Are you looking for a new and fun way to track your books? Is Goodreads just not doing it for you anymore? Do you wish you could rate a book 4.25 stars instead of just four? Look no further than my new favorite way to record and rate books: Fable.
Fable, which first launched in April 2021, is advertised as a social app for bookworms and binge-watchers. It allows users to track and rate books and TV shows, join book or show clubs, track your reading stats, and post reviews or other commentary. In this article, I’ll be focusing on the book-tracking side of Fable.
Before getting into the features of Fable, I want to talk about the app’s aesthetics. It is set up more like a social media app than Goodreads is. On the Home page, users can scroll through posts from users across the app, not just users they are following. As you rate more books or add them to your “Want to Read” list, you get more posts related to the books. Posts include reviews, quotes, and other commentary on books. Don’t worry: you’re safe from spoilers. Reviews and posts with spoilers are hidden behind a warning sign saying “May contain spoilers!”, requiring readers to actually click into the review to read it. Posts without spoilers show up uncovered on your feed. Users can react to and comment on posts and reviews. Each person’s profile will also have a percentage showing how well their reading tastes match with yours.
Users can also join any of the book clubs on the app or start their own. Each month, the clubs pick a new book to read. Under the “Clubs” tab, you can scroll through the book clubs and their current books. Within a club’s page, there are many forums and discussions that readers can participate in. Users can join as many clubs as they want on the app. Many of the clubs have thousands of members. Some of the clubs include “The Swiftie Bookclub,” “Read, Yap, Repeat,” and “Romantasy Booknook,” to name a few.
Perhaps my favorite parts of the app are the user profile and library. Users can track their reading habits and their book progress. At the top of the Home page, you can select “I read today” to begin your reading streak. There, you can track your progress by either page numbers or percentages. On your profile, you’ll find an infographic separated by month showing your reading streaks and what book(s) you read each day. It’ll keep track of your best reading streak as well (mine is 20 days). Scroll down on your profile to find infographics about your “Reading Insights,” including your most read genres, average book ratings, and your most read authors. You can also mark a book as “Did Not Finish” (DNF), and the book will not be factored into your reading stats. If you don’t want to lose your Goodreads books, fear not: you can import your Goodreads lists and reviews into Fable.
A more recent feature on the app is the Reader Summary, which contains a quick summary of your reading tastes and what they may say about you — of course, to be taken with a grain of salt. Fable was embroiled in controversy earlier this year after the AI-generated summaries contained racist, bigoted language. The app has only just recently reintroduced the feature with added safeguards like disclaimers that it is AI-generated content and the ability to opt out of the summaries altogether. Users have the option to make their stats public to other users or private.
Fable also allows you to set a reading goal for the year and will help you keep track of your progress toward reaching it. A bar graph on your profile shows you how many and which books you read each month. A message at the bottom of the graph tells you how many books you should read each month to reach your goal.
Though I have been tracking my books for years, 2025 will be my first year doing so with Fable. So far, this has been my favorite way to keep track of my reads! I hope you’ll give this app a try!