Book Reader for Obsidian
Read EPUB, FB2, PDF and Markdown notes inside Obsidian. The book reads itself aloud, AI answers questions about it, highlights turn into linked notes — all in the same vault as everything else you know.
I built this plugin for myself — to read books and take notes in one place, without switching apps. Over time it grew into a full reader, and now it is free for everyone. Below is everything it does, in order: first what people use most, then what not everyone needs.
Quick start
Install the plugin
In Obsidian: Settings → Community plugins → Browse, search for Book Reader, press Install, then Enable.
Add a book
Open the library from the ribbon icon and drag an .epub, .fb2 or .pdf file into the window. The cover and page count are picked up automatically.
Read and highlight
Click a book to start reading. Select a sentence, pick a colour, press the note icon — you get a note with the quote and a link back to that place in the book.
That is the whole setup: no account, no key. A key is only needed for reading aloud and AI — more on those below.
On this page
What it is
Most people keep their notes in Obsidian and read books somewhere else — then copy quotes back by hand, usually months later, usually without the page number. Book Reader removes that gap: the book, your highlights and your notes live in one vault. Every quote becomes a real linked note, so reading feeds your knowledge base directly.
Read aloud
New in 4.0
Select a passage and press 🔊 next to the timer — the book starts talking in a natural voice. The word being spoken is lit in the text, so you can listen and follow along. The speed changes on the fly, one tap at a time, from 1× to 2×. With nothing selected, the reader starts from the current page and turns the pages itself. While the voice is being prepared, a “Preparing the voice…” chip shows at the bottom of the page — tap it to cancel.
The voice is Elton AI: it reads with intonation, like a person rather than a robot, and keeps one voice for the whole book — eight to choose from. The first words come in a few seconds; the rest loads in pieces while you listen.
💜 An Elton AI key
Reading aloud and AI work through Elton AI: one key, and the balance is topped up in the Telegram bot t.me/elton_ai_obsidian_bot. You can also try it for free there with the promo code «Подарок».
AI that knows your book
New in 4.0
The ✨ button in the top bar is a conversation about the book. Ask about the book — ask in your own words: the AI knows the title and sees the page in front of you. Recap what happened — a short recap of the last pages, with no spoilers, for when you come back to a book after a week. With a selection, the menu also has Break down the selection and Copy as a quote. You can write your own system prompt. The answer saves as a note in one tap — it opens in a background tab, so the page stays where it is.
The feature is optional and off by default.
Six colours and comments
Select a sentence and a bar appears above it: six colours for six kinds of thoughts, a comment, copy and note. The comment stays with the quote and is marked in the text; clicking the highlight shows it and lets you edit it. A colour can have a note of its own: say, everything yellow gathers in “Reflections”, green in “Application”.
One click turns a highlight into a note: the quote, a link to the book and to that very place — in your folder, with your template. The Export all highlights command gathers every quote of the book into one note — by chapter, with the colours kept.
Notes right in the text
New in 4.0
When one of your notes links to a place in the book, that paragraph gets a small mark. Hover it and the note pops up; click it and the note opens beside the book. So the book remembers what you thought about it. Notes made from a highlight now get a “↪ to the place in the book” link too: from any note you can jump back to exactly that paragraph.
Library
Covers, progress and categories at a glance. Filters Reading, Finished, Not started, search by title, adjustable cover size, and any book can be pinned to the top. To add a book, drag the file in: EPUB, FB2 or PDF. A renamed or moved book keeps its progress, highlights and links.
Reading
One or two columns, like a paper book, or a plain scroll — whichever you like. Your own font, size, line spacing, margins and alignment. At the bottom you see the page and the live spread number.
The reading position is remembered by paragraph, not by pixels — so the phone and the computer open the same spot even though their screens are nothing alike. Changing columns, font or mode keeps you on the same paragraph too.
Words into flashcards
New in 4.0
Met an unfamiliar word? Select it and choose Add to vocabulary (cards) in the ⋯ menu. The word becomes a spaced-repetition card: its translation on the back — or, when there is no translation, the sentence from the book where it appeared. Cards go into a vocabulary note for the Spaced Repetition plugin, or straight into the FSRS deck of the System, if you have it. The same word is never added twice. It is turned on in the Features tab of the settings, where you also choose where the cards go.
Chinese interface
New in 4.0
Besides English and Russian, the interface now comes in Simplified Chinese — readers asked for it. The language is picked on the first settings tab. Chinese books read like any other: search, highlights, the time left in the chapter and reading aloud all understand Chinese text.
No bars
New in 4.0
The top and bottom bars go away and the book fills the window — more text, less clutter. Move the mouse to an edge and the bar comes back. Turned on from the book’s ⋮ menu, with a command or in the settings.
Time left in the chapter
New in 4.0
At the bottom, next to the percentage, is how many minutes are left in the chapter — and in the last chapter, in the book. It is counted at the reading speed set in the settings: 180 words a minute by default, adjustable from 80 to 400. Handy for deciding whether to finish the chapter now or leave it for the evening. Don’t need it? Switch it off in the Features tab.
