I never used to read English books regularly, for three reasons: printed English books were too expensive, there was no suitable platform for English ebooks in China, and my limited vocabulary made it easy to give up when reading became difficult.

After going abroad, I expected to find an ebook platform comparable to WeChat Read. I downloaded many reading programs and apps, but none satisfied me. Books were no cheaper than print editions, the reading experience was poor, and even the basic function of selecting text for translation was extremely awkward.

I therefore still rarely read English books, downloading PDF materials only when necessary and reading them on my computer with WPS or another tool.

Only recently did I discover that WeChat Read itself can meet every need for reading English originals. Its translation and AI explanation functions are powerful, and reading also adds to your WeChat Read time, which looks good. The process is very simple, with only three steps:

  1. Download the book in EPUB format from a publicly available online repository or your usual ebook website;
  2. Send it to any WeChat chat;
  3. Open the file on your phone, choose how to open it, and tap WeChat Read.

Once imported, it is ready to read.

I will use the English edition of Capital (capital) as an example.

First, download the EPUB edition of Capital from marxists.org, the Marxists Internet Archive, or MIA. It is the main site of the Chinese Marxists archive and contains the most complete and authoritative collection of Marxist works:

Capital download directory in the Marxists Internet Archive

Then send it through WeChat, open it on your phone, and select WeChat Read:

Choosing WeChat Read to open an EPUB file on a phone

After importing, we can find it on the bookshelf and start reading:

Imported English edition of Capital on the WeChat Read bookshelf

Now look at the layout. The first section of chapter one, for example, discusses commodities' value and use value. The formatting is very clear, with large, bold headings. The author's own footnotes have hyperlinks for direct navigation, just like the Chinese edition.

Example of headings, body text, and footnote navigation in the English Capital

The translation function is also excellent, offering both direct translation and AI explanation. Take the first paragraph. The English original reads:

The wealth of those societies in which the capitalist mode of production prevails, presents itself as “an immense accumulation of commodities,”1 its unit being a single commodity. Our investigation must therefore begin with the analysis of a commodity.

WeChat Read's direct translation and AI explanation interface

Direct translation:

In societies dominated by the capitalist mode of production, wealth appears as “a large accumulation of commodities,”1 and its basic units are individual commodities. Our investigation must therefore begin with an analysis of commodities.

AI explanation:

Marx points out that capitalist society's wealth appears as “an immense accumulation of commodities,” with the individual commodity as its basic unit. To understand this wealth, we must first examine the commodity itself, analyzing the dualities of use value and value, and concrete and abstract labor.

For comparison, the most authoritative Chinese edition, translated by the Central Compilation and Translation Bureau, reads as follows:

The wealth of societies in which the capitalist mode of production dominates appears as “an immense accumulation of commodities,” with the individual commodity appearing as the elementary form of that wealth. Our investigation therefore begins with an analysis of the commodity

The Central Compilation and Translation Bureau's version combines fidelity, clarity, and elegance and is exemplary. Yet WeChat Read's built-in translation and AI explanation do not stray from the original meaning either. Besides, in WeChat Read we can switch to the Chinese edition at any time for comparative study.

Besides the mobile app, we can read on WeChat Read's desktop version. Its larger screen is immersive, supports selecting words for translation, and also offers a very good reading experience. The drawback is that the footnote hyperlinks disappear, preventing direct navigation.

Two-page view of the English Capital in desktop WeChat Read

The mobile version can even display a parallel translation of the entire text without changing the original layout. Here is how it looks:

First page of the English Capital with parallel Chinese translation

Second page of the English Capital with parallel Chinese translation

Overall, using WeChat Read for English ebooks is the easiest and best all-round method I have found so far. I strongly recommend that anyone who needs to read in English give it a try.

Of course, WeChat Read is an excellent reading platform, but it cannot determine a book's edition or quality. Finding a good EPUB edition is therefore crucial.

At first I tried many editions, all with some layout flaws. Some even contained misspellings caused by OCR, such as misreading “in part from” as “in the from.” Many online EPUBs are transcribed from scanned print books without careful human proofreading. Finding a good edition therefore takes repeated trials and accumulated experience; some problems emerge only while reading. That, of course, is another topic.