Apple today announced that its Books app now offers a "Year in Review" recap in select countries, including the U.S., U.K., Australia, Canada, France, and Germany. The feature requires an iPhone or iPad on iOS 17.1 or iPadOS 17.1 or later, and it can be found within the Read Now tab under Top Picks, for users with at least three titles marked as finished.
Year in Review allows Apple Books users to view personalized highlights about the books and audiobooks they read in 2023, including their total time spent reading, the longest book or audiobook they read, their most-read author and genre, their highest-rated book, and more. The recap can easily be shared with others.
How to mark books or audiobooks as finished:
To add books or audiobooks, readers can tap and hold on any book in the app and choose Mark as Finished. To change the finished date shown, users can hold down on the book and select Edit Finished Date. For titles read elsewhere, such as in hardcover or paperback, users can search for them in Apple Books and select Mark as Finished to add them to their Year in Review.
When the "Reading Goals" option is turned on in the Settings app, under Books, users can also view their longest reading streak, the average number of minutes they spent reading in a month, and other statistics in Year in Review.
Year in Review can determine a user's personal reading type:
There are six reader types to discover, including The Contemporary for readers of trendy titles; The Completist for readers of multiple books in a series; The Seeker for nonfiction readers; The Wanderer for multigenre readers; The Deep Diver for single-genre readers; or The Free Spirit for readers with wide-ranging interests across the book world.
Apple also shared the most popular books in the Books app in 2023:
Top Nonfiction Books of 2023
1. Spare by Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex
2. The Woman in Me by Britney Spears
3. The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann
4. Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity by Peter Attia and Bill Gifford
5. Elon Musk by Walter IsaacsonTop Fiction Books of 2023
1. Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
2. Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros
3. Happy Place by Emily Henry
4. Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
5. The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
As the end of 2023 nears, Apple has started sharing year-end content, including award-winning apps and the the most popular podcasts. In addition, the complete Apple Music Replay experience is now available for 2023, and Taylor Swift was named Apple Music's Artist of the Year.