Read · Keep · Return · Write
Ebooks, PDFs, audiobooks and the books on your shelf. Your highlights and notes beside them, and a page to write from all of it.
Reading shouldn’t disappear when you close the book.
A reading life gets scattered across apps, files, screenshots, and shelves that never meet.
In Nostos, they live together.
- EPUB
- Audio
- Physical
“I wished to live deliberately”
Walden · Chapter IIMaybe attention is a kind of care.
Kept with the highlightOne line, from the page to your own writing.
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Read
Read in the format you have.
EPUB, PDF, audiobook or the copy on your shelf. Nostos keeps your place in each.
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Keep
Keep the line that stays with you.
Mark a highlight and write the thought beside it. It keeps its book, its chapter and its place.
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Return
Watch an idea return.
Topics gather what you noticed across books, so a thought from Walden finds one from Moby-Dick.
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Write
Your quotes come to the caret.
In the Studio, type @ and what you kept is there, and it arrives with its source.
Write from your sources.
The passages you kept are already in the Studio, one @ away. Each comes with its book, its author and its place, so the source is never lost between reading and writing.
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Type @.
Start with a word you remember. Passages from every book you’ve read come up at the caret.
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It arrives with its source.
Henry David Thoreau, Walden, chapter II. In APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard or Oxford, whichever your editor asks for.
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Send it on.
Copy as rich text into Substack or Google Docs. Or export to Word with real footnotes, or to PDF, Markdown or a web page.
- Substack
- Google Docs
- Word
- Markdown
- Web page
No streaks. No lock-in. No assistant unless you ask for one.
Nostos is built to give your reading somewhere to live, so you can return to books, ideas, and your own thoughts when they matter.
Bring the books you already read.
Each format gets a reader that suits it and keeps your place, and they all share one library. Link the formats of one book as Editions and they stay together as a single book.
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EPUB
Two-page spreads in your own type, with read aloud.
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PDF
Page by page or scrolling, with zoom and search, remembered per document.
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Audiobook
Chapters, speed, a sleep timer, and a switch to the ebook Edition near the same place.
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Physical
The copy on your nightstand, with the page you are on recorded and notes beside the rest.
Your own files come in as they are. Or find a book from inside Nostos.
- Project Gutenberg
- Standard Ebooks
- Wikisource
- LibriVox
Bring your highlights from Kindle, Readwise, Kobo and KOReader. Each one keeps its book.
On a phone, add Nostos to your home screen and it opens full screen, like an app.
Read in the light you like.
Five themes for the whole app. Nostos can follow your system, with one for the day and another for the night.
- Light
- Sepia
- Mist
- Writer’s Study
- Dark
Your library stays yours.
Leave whenever you like: export your whole library, or run the same open-source Nostos yourself. Your notes, writing and collections go with it, as one portable archive. Nostos is free software under the AGPLv3, and its source is public.
Before you begin.
- How to Quote a Passage in Your Draft, with Its Source Guide · 28 Oct
- How to Bring KOReader and Kobo Highlights into Nostos Guide · 16 Oct
- How to Run Nostos Yourself with Docker Guide · 16 Oct
What can I read in Nostos?
EPUBs, PDFs, and audiobooks can be read inside Nostos, while physical books can live in the same library and reading history. Free public-domain books from Project Gutenberg, Standard Ebooks, Wikisource, and LibriVox are built in.
Can I bring books I already own?
Yes. Bring your own EPUB, PDF, TXT, MOBI, MP3, M4A, and M4B files, then keep them beside the physical books you catalogue by hand. Highlights from Kindle, Readwise, Kobo or KOReader can come with you too, each matched to its book.
What happens to notes I make while reading?
Highlights, notes, and saved passages stay connected to their source, so when you return later you can still see the book and context that gave the thought meaning. You can save a long stretch of a book, or a clip of an audiobook, and read or play it again on its own.
Can Nostos help me connect ideas across books?
Yes. Brain lets recurring topics gather across notes and books, so you can follow an idea back through the reading that shaped it.
Does Nostos require AI?
No. Ask Nostos is optional. The library, readers, notes, Brain, and Studio work without it, and the assistant stays out of the way until you choose to use it.
Can I read on my phone or tablet?
Yes. Nostos runs in your browser, and you can install it so it opens full screen from your home screen. On an iPhone or iPad, open it in Safari, tap Share, then Add to Home Screen. On Android, open it in Chrome, open the menu, then tap Install app or Add to Home screen. There is no app in the App Store or Google Play, and Nostos needs a connection to reach your library.
What does Early Access mean?
Nostos is available in Early Access. You can try it free for 14 days without a card; plans and prices are on the pricing page, while availability and service guarantees remain those of an early-access product.
Can I self-host Nostos?
Yes. Nostos is open source under AGPLv3 and self-hosting remains a first-class option. The self-host page has the Docker Compose file, and the documentation covers installation and operations.
Come home to your reading.
Read, keep what matters, and come back to it when you are ready to think, connect, or write.
Not ready yet? Read the Journal.