Big books, distilled❦
The world's best non-fiction, re-told in our own words — a handful of key ideas per book, minutes per idea. Read on the bus, keep what sticks, and buy the books that earn your shelf.
1000 books · 8 categories · minutes per idea · progress that follows you
- 01
Pick a book
A shelf of 1000 classics and modern essentials — history, science, philosophy, psychology — every one re-told in our own words, never the author's text.
- 02
Read it in minutes
Each book becomes 8–10 key ideas, one idea per screen, story-style. Swipe through an idea over coffee; finish a book on a commute.
- 03
Keep what sticks
Your progress follows you across devices. Save books to your library, finish at your own pace — and when a book deserves more, we point you to the real thing.
Fresh on the shelf
Browse all 1000 books →Sparks✦ the anti-reel
Scroll Sparks →Short, high-value ideas from the community — one per screen, every one reviewed by an editor before it's published. Worth the scroll. No autoplay, no guilt.
Hokusai's 30,000 attempts
The Great Wave was made by a 70-year-old who considered everything before age 50 a warm-up.
PsychologyYou are not the voice in your head
The observation that cracks rumination open: thoughts arrive; you don't send them.
HistoryThe library that survived by lending nothing
For 500 years, the Bodleian made even kings read on-site. Stubbornness turned out to be a preservation strategy.
Wisdomly is not a shortcut past reading — it's a map of what to read next. We re-express each book's ideas and arguments in our own words, never the author's text, and every book page nudges you toward the real thing. The authors did the work; we're the margin notes.
Start your commonplace book
Free to join. Read summaries, scroll Sparks, keep your progress — and write ideas of your own.