September 2, 2026
Read wider
Every reader knows the rut. You finish something great, go looking for the next book, and everything on offer is a slightly worse version of the one you just closed. Algorithms do this on purpose. They learned what you like, and they intend to keep serving it to you forever.
The best book recommendations in the world don't work that way. They come from the friend at the bookstore who knows your taste well enough to betray it at exactly the right moment. Someone who says: you loved that, so trust me on this. That's the job we want Next Read to do.
What changed
Next Read now gives you four picks instead of three, and they're chosen with a philosophy.
Most picks honor your taste. If you've read every Le Guin except one, Volumes should probably hand you that one. Going deeper on an author you love is real progress.
But one or two picks are now deliberate stretches: a different genre, a different country, a different century than your shelf leans toward, from an author you haven't logged. Maybe your first hop from fiction into nonfiction, or back. Every stretch comes with a short why that connects it to something you already love, so it never feels random. It feels like it was chosen for you, because it was.
Come back tomorrow and you won't get the same list. Volumes looks at your journal from a different angle each time you ask.
Your journal does the talking
The recommendations are only as good as what you log. Volumes reads your whole journal as evidence: the five-star books, the two-star misfires, and especially your notes. Write "want more books in translation" and consider it an invitation accepted. The more honestly you log, the better your bookstore friend gets.
The point
We think a reading app should widen what you read, not narrow it. There are more good books, in more genres and centuries and countries, than any of us will get to in a lifetime. Helping you reach more of them is what Volumes is for.
This change came straight from reader feedback. Thank you. Keep it coming.
Already live
Nothing to download. If Volumes is on your phone, Next Read already works this way. Log what you're reading, and see where it takes you.
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Volumes is free on the App Store.
