Category Archives: resources you need

Apps that enhance my reading

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I have owned my iPad for nearly a year now and though I still won’t claim it’s a necessary item for my survival I am surprised at how indispensable it has become for both work and fun. I have already talked about which apps for reading books I like (and which ones I don’t like) so today I will discuss apps that are an adjunct to my reading life. If you have any apps that you use (on any device or even the good ol’ interwebs) feel free to share in the comments.

To keep track of all my books I use a desktop application called Book Collector (from Collectorz) and to be honest I don’t need the iPad app (CLZBooksHD) as well. But boy has it come in handy. You can’t use it as a standalone (i.e. you have to have the desktop version on a PC or Mac) but when you synchronise the mobile version with the desktop version you can carry around a read-only copy of your database which, at least in my case, prevents the buying of duplicate books and ensures I don’t buy books that aren’t on my wishlist (well almost never anyway). Given my TBR pile is made up of physical books, eBooks on two devices and audio books I find the flow view that you can see in the screen shot below to be the perfect guide to help me choose which book to read next as it’s like looking at a single virtual shelf.

Probably my favourite application of any kind that I use for far more than my reading is Evernote. It is basically a cloud-based clipboard that you can save anything to – web pages, documents, links, pictures, recipies, notes you type yourself, voice memos…the list goes on. You can also access your evernote account from anywhere (web, desktop, mobile device) and many services (such as RSS readers, most web browsers) allow you to send things of interest to your evernote account with one click. One of my virtual notebooks is called Book Wishlist and I send all the blog posts, newspaper articles and reviews I see that pique my curiosity to this notebook. Then when I have time I browse through the clippings and decide which books I’m really interested in (at which point they get added to my Collectorz wishlist). I often find I’ve sent 2 or 3 different clippings about the same book to Evernote which is a pretty good sign that the book is going to be right up my street. Although I can access the app anywhere, the iPad version is my favourite way to browse and sort through my clippings.

I’ve tried at least a dozen RSS readers on my iPad but have lately settled on Mr Reader as the one for me. While they all allow you to synchronise with a Google Reader account Mr Reader is the only one I found that allows you to add or change feeds on the iPad rather than waiting until you’re back at your desktop. It also has a pretty nice looking interface which you can see from screen shot below (the dark theme is my choice, there are several options). Of course an RSS reader is vital to my book reading life as I have loads of subscriptions to book blogs and I find that since I’ve had the iPad I tend to visit more blogs as I can do it on the bus or (don’t tell my boss) during the occasional boring work meeting. I can send items of interest directly from Mr Reader to Evernote.

These are the three non-reading apps that I think are essential to my reading life. I should note that Collectorz for iPad is $10 (on top of what you pay for the desktop application which is between $29-49 depending on which version you spring for) and Mr Reader is $5 but for me they have been worth the money. The main features of Evernote are available for free (a premium account is available if you need a huge amount of data storage or feel like supporting the app developers).

Before I finish there are some honourable mentions to hand out. Having mobile access to google translate, XE ( currency converter) and google maps makes reading books set in exotic locales so much easier than it used to be. Funnily enough I probably use the currency one most of all because when someone mentions a sum in Swedish kroner I simply have no reference point for whether it’s a lot or a little and it often seems important to know. XE is free and you can save 10 most-used currencies in a list so it barely takes more than a few nanoseconds for me to find out how much an amount is in Aussie dollars.

What about you? got any favourite apps that help you to read? Doesn’t have to be for an iPad…I’m sure there are good web apps I’m missing out on.

Finally a book-ish podcast to enjoy

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I’ve been listening to podcasts for years now but have struggled to find ones I like about books. Sure there are the podcasts of various book-ish radio shows (Australia’s own Book Show and similar offerings from the BBC and NPR) but though I subscribe to these I often delete the shows without listening right through (most of these shows seem to take a fairly dim view of ‘genre readers’).

But two English book bloggers have recently started a podcast called The Readers and  I have enjoyed it very much so far (they’ve aired 10 episodes so far). Gavin from Gav Reads and Simon from Savidge Reads have joined forces to discuss reading and books in all their glory, The Readers podcast has tackled a wide variety of issues including Sherlock Holmes, culling one’s books (where they were helped out by Kim from Reading Matters who has this down to an art form due to her space restrictions) and the ‘is Margaret Atwood a literary author or a speculative fiction author’ debate in an intelligent but conversational style. The guys have eclectic reading tastes which run from literary to sci-fi to crime to just about anything else but their enthusiasm for books in general is the main thing I enjoy about the show.

