The thoughts books give you deserve somewhere to live.
Marginal is a private writing space for the thoughts books provoke. Write them down. Revisit them over time. Share them with the one or two people who get it.
A nod to marginalia, the notes readers have always made in the margins of their books.
The Kite Runner
DIALOGUE
Share your thoughts with one person. Not everyone.
Marginal has no public feed. No follower count. No performance. When you want someone to see what a book made you think, you choose them specifically. They receive it as the deliberate, intimate thing it is.
I thought I was reading a quiet novel about a forgettable man but somewhere around the third chapter something shifted and I realised I might be looking at myself. Not my circumstances. My interior. The specific way Stoner moves through his life half-present, choosing the thing that means something to him over and over in the face of everything that tells him it does not matter. But I’m not sure about living one’s life half-present throughout. That does not resonate with me.
just now
Your thoughts grow with you.
A book you finished two years ago means something different to you now. Hindsights are scheduled reflections added to your locked Thoughts at three months, nine months, and then every year. A record not just of the book but of how you change in relation to it.
Locked · June 2026
Beloved
Dialogue
I finished this an hour ago and I still can't breathe properly. The prose is relentless. It never lets you rest, never gives you one clean moment to step back, it just keeps pressing. I know that is the point, that you are meant to feel as trapped as Sethe is. Knowing it did not make it easier to sit inside.
Nine months later
Hindsight
Reading it back now, I think I meant something different. Not relentless. Inevitable. Like watching water find its level. I understand Sethe differently than I did then.
Every book deserves a record of what it did to you.
When you finish a book, where do your thoughts go? Marginal gives them a structured home, five Idea types, each a different dimension of your response. Lock them when you finish, and they become a record, not a draft.
Your immediate, unfiltered reaction to what you just read. Talk to the characters, yourself and to whoever reads this someday.
The Road
Dialogue
Each Idea type has a word limit, to focus you, not restrict you.
Worth keeping. Worth sharing.
Marginal turns your reading into quiet, beautiful artifacts. A card for the book in your hands, a closing note for the one you just finished, and once a year, the whole of your reading life.
Annual Report
Every December 5thShareable Artifacts
Currently Reading
AfterwordEveryone can start in the margins.
Premium simply gives you more room - every Idea type, more friends and a longer memory.
Free
$0
Forever free. No credit card required.
- Dialogue and Analysis Idea types
- Up to 3 friend connections
- Default Hindsight schedule
- All shareable artifacts
- Annual reading report
- Book tracking with four shelf statuses
Premium
$43.99
per year, that's $3.67/month.
Plus applicable tax.
- Everything in Free
- All five Idea types including Character Maps, Personal Connections, and Chapter Summaries
- Up to 50 friend connections
- Custom Hindsight scheduling
Cancel anytime. Your writing is always yours.
FAQ
Yes. Everything you write in Marginal is completely private by default. Nobody sees your Thoughts unless you explicitly choose to share a specific Idea with a specific friend. We do not read what you write, sell it, or use it to train AI. Your friends cannot see it unless you share it with them directly.
Your writing is always yours. If you cancel Premium, your Character Maps, Personal Connections, and Chapter Summaries become read-only. You can still see everything you wrote, you just cannot add to it until you resubscribe. Your Dialogue and Analysis remain fully editable on the free tier. Nothing is deleted.
Yes. Cancel directly from your account settings or from the billing portal. No questions asked. Your Premium access continues until the end of your current billing period.
Yes. A native app for iPhone is on its way to the App Store, with Android to follow. It shares the same account and the same Thoughts as the web app, so you can move between them freely.
You choose exactly which Idea to share and exactly which friend to share it with. There is no public feed. Nobody stumbles onto your writing accidentally. Sharing is always a deliberate, directed act.
When you lock your Thoughts on a finished book, Marginal schedules reflection prompts at three months, nine months, and then annually. These are Hindsights, 100-word entries where you choose to write about the book again from wherever you are now. A record of how you change in relation to what you read.
You can export all your data at any time from your account settings. We send you a complete download of everything you have written in Marginal.
Anyone who reads and has something to say about it. Not serious readers only. The person who reads one book a year and wants to remember what it meant to them is as valid a Marginal user as someone who reads fifty.
The most interesting thoughts you have about a book are the ones you never say out loud.
Free to start. More room whenever you're ready.