unchanged. Delete this entry removes that read and its feed post while keeping the book’s ranking. If you accidentally log twice, delete the extra diary entry.

Remove from my books on a book removes its shelf entry and ranking; diary entries, review and passages remain. Delete review removes the review without removing the read or ranking.

Write a review or save a passage

After logging a book, use More → Write a review, or Edit beside your existing review. There is one current review per book. Turn on Contains spoilers when needed, then tap Save. Friends must reveal a marked review to read it.

When closing an unfinished review, choose Keep draft and close to continue on this device later, or Discard draft to remove the unsaved writing. A saved local draft has not been published.

Choose Save a passage from a book or its progress screen. Type a quote, use From a photo, or Scan the page on a supported device. Check recognized text, add an optional page number, and tap Save. Find saved passages in You → Passages; press and hold one for its actions. Use Edit passage to correct your text or page number. Passages have no spoiler toggle and are visible to friends immediately after saving.

Make a list

Open You → Lists → New list. Add a title, books and optional comments; drag books into order, then tap Save. From a book, use More → Add to a list. Lists are visible to friends. The list’s menu also offers Share as text for sharing outside Blackletter.

Find friends and talk about books

In Search, switch to People and open a profile to send a friend request. Accept incoming requests in Activity. Invite friends lets you choose a contact or enter a number. You send the prepared invitation yourself; creating it does not send a text. Use Resend or Revoke for an unused invitation.

Friends’ posts appear on Home. Open a post to comment, or use More → Recommend to a friend on a book to send a friend a note. These actions can notify the recipient. Open a friend’s profile and tap Compare to explore your shared books.

Set a goal and look back

In Settings, set your current year’s goal with the slider; it saves as you go. Zero means no goal. Goals count distinct books finished that year: a reread adds a diary entry but does not count the same book twice. Unfinished reads do not count toward the goal. Tap the year’s count on You to explore Your year.

Bring your Goodreads history or keep a copy

In Settings → Import from Goodreads, follow the export instructions, save the Goodreads CSV in Files on your iPhone, and choose it. Read books, dates, reviews and want-to-reads are supported. Ratings establish starting reaction groups; finish comparisons from your profile. Read the completion summary and check your library before importing the same file again.

If interrupted, reopen Import from Goodreads and choose Resume import; you do not need the CSV again. Review unmatched rows with Choose the correct book, Retry matching or Skip this row. Keep your original export if you skip rows and want to add them by hand later. When finished, tap View your library. Uploading the same export opens its saved import without adding duplicate reads.

Imports do not post to friends’ feeds, but imported reading data is visible to friends. Settings → Export my data saves a JSON archive of your profile and photo, rankings, diary, reviews, passages, shelves, lists, goals, comments and recommendation notes, along with social connections and actions, invitations, import history and connection metadata. It excludes sign-in credentials, private invite codes and other members’ writing. Blackletter cannot restore this JSON archive.

Know who can see it

Friends can see your rankings, diary, shelves, reviews, passages and lists. Other signed-in members see basic identity information, who invited you and mutual friends. Book pages can show an anonymous average score. There is no private-book switch. Sharing outside the app gives the recipient the content you share.

Contacts access is optional; you can search for members and invite by number. Push switches in Settings control phone alerts; Activity still receives those events. Report or block from a profile or content menu. Manage blocks in Settings → Blocked accounts. Unblocking does not restore a friendship. Read the privacy policy for details.

When something goes wrong

If a load fails, check your connection and use Retry. Keep an editor open if saving fails, then retry. If a log’s outcome is uncertain, check You → Diary before logging it again. Offline editing and queued saves are not supported.

For account changes or a problem you cannot resolve, open Settings → Help and support or contact support. To let an assistant help with your library, follow Connect an agent.