--- title: A Social Reading App Now Has Five Million Members, and Most of Them Are Women Under 40 description: Fable says it has passed five million members, most of them women under 40, and sets its own survey against the idea that the young have stopped reading. author: Dr Marina Nani (Editor-in-Chief) date: 2026-08-06T20:24:49.536Z updated: 2026-08-06T21:13:50.025Z canonical: https://thequantumoflight.com/article/fable-five-million-members-book-clubs image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/fable-five-million-readers-113312.webp categories: Literary Culture content_type: News region: Global publication: The Quantum of Light schema_type: Article --- You have probably read that young people have stopped reading. Fable, a social reading app built around book clubs, says that is not what it sees. The company told Publishers Weekly it has passed five million registered users, up from three million when Scribd, Inc. bought it in June of last year, and that more than 820,000 people joined a new book club on it in the past year alone. These are one company's numbers about its own platform, and worth reading as that. But they describe a particular kind of reader. The vast majority of Fable's users are under 40, split between Gen Z and younger millennials, and roughly 85% identify as women. ## The Company's Own Survey Says Its Users Are Reading More In a survey of its users, Fable found more than half said they were reading more than they used to, including 64% of 18 to 24 year olds, the group outside data has flagged as reading less. Everand's end-of-year wrap-up reported that around 250,000 users kept a 30-day reading streak. Kim Marsh Allee, director of marketing at Scribd, Inc. and Fable, says what the company sees is the opposite of a decline. > "The idea that reading is in decline runs completely counter to what we've seen in Fable." > — Kim Marsh Allee, director of marketing, Scribd, Inc. and Fable ## The Three Biggest Clubs Belong to Members Fable hosts hundreds of thousands of book clubs, according to its executives, and the three largest are run by members rather than staff. Inklings Book Club, moderated by the social media personality Jack Edwards, has close to 70,000 members. Killer Thriller Crew, a thriller club run by Kat, who posts as @thecandidkatalog, has more than 25,000. Catastrophically Classical, a classics club run by Tori Ross, has more than 13,000. ## Fable Says It Did Not Pay for This Growth Aroash Solomon, senior director of product at Scribd, Inc. and Fable, said the growth has come almost entirely by word of mouth rather than paid marketing, and put that down to Fable starting life as a book club rather than a habit tracker. Everything, Aroash said, “has come from a place of community”. It began with “conversation and connection” rather than the functional side of reading, like goal-setting, and the streaks, monthly wraps and stats built since were meant to reinforce that shared identity rather than compete with it. ## Television Adaptations and Old Novels Are Pulling People In Jason Boog, who leads Fable's editorial team, said interest has surged in books tied to television and streaming adaptations, naming Frieda McFadden's The Housemaid, Rachel Reid's Heated Rivalry, Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary and Martha Wells's Murderbot, alongside older novels that have found new life on social media, such as John Steinbeck's East of Eden and Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove. For an August challenge tied to the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Jason said his team went back through years of the platform's archives instead of reaching for the obvious titles. “I try to cast a wide enough net and not default to the most popular three books about a topic,” he said. He argued that hand-picked recommendations work as a counterweight to the algorithms on TikTok and Instagram, and said following friends with the same taste can build an echo chamber of its own, which his team pushes against daily. ## Streaks Now Count Audiobooks Too Reading on Everand, Fable's sister company, which sells e-books and audiobooks and offers combined subscriptions, now syncs automatically to a Fable profile, along with progress through an audiobook, so a streak or a goal carries whatever format you are in. Aroash said the change has led a number of users to try audiobooks for the first time. You can also ask for any book to be added to the catalogue, including titles from independent aggregators and self-published authors. None of this settles the wider argument about reading, and Fable is not claiming to have counted anyone but its own users. What its numbers describe is where a lot of young women have taken their reading: into a club, on a phone, with other people. Kim said the company will keep building around that. For many of its users, she said, Fable has “become a safe space online, where they can build relationships, express themselves, and be seen by people who love books just as much as they do”. Fable can be found at [fable.co](https://fable.co). ## FAQ **Q: What is Fable?** Fable is a social reading app built around book clubs, where readers track what they are reading, join clubs and follow other readers. Scribd, Inc. acquired the company in June of last year. **Q: What is a reading streak on Fable?** A streak counts the consecutive days a reader has read something. Fable added streak calculators and reading challenges as features, and progress on Everand audiobooks now counts towards the same streak.