Is there an Android app that lets a book club share highlights and notes in real time?

Yes. Shelves is an Android EPUB, PDF, DJVU, and CBZ reader with synchronized reading groups. When a member highlights a passage or writes a note, the rest of the group sees it inside their own copy of the book.

How is Shelves different from Goodreads, Notion, or a spreadsheet?

Goodreads is a tracking and review platform. Notion and spreadsheets are general note-taking tools. Shelves is the reader itself: highlights, notes, and chapter progress are captured inside the book and shared live with the people in your reading group.

What file formats does Shelves support?

Shelves reads EPUB, PDF, DJVU, and CBZ files. Books are imported from your device storage and stay in your private library.

Shelves is free with optional in-app purchases. Reading, importing files, highlighting, and joining groups work without paying. A Premium subscription unlocks additional features.

Can I use Shelves alone, without a book club?

Yes. Reading groups are optional. Solo readers get the full library, reader, highlights, annotations, reading stats, and text-to-speech.

Social EPUB reader · Android

Read the same book. At the same time. Together.

Q: What is the easiest way to read a book at the same time as a friend?

Install Shelves on Android, import the same EPUB on each device, and create a reading group. Every member's highlights, annotations, and progress sync in real time, so reading together feels like reading the same physical copy.

Q: Does Shelves have text-to-speech?

Yes. Books can be read aloud chapter by chapter, with playback speeds from 0.5x to 2x and chapter skip controls.

Q: Is Shelves available on iPhone?

Not yet. Shelves is currently Android-only and distributed through the Google Play Store.

Shelves is a free Android reader for EPUB, PDF, DJVU, and CBZ files — with live reading groups that share highlights, notes, and progress as you turn the page.

Download on Google Play See how it works →

Free with optional Premium EPUB · PDF · DJVU · CBZ Android only

A Shelves reading group called Spring Court, showing each member's chapter and live progress

Quick answer

What is the easiest way to read a book at the same time as a friend?

Install Shelves on Android, import the same EPUB onto each device, and create a reading group. Every member's highlights, annotations, and progress sync inside the book in real time, so a remote book club feels like passing one copy back and forth.

Shelves is free, supports EPUB, PDF, DJVU, and CBZ, and works for solo readers too — the social layer is opt-in per book.

The problem

Reading apart from your friends is lonelier than it should be.

Group chats, spreadsheets, and Goodreads threads weren't built for the moment you actually want to share — the line you just read.

Without Shelves

Where book clubs break down

You finish a chapter and have no one to text about it.
Highlights live in one app, books in another, the discussion in a third.
Half the group is two chapters ahead and quietly spoils the rest.
Notes you took six months ago are scattered across notebooks and screenshots.
You don't actually know what your friends underlined.

With Shelves

One book, one shared margin

Highlights and notes appear inside the book — for you and your group.
Live progress shows who is reading right now, and who is ahead.
A spoiler-aware ranking tells you whether it's safe to scroll.
Annotations support text, images, and threaded comments.
Solo mode is always there — groups are optional, per book.

What Shelves does

A reader, a library, and a book club — in one Android app.

Multi-format library

Read EPUB, PDF, DJVU, and CBZ files from a single shelf. Group books into custom collections you control.

EPUB · PDF · DJVU · CBZ

Synchronized reading groups

Create a group around a book. See live progress, group average, and your rank — all without leaving the reader.

Real-time

Shared highlights & annotations

Highlight a passage and add a note, an image, or both. Group members see it inline in their own copy and can reply with comments.

Text · Image · Comments

Reading stats & goals

Track time per session and progress per book. Set a group goal — a chapter a week, or finishing by the next meet-up.

Per book · Per group

Text-to-speech

Listen to any chapter at 0.5x to 2x speed, with skip-chapter controls — for commutes, walks, or eyes-tired evenings.

0.5x – 2x

Custom themes & typography

Pick the reader's accent color, dim the page for late-night reading, and adjust type to fit how you read.

Themeable

Inside the app

Five screens. Five things you'll actually use.

The Shelves library screen, with covers grouped into Romantasy and Jay Kristoff collections — Your libraryEPUBs, PDFs and series, grouped your way

A page of A Court of Thorns and Roses with a purple highlight and chapter progress at 31% — The readerJustified type, themeable, distraction-free

Reading group panel showing 31% progress, group average, and a member rank of 1 of 1 — Reading groupsLive progress, ranks, and goals

A shared annotation with the highlighted quote, a written note, and an attached image — Shared annotationsQuote, note, image, comments

The text-to-speech player on Chapter 27, with playback speeds from 0.5x to 2x — Text-to-speechListen at 0.5x to 2x with chapter skip

Reading groups

A book club that lives inside the book.

