Readibu - free web novel reading app like Zhongwen on steroids

[Fithen]

Searching the forums, I'm surprised that this wasn't mentioned here before, so I'll do so myself:

 

I've been using the Readibu app for the past several months, and it's been an indispensable app for my learning. In a nutshell, it's a reader for any Chinese content that you can find online - much like the Zhongwen/Zhongzhong Chrome extensions. The app allows you to tap on and save words, click a sentence for its translation, search a massive repository of categorized novels and short stories for content to read, underline multi-character words, etc. While some of these are Premium features (but well worth the buy!), the basic app is still extremely useful to anyone HSK 4 or above and looking at reading native content.

 

You can find out a bit more on the site, with fuller details on the app page (Android, iOS).

 

The primary advantage, aside from the wealth of features, is the portability of the app - as opposed to using Zhongwen on a computer, you can easily take it out and read at nearly any time or place. This is far better than switching over to Pleco every time you see a new word or using its rather UI-unfriendly paid Document Reader.

 

When I started using this app after HSK 4, it was a challenge due to the inherent difficulty in native content. However, many of the HSK 4-tagged children's stories were pretty readable (if at an intensive level). Likewise, I've been able to go through nearly a dozen of the books on this list from a group I'm in (Books & Webnovels tab) ordered by difficulty - intensive at first, near the end I counted 98%+ comprehension! - but that's enough to be an entire post of its own.

 

(No, I'm not the developer of the app)

[mlescano]

Thanks for the recommendation! I love Pleco, but I didn't know where to find good content, to this is great!

[Jan Finster]

Sounds a lot like Lingq.com minus a few features.

[NinKenDo]

I grabbed it a few months ago but only recently had a poke around. It definitely looks like a good app, thanks for reminding me to poke further.

[Larry Language Lover]

Thanks for posting this,  what a great resource!  Lots of materials.