Today, I’m grateful for the Kindle service of Amazon, Scribd, and Goodreads. I read quite a bit each year, typically gravitating to history, politics, military history, and other topics I can learn from. This year I wanted to mix it up with some fiction too.
Many of my friends still enjoy the smell of a new book. I have converted to digital versions of books. They are cheaper, and it is much nicer to read because I can adjust the font sizes. Many of the paperbacks on the market today print them in such a small font that I find it difficult to read.
I also like reading on my iPad, because it is so nice to hold in my hands. I just picked up the iPad Pro and got the 12.9″ screen. It is huge! I only use my iPad for three things–reading, watching movies, and listening to music. If I want to take notes, the Kindle lets me highlight them and keep them in a repository. If I am reading something on Scribd, I can use my laptop to keep track of anything I like and want to remember.
Goodreads is a terrific service. It is owned by Amazon, so any book I read on my Kindle is recorded on Goodreads. When you read 60 books or so a year, it is nice to keep track of what I’ve read so I don’t mistakenly reread something I have already read. It is also an easy way to track my reading goals. It tells me when I am ahead of my reading or behind. I schedule an hour of reading each day, and this synchronizes perfectly with my hour of meditation that I do at the same time. Many meditate with their eyes closed, but there are many meditations that can be done with reading, walking, or while riding on public transportation.
While I’m at it, I also have to announce my move to a new to-do list app. I used Toodledo for years, but became disenchanted with it recently because the interface between my pc and my devices is not the same and doesn’t synchronize well. Toodledo is not supported by the Apple Watch either. My new app is Any.do. It works the same on my iPad, iPhone, and laptop. It is also viewable on my Apple Watch, which is nice. There are some days that I have to get out an about in a hurry and it’s nice to have my todo list on my watch, particularly the grocery list, which is a part of the Any.do app. Another really cool thing is the ability to add the Any.do app to my gmail. Now I have access to all of my to-dos and projects in one place and can view them everywhere. Finally, Any.do can suck in anything from Apple, Google, or Microsoft (calendars) and automatically bring in your events as part of your to-do list for the day. I’m glad I made the switch. The final part is the dark mode you can move to. Microsoft office, kindle, Scribd, Any.do all have dark modes that are much easier on the eyes. Now that I have moved all my apps to dark mode, my eyes are so much more relaxed. Looking at white screen, like the one that we have to use here on WordPress is painful, so I write most of my articles in MS Word (in dark mode) and copy and paste them here.
Well, that’s it for today, folks. If you are looking to make a change to a new to-do app. Give Any.do a whirl. They have a trial period. Frankly, $30 a year is not a big deal, especially when you consider that most of these other apps run $60 annually.
Have a great Thursday, folks!
Until next time…
Dave
