AA Big Book App vs Serial Reader
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
AA Big Book App
Access the complete text of the Big Book, including personal stories and forewords, with search and bookmarking capabilities. Customize your reading experience with adjustable font sizes and day/night modes. Ideal for members of Alcoholics Anonymous studying the text on any device.
- Main 164 pages
- 60+ Personal stories
- Fully searchable text
- Bookmarks and notes
- Adjustable font size
- Day and Night modes
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The best and easiest AA Big Book app on the App Store! Includes all you need to read and study the Big Book on the go. Great for all members of Alcoholics Anonymous. Features: Main 164 pages 60+ Personal stories from the 1st and 2nd editions Original forewords Fully searchable Bookmarks Notes Font size adjusting Day, Sepia & Night themes Easy to access index *Big Book and Alcoholics Anonymous are registered trademarks of AA World Services. *We have included all stories and chapters allowable by international copyrights.
Serial Reader
Read classic literature in daily, manageable segments. This app breaks down over 900 books into daily issues, each readable in 20 minutes or less, helping you build reading habits and tackle lengthy classics. Customize your reading experience with various themes, fonts, and sync options.
- Daily book installments
- Over 900 classic books
- Serialize your own EPUBs
- Sync with Goodreads/Readwise
- Word lookup
- Reading streaks and badges
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Read classic books in daily bite-sized bits! Serial Reader helps you fit more reading into your busy life. Choose from more than 900 books — or add your own! — and the app delivers a new issue from the book every day. Build great reading habits and tackle daunting classic books. Each daily issue can be read in 20 minutes or less, making it easy to fit reading into your spare time! Picked as one of Apple's Best New Apps and Best New App Updates. "This free app will make you ridiculously well-read in 20 minutes a day" — Mashable "For those who are intimidated by thick, leather-bound tomes, Serial Reader is a good way to break it all down" — The Washington Post • Read hundreds of popular classic books for free • Large variety of themes & fonts • Serialize your own EPUB books • Sync to Goodreads and Readwise • Lookup words with quick dictionary & Wikipedia access • Earn fun badges and track your reading streaks Plus, with the Serial Premium upgrade: • Read tomorrow's issue early • Sync your reading across multiple devices • Save quotes & notes while reading • Save books to Read Later • Pause delivery of new issues • Pick specific delivery days and hours for new issues • Custom app icons "Serial Reader’s subscription format makes it a little bit more fun to crank through the classics" — Lifehacker "A useful tool that makes it easy in our modern world to make classic books part of your reading diet" — MacStories More than 900 books available in the app with new titles added each week. Every book is free to read! A preview of available books: Most Popular • Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen • A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens • The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald • Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky • War & Peace - Leo Tolstoy • Les Misérables - Victor Hugo • The Time Machine - H.G. Wells • The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde • The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway American Lit • Moby-Dick - Herman Melville • Little Women - Louisa May Alcott • My Antonia - Willa Cather • Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain Adventure • The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas • Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson • Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe • The Odyssey - Homer • King Solomon's Mines - H. Rider Haggard Romance • Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte • Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy • Romeo and Juliet - William Shakespeare Science Fiction • The War of the Worlds - H.G. Wells • 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea - Jules Verne • A Princess of Mars - Edgar Rice Burroughs Horror • Dracula - Bram Stoker • The Dunwich Horror - H.P. Lovecraft • Frankenstein - Mary Shelley • The Fall of the House of Usher - Edgar Allan Poe • The King in Yellow - Robert W. Chambers • The Wendigo - Algernon Blackwood Mystery • The Hound of the Baskervilles - Arthur Conan Doyle • The Mysterious Affair at Styles - Agatha Christie • The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins Biography • The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin • Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass • Twelve Years a Slave - Solomon Northup Children's • Peter Pan - J. M. Barrie • Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll • The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame • Anne of Green Gables - Lucy Maud Montgomery Fantasy • The Well at the World's End - William Morris • Time and the Gods - Lord Dunsany • The Wood Beyond the World - William Morris Philosophy • The Republic - Plato • Leviathan - Thomas Hobbes • Rights of Man - Thomas Paine Nonfiction • Vindication of the Rights of Woman - Mary Wollstonecraft • On the Origin of Species - Charles Darwin • The Federalist Papers • The Communist Manifesto - Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels Westerns • Riders of the Purple Sage - Zane Grey • The Virginian - Owen Wister • Gunman's Reckoning - Max Brand Religion • King James Bible • The Dhammapada • The Quran Build great reading habits and finish classic books in days with Serial Reader!
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Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Serial Reader at 95% against AA Big Book App's 38%. Serial Reader also leads on price (Free vs $0.99). AA Big Book App's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 5) and chart position (#25 vs unranked). On update cadence, ads and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Serial Reader is free to download; AA Big Book App costs $0.99 up front. Serial Reader sells 5 one-off in-app purchases. AA Big Book App asks for nothing beyond the download.
AA Big Book App ships an update every 2 months, Serial Reader every 3 months. Both last shipped on October 26, 2026.
| Parameter | AA Big Book App | Serial Reader |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | — | 4.8 (4.1K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 38.1% of reviews | 95.2% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | — | 4.1K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months — better | Every 3 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | Freemium — better |
| Best chart rank | #25 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 15.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 2 MB | 29 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Dean Huff | Michael Schmitt |
Customer experience
AA Big Book App
Serial Reader
Bugs and requests
AA Big Book App
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Serial Reader
Reported bugs
2 issues- App crashes when changing fonts
- Issues with new chapter delivery not working
Requested features
4 requests- Add more modern/non-classic book options
- Improve sync functionality across devices
- Allow more customization of reading experience
- Provide flexible delivery schedule options
In-app purchases
AA Big Book App
No in-app purchases
Serial Reader
- Tip Jar - Essay$1.99
- Serial Premium$2.99
- Tip Jar - Short Story$4.99
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- Tip Jar - Novel$9.99
- Tip Jar - Epic$14.99
Questions
Is AA Big Book App free?
Is Serial Reader free?
Do AA Big Book App or Serial Reader have ads?
Which is updated more often, AA Big Book App or Serial Reader?
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