Reading in the daily note
New in 4.0
What you read today, for how long and from where to where — one block in today’s daily note. The block updates itself and is never duplicated; your own text around it is left alone. Works with Daily notes and Periodic Notes; turned on in the settings.
Search and contents
Search runs through the whole text of the book and lights up what it finds right on the page. The contents come from PDF bookmarks, headings or the book’s own table of contents; numbered PDF headings now make it in too. Opening the contents shows the chapter you are in, scrolled to the middle of the list.
The book’s own note
Every book can have its own note: progress and page count live in its properties, so Dataview and Bases read them like any other field. Quotes go below, grouped by chapter. A new colour or comment on a highlight updates the quote in the note too, and a comment edited in the note comes back into the book.
On the phone
Full-screen reading: the bars hide, and a tap in the middle of the page brings them back. Swipe to turn pages, big buttons, everything else under a single ⋯ button. In 4.0 a selection no longer “runs away” to the end of the book — it stays within the page, and the › button carries a quote over the page edge. Progress and highlights are plain files in the vault and travel with whatever sync you use.
Big PDFs and formulas
New in 4.0
A parsed PDF is kept on the device: a thousand-page textbook opens again in a couple of seconds instead of from scratch. With the Big PDFs — start reading at once option, a book over 300 pages opens as soon as the part up to your place is ready — the rest loads by itself. For formulas, diagrams and complex layouts there is a PDF: original pages mode in the book’s menu. Running heads and page numbers no longer get in the way of the text.
Markdown notes as books
New in 4.0
Any note in your vault can be read like a book: in pages or as a scroll, with your font and theme, with a saved place, highlights and notes from quotes. Handy for long summaries, articles saved from the web and drafts. Turned on in the Features tab (Read notes in Book Reader) — after that the note menu has a Read in Book Reader item, and there is a command too.
Fonts, themes, paper
The reading settings are laid out in tabs — Text, Page, Reading, Book — with nothing to scroll. Georgia, Lora, Inter or the Obsidian font, or your own — by name or as a font file from the vault. Light, dark, sepia and e-ink themes — e-ink has no shadows and no animation, for Android e-readers; the automatic theme takes the colours of your Obsidian theme and changes with it. The library has a theme setting of its own: the shelf and the page don’t have to match. A first-line indent, page margins and the space between paragraphs, a paper texture or your own picture under the text, auto-scroll in scroll mode.
Simple settings
New in 4.0
The first tab has only the essentials: open the library, pick the language and see your reading stats. The other tabs have a few settings each with a one-line note, and the rare ones fold away under More. In the Features tab every feature can be switched off, so what you don’t use costs neither memory nor time. Optional extras: Markdown notes as books, the page number at the top, a stylus as a highlighter, a quick start for big PDFs and bold subheadings in PDFs.
Privacy and network
The reader works offline. Books, highlights, progress and notes are plain files in your vault and go nowhere; the PDF engine is bundled into the plugin.
- Reading aloud — optional. The selected text goes to Elton AI (
api.eltonlabs.org, fallbackapi.eltonlabs.ru), which sends back the voice. - AI about the book — optional and off by default. Your question, the book’s title and the text of the visible page or passage go to the model you chose.
- Translation and words into flashcards — the word or passage goes to Google Translate (
translate.googleapis.com). - Keys can be kept in the device’s secure storage — then they are not in the plugin’s files.
- Everything else — covers, progress, highlights, notes — never leaves the device.
FAQ
Which formats are supported?
EPUB, FB2 and PDF; optionally Markdown notes as books. Old FB2 files in windows-1251 are detected automatically. DjVu and MOBI are not supported.
Where are the books and highlights kept?
Inside your vault, as plain files. Books in the folder you chose in the settings; highlights and progress next to them, so they move with the vault and survive any sync.
How much do reading aloud and AI cost?
The plugin itself is free. Voice and AI run through Elton AI on your balance; you can try them for free with the promo code «Подарок» in the bot @elton_ai_obsidian_bot.
Does it work on iOS and Android?
Yes, on both — the phone has its own layout with gestures and full-screen reading. The e-ink mode is made for Android e-readers: no shadows, no animation, pure black on white.
Will it slow my vault down?
No. Books open on demand and nothing is indexed in the background. And in the Features tab you can switch off everything you don't use.
Is it really free?
The plugin itself — yes, and open source under the MIT licence: no plans, no accounts. Only voice and AI cost money, and only if you want them, through an Elton AI balance.
Feedback
It all comes together in one Telegram bot
Found a bug, missing a feature, something awkward on the phone? Send an ordinary message to @book_in_obsidian_bot. No GitHub account, no form, no template. I read everything — and the next versions are built from exactly these messages: half of what went into 4.0 came from there.