Show HN: An Open-Source E-Book Reader for Conversational Reading with an LLM
Hacker News (score: 32)Description
The problem: Traditional e-readers are passive. When you encounter something unclear, you have to context-switch to search for it. Your highlights and notes remain isolated, and you can't easily connect ideas across different books.
My solution: BookWith embeds an AI that maintains full context of what you're reading. It features:
- Context-aware AI chat: Ask questions about the current page/chapter and get instant answers
- AI podcast generation: Automatically converts book content into conversational podcasts using Google Cloud TTS
- Multi-layer memory system: Short-term (last 5 conversations), mid-term (summarized every 20), and long-term (vector search) memory that maintains continuity across reading sessions
- Smart annotations: 5-color highlighting system that AI can reference and analyze
Technical stack: Built as a fork of Flow (epub reader), with added LLM integration and vector database for semantic search. Supports multiple LLMs and languages (EN/JA/ZH).
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