Using Reading Plans

Reading plans are shared reading experiences hosted by your library — a book (or list of books), an optional weekly rhythm, and one place to see everyone reading along with you.

Kinds of Plans You’ll See

Libraries run three kinds of plans:

Kind	What it looks like
Book study	Everyone reads the same book on a weekly schedule — like a church-wide read or book club season
Pathway	An ordered list of books to work through at your own pace — like a new-members track
Challenge	A goal like “read 10 books this summer” — any books count, and the whole group’s total adds up

Finding and Joining a Plan

Plans you’ve joined live on your home page and under My Books → Plans. To discover new ones, open a library page — every plan that’s open to newcomers is listed there, and the Reading Plans heading opens the full list. When a library announces a new plan you’ll get a notification, it shows up in the community activity feed, and an admin or facilitator may send you a personal invitation or a link straight to the plan.

For a pathway or a challenge, open the plan and tap Join. That’s it — no setup.

A book study is a group that meets, so it works a little differently: the button says Ask to join, and the person running it decides. You’ll hear back either way. If they’re not adding people right now, that’s not a closed door — you can ask again whenever you like. And if someone invites you to a study directly, the invitation is the answer: tap Accept invitation and you’re in, no asking needed.

Either way you need to be a member of the hosting library first; if you’re not, you’ll see a Go to library button to join there.

Once you’re in, others in the plan can see your name and reading progress, and you’ll get a weekly nudge when a new week opens (you can mute this anytime — see below). Joining late is completely fine: the plan simply shows you where the group is (“Week 3 of 6”).

Your Week in the Plan

The plan page always leads with this week: what to read, plus buttons to update your progress or Borrow a copy if the library has one available. For a book study it also says where and when the group meets, and the place opens in your maps app.

Under that is a row that opens the week itself — its own screen, with the question the facilitator asked and what everyone has written. You can read it whether or not you’ve written anything yourself; there’s no posting required to see the thread. Tap Write your reflection to add yours (up to 500 characters), edit it whenever you like, and react to others’ with a tap. Earlier weeks stay open, so late finishers can still join the conversation.

Progress Is Automatic

You never track plan progress separately. Marking a book Finished anywhere in the app — from the book page, My Books, or the plan itself — automatically counts it in every plan you’ve joined that includes that book. For challenges, every book you finish during the plan’s dates counts.

Already read one of the plan’s books before it started? Tap Read it before? Count it on that book to get credit.

Finishing and Wrapping Up

When you finish everything, the plan simply says so — You finished this on September 22 — and you can keep reflecting with the group until it ends. When the plan reaches its end date, it shows a wrap-up summary for a week and then archives itself. Archived plans stay readable under Past plans, so nothing you wrote disappears.

Notifications and Leaving

Open the menu (⋯) on the plan page to:

Mute notifications — stay in the plan without the weekly nudge. You can also turn off the whole Reading plans category in your notification settings.
Leave study (or Leave pathway / Leave challenge, after the plan’s type) — you’ll be asked to confirm. Your reading history stays yours, and any reflections you posted remain visible to the group.

Still Need Help?

If you have questions about reading plans, contact support.