I have been a Readwise customer for several years and its Highlights and Reader apps/functions are critical to how I read and track what I read. This week Readwise launched their eBook platform, which is a combination of a book store and app for Android and iOS. In a blog post Readwise explains why they are getting in to eBooks and what is their strategy.

While I agree with the idea that more competition is needed in eBooks, I am not entirely sure that being the “Strava for reading” is what people want or need. All of the books I buy and read now are eBooks and I’ll confess to doing all of that via Amazon because they usually end up having the lowest prices and I can read the books on any platform by using the Kindle app. Another reason why I buy eBooks on Amazon is that it is integrated with Citibank’s ThankYou rewards and I often buy books using my points.

I do this while knowing that I don’t actually own what I am buying, which I mitigate a bit by sending all that I highlight to Readwise and sync the highlights to Obsidian and Google Drive. When I first started reading eBooks I choose to buy them from Barnes & Noble and read them on their Nook because they used EPUB, which is intended to be an open format one can use with any device.

Unfortunately, that “openness” is not as fully realized because most book publishers require their eBooks to be encrypted with Digital Rights Management (DRM), which is an impediment to the idea of storing and using the books well in the future even if the original app and service no longer exists.

I understand there are tools to break/remove DRM from books, but even if it weren’t illegal to use those tools, that is also more work than one wants to take. For me a bigger problem is simply that Barnes & Noble does not provide an easy way to just download all of the books one buys to a computer. If Barnes & Noble goes out of business, I lose access too all the books I have in my library in their web sitge. Downloading eBooks to a computer should be as easy as it is with downloading music from Apple Music or Amazon, but it isn’t.

In the blog post Readwise acknowledges that DRM still exists with the books in their store as that is a publisher requirement. They say their app needed to read the books will always be free, but of course all other providers do the same and the real cost is in buying books. Users can upload DRM-free EPUB books, but they say nothing about downloading books and for me the inability to download books that I buy from them is a reason not to commit to their app or store at this time. If Readwise wants to be different from Amazon they have to do something different and frankly right now they appear to be the as Bookshop.org, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon.