ReadBook

A browser-based EPUB reader with text-to-speech. No backend — open an EPUB and listen.

Features

• EPUB 2 / EPUB 3 support — parses container.xml → OPF → spine
• Text-to-speech using the browser's native Web Speech API
• Sentence highlighting — current sentence highlighted and auto-scrolled into view
• Chapter navigation with table of contents sidebar
• Speed control — 0.5× to 2.0×
• Voice selection — all system voices, sorted by language match
• Mobile-first — responsive layout with sidebar drawer on mobile, static sidebar on desktop

Live Demo

Hosted on GitHub Pages: https://roy2100.github.io/readbook/

Quick Start

git clone https://github.com/roy2100/readbook.git
cd readbook
npm install
npm run dev
# Open http://localhost:5173 in Chrome or Safari

Browser Compatibility

Requires Web Speech API support. Recommended: Chrome or Safari on macOS (access to high-quality system voices including Siri voices).

Development

npm install          # install dependencies
npm run dev          # dev server with HMR
npm run build        # production build → dist/
npm test             # run all 105 tests (single pass)
npm run test:watch   # watch mode

Tests use Vitest with jsdom. Coverage spans EPUB parsing, sentence segmentation, HTML escaping, and the TTS state machine.

Architecture

epub-parser.js   EPUB unzip + OPF/spine/TOC parsing
highlighter.js   Sentence segmentation + DOM annotation + highlight state
tts.js           Web Speech API wrapper (sentence queue, pause/resume)
utils.js         normalizePath() for resolving image paths inside ZIP
App.jsx          Root component — wires state, chapter navigation, image resolution
components/      Sidebar, Reader, Controls, Header (React components)
hooks/           useBook, useIsMobile, useTts (custom hooks)

See CLAUDE.md for a detailed architecture description.