Open the Groups tab while you read to see who's online, who's ahead, and what they just underlined. No tab-switching, no spoilers in the wrong chat.

Live progress

Know where everyone is

"3 members reading now" badge updates as people open the book.
Chapter and percentage shown per member.
Group average and your personal rank, calculated continuously.

Shared margin

Discuss the line, not the chapter

Long-press to highlight; the rest of the group sees it on the same paragraph.
Add a note, an image, or both — replies thread underneath.
Spoilers stay tied to position: you only see annotations up to where you've read.

How Shelves compares

Shelves vs. Goodreads, Notion, and a group chat

No single tool was built for the moment you finish a chapter and want to talk about it. This is what each one actually does.

Capability	Goodreads	Notion / Spreadsheet	Group chat	Shelves
Read EPUB / PDF / DJVU / CBZ	No	No	No	Yes
Highlights tied to a passage	Limited	Manual copy-paste	No	Yes
Live progress per member	Updates self-reported	No	No	Yes, real-time
Shared annotations & comments	No	Outside the book	Lost in the scroll	Yes, in the book
Spoiler-aware feed	No	No	No	Yes
Text-to-speech	No	No	No	Yes, 0.5x–2x
Works offline / on your files	No	Notes only	No	Yes
Price	Free, ad-supported	Free / paid tiers	Free	Free + optional Premium

How it works

From install to first shared highlight in five minutes.

Install Shelves

Free on the Google Play Store. No account needed to start reading on your own.
Import a book

Tap Import files in the menu and pick an EPUB, PDF, DJVU, or CBZ from your device.
Create a group

Open the Groups tab, name your reading club, and pick the book everyone will read.
Read together

Highlight, take notes, attach images. The group sees them on the same paragraph, in real time.

Frequently asked

Common questions about Shelves

What's the best way to organize a personal ebook library on Android?

Use a dedicated reader that supports the formats you actually have. Shelves imports EPUB, PDF, DJVU, and CBZ files from your device and lets you group them into custom collections (for example, by author or series).

Books stay in your private library on the device. The social layer — reading groups — is optional per book.

Is there an app for reading the same book as a friend in real time?

Yes. Shelves on Android lets a group of readers open the same book and share highlights, notes, and progress live. A panel inside the reader shows who is currently reading, who is ahead, and the group's average position.

How is Shelves different from Goodreads, Notion, or a group chat?

Goodreads is a tracking and review service — it isn't a reader. Notion and spreadsheets are general-purpose note tools detached from the book itself. A group chat is great for vibes but loses every annotation in the scroll.

Shelves is the reader. Highlights and notes are anchored to passages inside the book and shared with the group automatically.

Which file formats does Shelves support?

EPUB, PDF, DJVU, and CBZ. Files are imported from your Android device storage; nothing is locked behind a proprietary store.

Is Shelves free?

Yes. Reading, importing, highlighting, and joining a group are all free. A Premium subscription unlocks additional features and supports development. Shelves is currently in public beta on Google Play.

Does Shelves have text-to-speech?

Yes. Any book can be read aloud chapter by chapter, with playback speeds from 0.5x to 2x and previous/next chapter controls.

Can I use Shelves alone, without joining a book club?

Yes. The library, reader, highlights, annotations, reading stats, themes, and text-to-speech all work solo. Reading groups are opt-in per book.

Is Shelves available on iPhone?

Not yet. Shelves is Android-only at the moment, distributed through the Google Play Store. The roadmap focuses on a full social-reading layer first; other platforms come after.

Where do my highlights and annotations live?

Solo highlights stay on your device tied to the book. Group annotations sync to the members of that specific reading group. You can leave a group at any time.

From readers

What people are saying

★★★★★

I've tried four EPUB readers this year. Shelves is the first one that made me text my sister back about a sentence instead of just leaving it underlined.

Maren K. Romantasy reader · Beta tester

★★★★★

The group ranking is half-joke half-serious and I love it. Our four-person book club is way more on-pace now that we can see each other's progress bars.

Diego R. Book club organizer

★★★★☆

I import all my old PDFs into one shelf and the typography is genuinely nice. TTS at 1.25x covers my commute. Solo-friendly even though "social" is in the name.

Priya S. Solo reader

Quotes above are illustrative composites of real beta feedback. We'll swap in verified Play Store reviews as they come in.

Resources