Reading tips
Reading tips: how to keep your place and remember the story
The short answer
Ten lessons in three tracks: saving your place, remembering the story, and choosing an app. Each takes a few minutes and links to the sources it uses. If you only read one, start with what a smart bookmark does.
By The Margin Desk · Smart Bookmark Compare · Published 2026-10-08
How do you save your place?
Print, audio and ebooks each lose your place in their own way.
Lesson 1 · 2 minWhat a smart bookmark doesA smart bookmark app does two jobs a paper bookmark cannot: it saves your place in a form you can find from your phone, and it helps you remember the story when you come back. Apps save a place in four ways: a page you type, a timed session, a sync from an e-reader, or a page the app finds for you.Lesson 2 · 2 minPrint booksFor a print book, the simplest method is still a bookmark plus a page number written somewhere you will find it. Apps add a timed log of each session, or, for supported titles, a photo of the page that finds your exact place. The best choice depends on how long your breaks are and whether you also listen or read on a screen.Lesson 3 · 2 minAudiobooksAn audiobook player remembers a time, not a page, so the trouble starts when you switch between listening and reading. Some apps log audio sessions next to print ones, and Magic Bookmark can find your place in a supported title from the last phrase you heard.Lesson 4 · 2 minE-reader syncAn e-reader always knows your place, but that place usually stays on the device. Since June 2026, Rakuten Kobo says progress and finished books from Kobo e-readers and apps flow into a linked StoryGraph account automatically, at no extra cost. It helps Kobo readers; it does nothing for the print copy on your shelf.Lesson 8 · 2 minSwitching formatsEach format keeps your place in its own unit: pages for print, percentages or locations for ebooks, and timestamps for audio. To switch smoothly, keep one record of your place in words or pages. Bookly logs all three formats with one timer, and Magic Bookmark finds your place from a page photo or an audiobook phrase in supported titles.
How do you get back into a story?
Knowing the page is half of it. The other half is remembering what happened.
Lesson 5 · 2 minAfter a long breakThe fastest way back in is to find the exact page, reread the last few pages before it, and remind yourself who the main people are, without reading ahead. Apps help with each step: some keep your place, some keep your notes, and one shows who's who up to your page for supported titles.Lesson 6 · 2 minNotes and highlightsYour own notes are the safest way to remember a story, because you wrote them at your place in the book. Bookly takes notes by typing, voice or photo; Basmo pairs a journal with a print highlight scanner and Kindle highlights; Literal saves highlights by camera; The StoryGraph has a private journal.Lesson 7 · 2 minWho is whoThe safest character reminder is one that only knows what you have read. Your notes and the book's own front matter do that by design. Among the apps here, Magic Bookmark shows who's who and how they're connected up to your place, for supported titles; the others leave this to your notes.
How do you choose an app?
Price, phones and the trade-offs in between.
Lesson 9 · 2 minPay per book or subscribeFive of the seven apps are free to use with an optional yearly plan or membership, Goodreads is free with no paid tier, and Magic Bookmark charges one credit per book with packs that never expire. Which is cheaper depends on how many books you need help with, not how many you read.Lesson 10 · 2 minPhones and platformsFive of the seven apps run on both iPhone and Android, and four have a web version. Magic Bookmark runs on iPhone only with Android on its roadmap, and Literal lists Android as coming soon.