RubricaA reading log that feels like a cozy game.
Sit down to read and your buddy reads too. They grow up as you go, potter around a room you arrange, and wear what you earn.
One email when it’s on iPhone, nothing else.
Free. No ads. Paper, ebook or audio, every book counts. Or try it in your browser.
Made by one person in Northern California.
That’s Rubi in the room, our fox. Tap another and they move in. Your pick stays on this device, and that is the only thing we keep.
Every book counts, however you read it.
Add the book you're reading, then tap Read. Its cover swings open, your buddy opens a book of their own, the lamp fills while the clock runs, and you put your phone down. Already read? Type your minutes in and they count just the same. Paper, ebooks, audiobooks and library loans all land in one log, one streak, one set of stats.
- A timer that keeps going on your lock screen
- Rain, birdsong or a fireplace to read to
- A daily goal, from five minutes to an hour
- Typed-in minutes count in full, no catches
- Series, authors and what you want to read next
A little buddy who reads with you.
Pick a cat, an owlet or a hare, with fifteen more waiting in gift boxes. Each one levels up on their own as you read together, all the way to 50. They potter around the room, stop for a cup of tea, and walk over when you tap the floor. Turn on Walks and tricks and they step across the room, nod along and flick an ear. Hold them for a cuddle.
The room keeps your hours: sunset in the window at six, stars at ten, snow on the sill in December. Fill the lamp and they wander into your book overnight, then send you a postcard. They never guilt-trip you.
And the room is yours to arrange. Put a chair on any square of the floor, hang pictures, pinch to come in close. Everything in it is found by reading or bought with gold leaf, the coin reading pays, and you can try a thing in the room before you buy it.
Finish a book and they keep something from it on the shelf, picked for what the book was about, and tell you why: a rose for the honeymoon, a magnifying glass for the great detective.
Three little quests a day, surprise finds while you read, a gift box for reading five days a week, and something new to earn every month. All of it free, and the only way to get it is reading.
Scroll and the day goes by in there. Read, and the lamp fills.
Gold leaf to catch, and a pond to fish.
Close the book and gold leaf falls through the room. Drag your buddy along the floor to catch it: ten seconds, different every time, and you can skip it. What you catch is yours to spend.
Every ten minutes you read is a cast at the pond, kept until you use it. Twenty-four fish to find, some only at night or in one season, and your best one swims in the fish bowl in your room.
Now and then one bites while you read, and waits for you on the jetty.
Things that grow because you read.
Every book you finish leaves a seed that suits it: roses for a wedding, something poisonous for a mystery, a snapdragon for a dragon. Ten minutes of reading a day waters the garden. Plants grow over real days and never die, and a butterfly comes by when something blooms.
Cut a bloom for the vase in your room. Forty-six plants and twelve visitors to fill the garden book.
Read after nine and a star lights. Twelve constellations, one a month, to draw with your finger, and some nights a star falls to wish on.
A calm page for the ebooks you own.
Open the DRM-free EPUBs you bought from authors and indie shops. Comfortable fonts, highlights and notes, and nothing on the page but the book. Every reward waits until you close it.
No book handy? Thousands of free classics from Project Gutenberg are one tap away, with hand-picked trilogies to read as quests.
Small touches readers asked for.
A reading log for school
"Read 30 minutes a night" homework, done. A week on one page with a line for a grown-up to sign.
Bring your history
Import from a CSV export and your shelves, ratings and dates come with you. Covers fill themselves in.
Zen Mode
Not into XP and streaks? One switch hides the whole game. Your reading still counts.
Seals that level up
Fifteen wax seals that change color as you go, red to green to blue to gold.
Friends, no feed
Swap private codes and see how your people are reading. Their buddies drop by your room, and you fill one weekly goal together. You pick what they see. No likes, no strangers.
Bedtime reading
Pick fifteen minutes. The room dims, the rain fades, and the clock stops itself when it's time to sleep.
Books this year
Set a number and watch it fill. It tells you when you're ahead and never that you're behind.
A dressing room
Over a hundred hats, glasses, scarves and things to hold, earned by reading or bought with gold leaf. Try one on before you buy it.
Three quests a day
Small ones, like "read twice today" or "finish a chapter". Tap each one to collect it. Do all three and a gift box shows up.
Your week, on Sunday
Sunday evening your companion puts your week together: the hours, the best day, the book you spent most time with.
Your year in books
A shareable page of your reading year: hours, favorites, streaks and the books you finished.
Log it later
Under Read there's a small Log minutes button. Type what you read and it counts in full, today, the same as the timer.
Books that open and close
Pick your paper book or audiobook and its cover swings open onto the timer. Save your reading and it closes, just like reading in the app.
A card of your own
A reader's card to decorate: paper, band, frame, and a stamp of your best fish or a bloom you grew. Friends see it.
Read aloud, for both
Read to someone and say who when you save. They get the minutes too, even a little one with no phone of their own.
Hide and seek
Every so often your buddy hides when you open the Nook. Go find them.
Have a look around.
Everything above is free. Pro makes it glow.
Pro is optional. It's decoration, deeper stats and something new every month, and it's how Rubrica pays for itself. Nothing you need to read or track is behind it.
Always free
- Reading your own ebooks, with no limit
- Tracking, timer, stats and the heatmap
- Streaks, seals, quests and the trophy wall
- Your companion, the room you arrange and gift boxes
- Catch, the pond, the garden and the sky
- Daily quests, finds, keepsakes and every monthly event
- Free classics and Friends
Pro adds
- Animated auras and glowing outfits for your companion
- An upstairs loft where they sleep under the moon
- A second shelf, more pictures on the wall, and a lantern for the pond
- Pro color schemes, reading pages and card papers
- Two lofi tracks to read to, and two sounds at once
- Moving Today bars and gemstone seals
- Deeper stats and a spreadsheet of it all
- A week of Pro to give a friend each month
- A new aura and color scheme every month
So what are the deeper stats?
Your hours, words, books and heatmap are free. Pro adds six more ways to look at your reading.
Month by month
Your last twelve months, side by side.
Your pace
Words a minute for the books you read in Rubrica, month to month.
When you read
Early bird or night owl? Every hour of the day and every day of the week.
Your biggest books
The ones you've spent the most time with.
How you read
Paper, ebook or audiobook, and how much of each.
Take it with you
Every session and every book as a file that opens in any spreadsheet.
Cancel whenever.
A week free, then about $2.50 a month.
Pro for good, one payment.
Prices in US dollars; your store shows yours.
The quick answers.
Is it really free?
Yes. Tracking, the timer, stats, the companion, classics and friends are all free with no ads. Pro is an optional extra.
Do I need an account?
No. Everything works on your phone without one. An account only adds sync between devices and Friends.
Can it open books I bought on other stores?
Rubrica opens DRM-free ebooks, like the ones authors and indie shops sell directly. Books locked to another store's app can't be opened, but you can still log them and track your reading.
Where does my data go?
Your books and reading stay on your phone. If you make an account, a synced copy is kept so a new phone gets your library back. Book files never leave your phone. The privacy policy has the details.
Can you pay to get ahead?
No. Gold leaf, companion levels, quests, finds, casts, seeds and the monthly things to earn only come from reading. Real money never buys gold leaf or anything random. Pro adds a little to your own level number and does not speed up anything else.
Is it OK for kids?
Anyone can use it without an account, and nothing about you leaves the device. Accounts and Friends are for 13 and up.
More in Help.
Your buddy's waiting.
Ten quiet minutes a day adds up faster than you think.
One email when it’s on iPhone, nothing else.