Reading is great. Finding something to read is annoying.
We all know the saying “don’t judge a book by its cover,” but what else are you supposed to judge a book by? Whether you’re walking through a bookstore or library or scrolling through a collection on your favorite reading device, the cover is inevitably going to be the first thing you notice.
Maybe the art will stand out, or maybe you’ll see a name you recognize. But it’s hard to know what, exactly, you’re going to like without actually reading some of the words inside.
Today’s tool is a clever way to get around that and find the perfect read for you—without relying on the most superficial initial impression.
This tip originally appeared in the free Cool Tools newsletter from The Intelligence. Get the next issue in your inbox and get ready to discover all sorts of awesome tech treasures!
An absurdly clever discovery engine
The next time you want to find something spectacular to read, remember a site called Uncovered.ink.
Uncovered.ink solves the book-discovering challenge by not showing you a book’s cover at all—instead, you see a preview of the actual opening chapter. It’s a thoughtful way to find new books to read without being influenced by the usual external variables.
➜ Think TikTok or Tinder for books: You get a quick glimpse at what something’s all about and keep reading if you’re interested—or swipe to the next book if not.
⌚ Just open up the site to start browsing immediately, in a matter of seconds. There’s no need for an account or any sort of sign-in.
✅ When you click or tap the button to get going, you’ll immediately see the opening chapter of a book. You can scroll up and down to switch to another book, if you want, or you can tap the book to flip through the pages. The arrow keys also work, if you’re on a desktop computer.
Once you’ve read the opening, the book’s cover, title, and author will be revealed to you—along with a link to buy the book or find it at your local library, if you’d like a physical copy. There are around 1,500 books in the service, meaning you can scroll for a long time until you find something you like. And you can filter by genre, too, if you want.
☝️ You can even get fresh new excerpts to read without having to keep going back to the site time and time again. There’s an email newsletter, which brings a recommendation to your inbox every week, and there’s an RSS feed, which gives you the first few paragraphs of a different book every day.
Whichever path you choose, it’s a smart new way to find something new to read, whenever the need arises—and it absolutely qualifies as a Cool Tool that’ll add an extra dose of delight into your life.
- Uncovered.ink is entirely web-based, so it’ll work in any browser on any device you’re using—no downloads needed.
- The site is completely free to use.
- And you don’t have to sign in or share any personal info (unless you opt to sign up for the weekly emails). A browser cookie does keep track of any books you save, but that’s pretty much it.
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