Most book apps want you to share. You finish a book and there's a box for a review, a feed of what your friends are reading, a challenge to join, a follower count. Some people love that. Plenty of readers don't, and they end up with no reading log at all, because every option comes with an audience.
I made Penny because I wanted a simpler way to track what I read: no accounts, no social media, just my books on my phone, synced with iCloud. It turned out other readers wanted the same. One of them described Penny in an App Store review as "a sanctuary where I can escape from the constant demand of social media and enjoy my books."
What a reading log needs
First, a list of your books on shelves: to read, reading, finished, and any others that help, like "Did not finish" or one for your book club. Adding a book should take seconds, whether you search for it or scan the barcode.
You also want to see your progress, meaning the page you're on, how far through the book you are and how much you read this week, without anyone else seeing the numbers.
Then somewhere to put your thoughts. A quote you liked, a note about a character, the name of that place you'll have forgotten by chapter twenty. Private notes tend to be more honest than public reviews, and they're far more useful when you pick the book up again.
And ratings that are just yours. If a book is a 3.5 for you, that's what it is.
What it can do without
You don't need an account. If your log lives on your phone and syncs through your own iCloud, there's no username, password or email address to remember, and no profile for anyone to look at.
You don't need a feed either. Seeing what everyone else reads can be fun, but it also turns reading into a comparison. Without it, you read what you want at your own pace.
And a reading log has no business showing you ads. Your taste in books shouldn't be used to sell you things.
How Penny does it
Penny has no account and no social feed. Your library is stored on your iPhone and synced to your other devices through iCloud, and there are no ads or third-party analytics in the app. When you search for a book, Penny looks up its title, author and cover in public book databases. Your library, notes and ratings stay with you.
You still get the parts of a tracker that are worth having:
- A reading timer, so every session counts minutes and pages.
- Streaks, and a reading calendar that shows what you read each day.
- Notes, quotes, characters and a glossary for each book.
- Home Screen widgets, including the new Bookshelf widget in Penny 2.0.
- Share cards, for the times you do want to show off a finished book. Sharing is always your choice, and Penny never posts anything for you.
A few habits that make a private log worth keeping
Write one line when you finish a session. It doesn't have to be clever. "The twist in chapter 12 finally explained the prologue" is plenty, and you'll be glad you wrote it down.
Rate a book when you finish it, while your first reaction is still fresh. A week later you'll remember it differently.
Keep a "Did not finish" shelf. Stopping a book you don't enjoy is a perfectly good decision, and having those books in one place takes the guilt out of it.
Coming from Goodreads or StoryGraph? You don't have to start over. Here's how to bring your whole library into Penny.