GoKawiilDhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
I’ve spent the better part of the last decade trying and failing to finish Robert Jordan’s “The Wheel of Time.” The book is supposed to be a masterpiece of world-building, but it is also a 14-book exercise in mental endurance. With over 2,700 characters and political subplots that span thousands of pages, it is all too easy to get mentally exhausted to the point where the narrative just gets too complicated to follow along.
For years, my solution has included everything from making my own notes to fan wikis and Google searches, but the problem with that approach is twofold. First, wikis tend to be full of spoilers that can ruin a character arc you haven’t reached yet. Second, in my experience, using a general-purpose large language model like ChatGPT isn’t ideal. It’ll often give spoilers, or hallucinate details and mix up fan theories with actual story lines. But in 2026, I’ve made it my mission to finally read the entire series all the way through from scratch, and I’m making use of NotebookLM to help keep me on track.
Do you use NotebookLM to enhance your reading experience? 5 votes Yes, I enjoy using NotebookLM and other AI tools to get upto speed with books. 40 % Yes, but I didn't enjoy the experience. 0 % No, I didn't know you could do that. 60 % No, I prefer reading the old-school way. 0 %
A spoiler-free way to make sense of massive book series
Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
The biggest hurdle with any massive fiction series is the “who is that again” factor. Be it “A Song of Ice and Fire,” “Dune,” and, of course, “The Wheel of Time,” a minor noble mentioned in book two might suddenly become a pivotal political player in book nine. Meanwhile, seven months into the reading marathon, I have no recollection of who that character was. Normally, looking that person up on a traditional search engine is a recipe for disaster. You’ll see their name, followed immediately by a word that might give up that the character has died, or a description of their actions and consequences. That’s no good.
NotebookLM fixes this by acting as a closed-loop system. Because the AI only looks at the specific files I upload, it doesn’t know what happens in book 10 if I’ve only uploaded books one through nine. It isn’t affected by online theories and analysis either. It effectively lets me build a private, intelligent encyclopedia that only knows as much as I do. More importantly, it has turned my reading experience from a stressful memory test into an AI-annotated experience where I can ask for context without fear of ruining the ending. And all of that is only because of NotebookLM’s recently added ePub support.
NotebookLM turned my reading experience from a memory test into something I can actually enjoy.
Until recently, getting your personal book library into NotebookLM was a bit of a chore involving PDF conversions that often mangled the formatting. However, Google recently rolled out native ePub support, which has completely streamlined the process. You no longer need to spend an afternoon in Calibre stripping DRM and converting files just to make them readable for the AI. You can simply drag and drop your library directly into the interface.
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