I like to take on a reading challenge every year. By downloading a few reading apps on my iPhone, I find it’s a lot easier to stick to my reading habits and see the challenge through. Here are my favorites.

1 Apple Books

Apple Books is an underrated native app that can help you kickstart a healthy reading routine. The app has a vast catalog of ebooks and audiobooks (with in-app playback controls), including many free options. While I’ve always been skeptical of reading books on my iPhone, the app’s interface makes it easy to stay focused on the story. Being able to customize the theme, text size, page-turning style, and background light really helps.

Apple Books is filled with reader-friendly features that make reading a smooth experience. These include reading time, annotation options like highlighting and note-taking, and sample previews for books. The library is highly customizable, with different shelves and personalized collections that you can create to sort books.

The app’s bookstore lets you purchase individual titles and gives you recommendations that are sorted by charts, special offers, genres, and staff picks. If you cannot find a book on the app, you can also add and read an external PDF copy to your library.

Being an Apple app, Books comes with unparalleled sync across your Apple devices. This makes it easy to pick up where you left off on your iPad or access your notes and annotations on your Mac.

2 Goodreads

Goodreads is one of the best third-party reading apps you can install on your iPhone. If you are taking up a reading challenge or simply building a healthy reading habit, Goodreads can help you find new books thanks to its recommendations. You can view trending books and see what other users are reading.

One of the main reasons I use Goodreads is its yearly reading challenge, which allows you to set a reading goal. You can track your consistency through a progress bar and gain achievements along the way. Once you finish a book, you can rate it and write a review too.

To plan your progress, you can create shelves such as “Read” and “Want to Read” or genre-based categories to sort books. Goodreads also lets you search for books by title, author, or ISBN (a book’s barcode). If you want to read with your friends or family, you can add them and join groups to share your recommendations.

I’ve used Goodreads for its discovery features when I draw a blank in my reading journey. Since the app constantly updates with genre-based recommendations and new releases, it’s easy to find good reads.

3 StoryGraph

Watching your reading trends and habits evolve can motivate you to keep going. With StoryGraph, you can view detailed statistics about your reading habit based on the books you have completed.

Once you log the books you have read or import your Goodreads data, StoryGraph creates neat charts that outline the moods of books you have read, your reading pace, number of pages read, genres, format, and more. As you read and update your progress on current books, your insights evolve, painting a bigger picture of your reading habits.

I also use StoryGraph to participate in genre-based and monthly reading challenges, which can help you accomplish your larger, yearly reading goal. You can even create your own challenges or participate in book club-style challenges hosted by other members.

4 Libby

Having a library card comes with a host of benefits, and borrowing books from your local library can greatly aid you in achieving your reading goals. You can also use your library card to access your library’s collection of ebooks with apps like Libby. This is a free resource that you can use to log in with your library membership (if your library is a participating member) to borrow ebooks, magazines, and audiobooks.

While your access to books depends on what your library is signed up for, features like offline reading and skip-the-line borrowing make the app worth trying. This reader is easy to use with options to bookmark pages, customize page display, and features a neat smooth page scroll.

You can always manage your loan and see which books you have on hold. Libby lets you filter by offering and search for everything available to you. My favorite part about Libby is that you can tag books, giving them a unique wish-list feeling that makes it easy to sort your collection.

5 Bookmory

Bookmory lets you track books in order to get reading insights and helps you remember what you’ve actually read. With a smooth and intuitive interface, it’s easy to log books on Bookmory, with logging options being similar to what you see on Goodreads. Bookmory’s “Memorize” feature is a highlight of the app: this is where you can write notes you want to remember for books you’re reading.

Each note can also feature a thought or commentary, and after you write a note, it is neatly organized in a tab. Notes can include text from a picture or photo you take. My favorite part of using Bookmory is that you can access a reading timer with every book you’re reading, making it easy to stick to a reading session.

The app has a comprehensive set of features to help you stick to your reading habits, such as a wishlist, book calendar, and in-depth statistics. Insights include your daily and annual reading progress, books you’ve paused reading, and tag statistics.

6 Audible

Audible is an essential app for every audiobook lover. If you are new to audiobooks and want to access a wide collection spanning many genres, then this app is a must-try.

Audible has plenty of original audiobooks, podcasts, shows, and series that you can add to a wish list. With the Premium Plus plan ($15.99/month), you can access the Plus catalog (which gives you access to thousands of titles), get one monthly credit, and maintain a permanent library even if you cancel titles. The app has discovery features like editor’s pick and Audible Essentials, which help you find new audiobooks regularly.

If you have a Kindle, you can also switch between reading and listening to audiobooks on Audible with the Whispersync feature. One nice feature that Audible has on the iPhone is that you can seamlessly connect to your car with CarPlay and enjoy audiobooks on the road.

7 Focus Keeper

Every good reading routine requires a level of concentration. This is where a timer can help you focus on your book, ebooks, or audiobooks. Dedicated Pomodoro timers are the best way to create a reading focus session. One of my favorite focus timers is Focus Keeper, which I’ve used to time my reading sessions for over a year.

This simple Pomodoro timer lets you customize focus sessions with regular breaks. With a calendar view, you can track your focus progress and add tasks (such as your daily reading goal). Focus Keeper also lets you build habits, with the “Read” option being highly customizable in terms of daily allocation, repeat frequency, and reminder.

There are many reading apps that can cater to your specific needs. A good starting place for me has been warming up by reading a collection of poetry or prose before committing to a 300+ page book, especially if I am returning to reading after a break. You could also keep track of your reading through habit-tracking apps that can give you regular reminders.

Want to make more positive changes this year? Kickstart healthier habits with the aid of some more iPhone apps.