My Reading Apps

Yes, that's Candy Crush, don't judge me!

 Hello to all,

Today I want to talk to you about reading apps. Well, about the reading related apps that I use and how they have changed my reading life.

Audible has definitely changed my relationship with audio books. At first I thought it just wasn't for me, that I wouldn't be able to concentrate, etc. And then I tried it...almost 2 years later, this little buddy here has increased the amount of books I read, since I can have with me all the time (on my phone). It has also changed the way I share my reading with A, since now we go for 2 credits and can listen to them separately and then discuss at home :D.

Stitcher is not exactly a reading app, but it is true it that I have access to the amazing Riot Media podcasts (Book Riot, Dear Book Nerd, Our Reading Lives and Panels) and the Sword and Laser one.

The Goodreads app has turned out to be one that I use a lot, to scan my new books, to keep track of my reading and others. Some people have complained about the scanning feature, but I guess I've been lucky, because I haven't had a problem so far.

The Kobo app was a surprise for me. I have the Kobo reader, and at first I kept saying I wouldn't read on my phone, blah, blah. But then, one day I was stuck on a waiting room, no book to read (the horror!) and remembered that the books I had purchased with Kobo were there, on my phone too. And presto! I started reading on my phone.

And finally, the OverDrive App. As I'm still on a student budget, getting more than 2 credits can be too much some months, but I do need more audio than that, particularly with big experiments. With access to my library audio books through it, problem solved. Only thing I wish is I could change the speed of the book (like you can do on Audible) because sometimes it feels like it is going soooo slow.

So those are my reading apps, which ones do you have? How have they changed your reading life? Tell me about it.

A reflection on reading while commuting

This is a topic I’ve had in my head for a long time, and then when I get home I always forget I wanted to talk about it. Well not this time!

One of the big things that changed in my life when I moved out of my country was the fact that I could now, more easily at least, read while commuting. And this is before I started to listen to audio books or even have my Kobo.

While I have always carried a book with me since I can remember, when I was living in Colombia, it was there mostly to be read when I was stationary, say at a waiting room or recess. Reading in the car or the bus was just not great. I did it, and got nausea pretty fast. Even when the “mass transportation system” Transmileno started, the buses would shake a lot, potholes were a constant and more often than not, I barely had space for me and my bag, let alone to open a book.

Fast-forward to when I moved to Montreal. Every ride in the metro or bus, unless I am with someone, I get to read. And not just me, it is so common here, it is a beautiful thing. Sure, sometimes it will get crowded, and then I won’t but compared to what it was before this is a rare event. People sometimes complain here that the metro wobbles but people, you haven’t seen wobbling, believe you me. Saying that I feel like I should clarify that I am perfectly conscious that are far worst commuting conditions than the ones I have experienced.

In January, A started his grown up job, which translated into us not going to the lab together and alternating with who gets the car. Now, if I haven’t mentioned it before, I really don’t like driving, but especially when I have to go to the lab on a weekend, it comes very handy to not depend on the bus schedule. However, because I am still a bit uncomfortable with driving (particularly in winter, my dislike has gone to hate) I cannot be listening to audio books yet. I have moved from music to podcasts, but that’s it for now.

So when I have to go to the lab by bus I get a bit more of reading time. It can even compensate for when is cold and windy and I my nose starts to numb…I am really not a winter person as you can see. But the point is that I get some extra reading time and for that I am grateful.

That’s all, hope you have a nice rest of the week.

When numbers shouldn't matter...but they do

I'm a competitive person. Didn't I mention that before? Well I am. I am also the worst loser you can imagine...well, maybe not the worst, but I am very bad. However this post will be focused on me being competitive against...myself.

Here is the thing, I am doing great on my reading challenge this year (I am very modest as you can see) but I am not satisfied. As I write this I have read 31 books already this year, and that's awesome, right? Is already more books I read in 2010 (20) and I will probably managed to read more than I read in 2011 (37) by June, so in half the time. Even better, I have already LOVED more books this year than I did in the aforementioned years. Does this make me happy? Off course it does. Is it bitter sweet? Yes and the only reason is this "you have to do better" voice in my head that is concentrated on one itsy bitsy factor: pages.

