There are several good apps to keep track of books you have read, to-do lists and just apps to read books on your device. But which one to use while traveling?
I have an iPod Touch (yes, the thirst of the 3rd generation!), an e-reader (Kobo Aura) and work on a laptop/computer. But what when I am on the road, traveling. If you sit in a train or tram or bus for 20 minutes for example, you can effectively read 15 minutes maximum. Sit down, grab your device, read, pre-last station pack your stuff again and don’t forget to step out on time! I’ll show you a short list of my choices based on my experience. Oh and I discovered something: the ReadMore app is gone! And I’ll tell you why it is a pity! The short list:
Travel at least 20 minutes in the same vehicle, that makes reading worth
- Always have a mobile in your pocket or jeans? Then you can read books on your mobile device (iOS has the app iBooks, Android has the app Google Books).
- Yes:
- everything just by hand
- quick to start, grab or put-away
- Depending on your iBooks / Google Books (iTunes or Google Play account), synchronisable with reading on another device of the same series (iPod Touch / iPad / Macbook? / iMac?)(Android tablet / Chromebook)
- No:
- Takes some diskspace of your mobile
- When someone message you you are disturbed – or you have to shut off your wifi and mobile network or you have to set your phone to flight mode but then you don’t get any calls either –
- And it costs some battery as well (probably bring a powerbar with you).
- Yes:
- You can maybe bring with you a small e-reader (all e-readers are quite small, at least smaller than a book).
- Yes:
- Still a small device, fits in many handbags
- Download a book while wifi connected (depending on device) or before traveling or connect laptop/computer by usb.
- The battery lasts really long! You can read for hours! Longer as a big book probably would take
- Lots of free books available as well: from smashwords, Kobo, Kindle and so on…depending on device
- You can probably read many pdf’s too (in my case are important presentation slides (.ppt / .pptx downloaded as .pdf) so ideal for preparing a presentation
- Same story as with textdocuments, as long as you save them as the textdocument ánd as a .pdf file.
- No:
- Doesn’t fit in a big purse and not at all in a small one, bigger as your mobile phone.
- Yes:
- You have also the little ‘sleeper’ books (dwarsligger in Dutch), those are smaller than an e-reader.
- Yes:
- A sleeper fits in a small purse. It small small and small.
- Still a real paper excisting book in your hands
- When you want them free? –> borrow them from the library, they have a few – compared to the whole book collection – and you can borrow them for at least a few days or weeks as well. Here in The Netherlands you can borrow books for three weeks.
- No:
- Maybe you don’t like the style of reading a book on it’s side. – I don’t like sleeper diaries as well…-
- You still have to buy them and maybe you don’t like the book – but to support the authors we have to buy books (or in my case I always buy my favourite books or study books, still a lot of books though…). The plus of this as well: you can re-read them any time.
- Yes:
- Or you can bring your iPad or other tablet – a bit bigger than an e-reader…but same plusses and minuses.
- Or…you can bring your laptop…
- Yes:
- Oh everything is by hand…don’t try to get distracted though…you only have fifteen minutes (max or at least).
- No:
- Unpack it, pack it…
- Battery…
- Where do you use your laptop for elseways? –> study? work?….save your battery!
- Yes:
But what I discovered this week is that the ReadMore app is gone!
Maybe you think ‘that’s been already for a long time!’. It still is a pity because when I saw this promotionvideo about the ReadMore app I found out that some things we are still missing in the apps of today – like Goodreads, iBooks, Google Books, Kindle, Kobo – and so on. This is the video: Do you discover the same as I when I saw it?
My explanation compared to Goodreads:
Title and author and last readable page; yes in Goodreads you have that already when you find the book. Even the ISBN so you have the right version in front of your list. But there is no timer in the app. Not necessary for me though, but it has some interesting facts. Based on the data that the timer collects – for example start at page one, 10 minutes later you are at page 5 – it predicts how long it will take to finish the book and by which date you will finish it. And it devides it in several sessions as well! Do you often read 30 pages and than lay aside the book for the rest of the day? Than the app calculates based on the sessions of 30 pages a day.
So it gives you a date and time indication when you probably will finish the book. It gives you the information about how many pages to go – Goodreads gives percentages and/or pagenumbers but not how many to go calculate it for yourself… – and it even shows how many sessions – that book divided in 30 pages per session – you have to go and how many hours of reading it will take.
Some books are complicated and difficult to read or many words that weren’t in your dictionary before. And some books are easy to read, you finish it sooner than you thought you would. It can support finishing a book when you’re stuck in the middle of it.
That’s why not only keeping track of the progress is important, but also keeping track of what lies in your book future.
I am curious: what is your opinion about all those lists and keeping track? Do you use some apps? And do you use them frequently?
Sophie's Creative 