the archive
Notes on reading, finished books, and the quiet work of building moth.
Moth, StoryGraph, Bookly, Goodreads, and Fable compared on design, stats, privacy, price, and habit-building. Find the right one for how you actually read.
from the writing
A quiet shelf of notes, quotes, and finished books.
Most summer reading challenges fail for the same reason. Here's the small structural fix that makes the difference.
Meet Moth, the reading tracker for iPhone and Android built around daily sessions and streaks to build better reading habits.
more from the archive
Nine book to movie adaptations 2026 releases, in order, with rough page counts and enough runway to finish each one before the trailer spoils it.
A grounded Libby app review: how borrowing works, the real hold-queue math, the Kindle change nobody explains well, and who should actually use it.
Seven fast, hard-to-put-down books for a reading slump, from Rebecca to Iron Widow, picked for momentum and pace instead of comfort, so you finish one.
A book hangover is the specific grief of finishing a great book. Here's what causes it and eight things that actually help you move on.
Moth, ReadStreak, Läsa, Bookly, Bookmory, and Beanstack compared on streak mechanics, timers, pricing, and who each app actually suits.
Manga gets dismissed as pictures for people who don't really read. The comprehension research and the people who study manga readers say otherwise.
We compared five book journal apps, from StoryGraph's mood tags to Moth's completion cards, to see which one helps you remember what you read.
Audible, Libro.fm, Spotify, Everand, Libby, and Apple Books compared on price, catalog, and what kind of listener each one actually suits.
Reading journals and reading trackers are often confused for the same thing. They solve different problems, and mixing them up is why both tend to fail.
The Kindle vs physical books debate focuses on the wrong thing. Neither format builds a reading habit on its own. Here is what actually decides.
Most reading lamps are bought for brightness. The number that actually matters is Kelvin, and getting it wrong quietly costs you sleep.
Ten minutes is the floor that builds a habit, thirty if you want the bigger benefits. Why the number matters less than the recurrence.
Most summer reading lists fail by September. Here's how to build one around daily sessions instead of book counts.
The science is more divided than either camp admits. What the research actually shows depends on what you're reading, and why the question matters.
Most adults need five to eight hours to finish a 300-page book. The number that matters more is how many minutes you read per day.
Most reading advice asks you to carve out a slot. Bedtime doesn't need carving. That's the whole point.
Most reading slump advice is really a book recommendation list. The actual problem is different, and so is the fix.
Missing one day resets a number, not a habit. What psychology says about streaks, broken consistency, and what actually matters for reading routines.
Notion templates are good at cataloguing books. They're bad at building the habit of reading them. Here's why the difference matters.
Speed reading has been selling the same promise since 1959. The science says it doesn't hold up. Here's what actually determines how much you read.
Goodreads hasn't changed in years. Here are the best alternatives for readers who want better stats, a better design, and a reading habit worth keeping.
Giving yourself permission to stop reading a book you're not enjoying isn't a failure. For most readers, it's one of the better habits they can build.
If you want to read 50 books a year, you need to read about 41 pages a day. Here is the math behind it, how long it actually takes, and how to track it.
You don't need more willpower to read more books. You need a system. Here's what the research actually says about how long a reading habit takes to stick.