PAGES! Number of pages people! Is it ridiculous? Maybe. I am perfectly conscious that it shouldn't be about quantity but quality? Sure. Am I a person that is a bit over attached to quantifying? You bet your dollar I am. Is not entirely my fault, ok? I am after all in research; numbers have A LOT of weight in my daily life. You can tell me (I can tell myself) that is not the grade that actually shows what I learnt...but I need that grade.

And how come I've read more books, yet fewer pages? Ha! Easy: Audible. Yeap there you have it, fairly enough audio books do not add to your page count, which makes sense, because they do not have pages, right? I did my homework people (I told you, I had a problem) and give or take a bit, since I cannot know if I would've read the book in paperback, hardcover or e-book...I could've had more than 4500 pages extra.

So here I am. Instead of being happy and excited about how well my reading life is going this year, I am sulking about the fact that I haven't read enough pages. Buhu. I am a bit ashamed to actually write all of this actually. But they say that the first thing you have to do when you have a problem is admitting you have one. And this is my admitting post. I will work on ignoring that voice that is concentrated in pages and just be happy and grateful for my reading life. If you guys have any suggestions (help groups, mantras, you know) to deal with this please let me know. If you don't but you have a similar problem, let me now too! Maybe we can start a group or something ;)

How and Why has my reading changed in the last year.

This is my first attempt to back to "non-review" posts.  For a while I was doing the Sunday Salon posts but sooner than I thought it became more of an obligation than something fun and I stopped. Although I will probably be sharing this post in the Sunday Salon Facebook page, I don't think I will be back posting every Sunday.

My Kobo

In little bit more than a year my reading habits have changed considerably. The first reason was me buying an e-reader. How did this change my reading habits you may ask? Well for starters I stopped NEEDING to have a big bag to carry a book or NEEDING more space in the metro to read, since sometimes I would not be able to open my book it being so crowded. With my Kobo I can now read (comfortably) even when I'm standing in the tiniest corned available. I could do so with some paperbacks, but is was way less easier, and the fact that I can pass the page with just one touch beats having to use both hands and more often that I would care to admit losing my balance because I am no longer holding to something which sometimes lead to letting my book drop and loosing the page altogether...not great. 

Having my Kobo also changed the way I read scientific articles, and I have to say I'm hoping here PubMed will go out of the Beta version of their epub version of articles and make this version available for most of the articles. Yes I realize I can always upload the articles in PDF in my reader, but the reading experience is completely different starting with the fact that I can change the font size to something a bit more accommodating to my (often) tired eyes. 

Finally, this opened a whole new library to me: OverDrive. Very early when I moved to Canada I got my library card and boy have I used it. Last year, as I mentioned on a prior post, most of my reading material came from the library and this included OverDrive. This has made a lot of books available faster to me, even if I am not in the city the moment they became available...and that is just awesome.

Audio books? Me?

And then I made a mistake. I reserved Cinder on OverDrive because I was going on a long trip overseas, was limited on luggage space and so I wanted to fill my Kobo with fun, light reading books. I got the e-mail telling me that the book as available...and lo and behold: it was an audio book. This, I told myself, is not what I wanted! I'm not an audio book person. My boyfriend casually said: well, is not like you can shift your attention a lot being on the plane, so you could give it a try and actually KNOW if you are or not. 

So I did, I don't remember what movie they had that day...but I remembered loving the book. I was lucky that I had a good narrator the first time and that it wasn't a heavy book that needed more expertise on "reading audio books"; but the bottom line was that I was hooked. I was already into podcasts and 2 of them kept offering deals with Audible. I figure I could give that a try and 11 books in less than 6 months I love it!. I started listening to them while doing mechanical things in the lab (wracking tips, putting away boxes, washing cells)  and know I have moved to listening while doing experiments I feel comfortable with since I've done them several times...except when I have to calculate something, I just can't do both things at the same time. 

 

Recently, my boyfriend and I started to listen to books together in the car...this takes a bit more of patience than I expected because often we would arrive to a point full of action, but we would have arrived our destination. Right now we are listening to a non-fiction so it is not that bad.

Badges!!!

Lastly something this 2 (the Kobo and Audible) have in common is that they give you badges as you read!!!. Yes, I know, I am 28, I shouldn't get so exited about this...but I do. It makes me happy when I get a new badge and it pushes me to read at different hours, different subjects, to share my reading.

Has your reading changed this last year? How? I would love to hear about it :)