So, if you like listening to podcasts and you like books I’d recommend The Readers. It’s a weekly(ish) show of about an hour in length and you can subscribe via all the usual methods, Right now there is added incentive to listen in and vote in the International Readers Book Awards for 2011 (I’ve already voted).

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Audiobook Week: Resources

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Jen of Devourer of Books has asked participants to talk about the resources we audiobook lovers have to share as the final discussion topic for this week of celebrating audiobooks. Here are three websites my life would be poorer without and I share a little love for my listening device.

I’ve mentioned audible before and will undoubtedly do so again. They don’t pay me to spruik for them but I love their service. The site has a huge catalogue (around 80,000 titles and growing rapidly as it was 50,000 when I first joined in 2008), the cost is reasonable (my 2-book-per-month membership costs $22.95 US a month versus the $50-$60 it generally costs for a single audiobook on CD), the website is easy to use and the customer service is terrific. One of the things I love most is that when you buy a book from them it is available to you forever from the website so if you change computers or get a new listening device you can simply re-download it. The only thing I don’t like about audible is that I get stung by geographical restrictions but as that’s not audible’s fault I won’t hold it against them.

For those interested in learning about the process of audiobook creation I’d direct you to a relatively new blog called Audio Book Narrators. The blog is hosted by Paul Alan Ruben who is a Grammy award winning producer and director of audio books and his thoughtful posts give real insight into the process of creating great audio books. It’s a low traffic blog but the somewhat rare posts are always worth a read.

I’m always on the lookout for good audiobook reviews and probably the best single source for them these days is a site called Audiobook Jukebox which is a place where all audiobook reviewers can link to their reviews of audiobooks (actually writing this post reminds me I have been forgetting to link to my own reviews of late). You can access reviews by genre and the new site has a helpful list of all the book blogs and other websites that have provided reviews to the site. What a great introduction to fellow audiobook lovers.

The only other thing that’s a must have for audiobook listening is a device. As I mentioned earlier in the week most of my audiobook listening is done while I’m on the move so I never listen at a computer and it’s been many years since I’ve had a portable CD player. I’ve been using an iPod for years and last year switched to the newest nano – a tiny little thing that holds hundreds of hours worth of content, weighs virtually nothing and comes with a convenient clip so I don’t need a bag, or even a pocket to carry it in. To finish the perfect listening experience I ditch the awful Apple headphones (how can they be so great at making devices and so crap at making headphones?) and always use a pair of decent quality in-ear noise cancelling headphones. I’ve had a couple of pairs over the years (they usually last about 3 years unless I drive the car over them) and I’m currently using a set of Sennheiser CX500′s with an inline volume control on the cable. They don’t cancel out all noise (alas) but do get rid of a fair amount of the ambient noise you find on buses, airplanes etc. and they allow you the option of pretending you haven’t heard whatever it is that some commuter/colleague you don’t like/crazy homeless person has said to you while you’re wearing them :)

Audibook Jukebox

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If, like me, you like to listen to books you’re probably in the market for reviews specifically about audiobooks. While on the one hand audio books are just a different format and don’t require special reviews, it is always good to be able to access information that is specific to the format (such as the style and competence of the narrator). There is a new resource on the web that delivers audio book reviews in abundance.

Audiobook Jukebox is an ever-growing database of reviews of audio books written by book bloggers reading all manner of genres. The site offers a place for anyone who has published a review of an audio book somewhere online to have that review incorporated into the Audiobook Jukebox database. Readers/Listeners then access the database for reviews of books they’re interested in. You can either search for specific titles, authors or narrators or browse through the sites genre or publisher categories to find reviews of audio books. Of course you can also subscribe to the blog and learn immediately when new reviews have been added to the database

Before you ask, this is not a paid advertisement. The site is the brainchild of two well known book bloggers and audio book experts (Audiobook DJ and Beth Fish Reads) and is quickly turning into one of my favourite online resources that I want everyone to know about.

If you review audio books why not make it a practice to notify Audiobook Jukebox (via the monthly Mr Linky post specifically for the purpose) to help the database grow? I have provided links to most of my audio book reviews (which you can always access via the separate page for audio book reviews on this site) and will be regularly adding links to any new audiobook reviews I write from now on.

If you’re a listener looking for reviews of audio books I suggest you add Audiobook Jukebox to your RSS reader or favourites list so you can check in regularly for new reviews of audio books.