Like many avid readers, I was once very resistant to combining technology with reading. Nothing really beats the feel of a physical book in your hands and the joy of seeing your favorites all lined up on a shelf. But as I’ve gotten older and busier, sometimes lugging a physical book around with me isn’t always practical. If I’m going out for the night and want to read a quick chapter on the subway, I might not be carrying a bag that can fit a book or even my Kindle. But one thing I do always have is my phone! There are a bunch of different apps that you can use to read on your smartphone. Here are a few of my favorites:
1. The Kindle App
My first foray into digital reading platforms was with an Amazon Kindle Paperwhite over six years ago. I still love my old-school Kindle with its simple interface and bare-bones functions, but it can be a little cumbersome with its slow, wi-fi only internet connection and ancient temperamental battery. Sometimes I’ll be in the middle of a great book and my battery dies, or I leave my Kindle at home. Other times, I’m having trouble getting my Kindle to accept a new book I’m trying to download. That’s when I switch to the Kindle app on my phone. At first, I wasn’t sure if I’d like reading on such a small screen, but since I read news articles and long social media posts on my phone already, I figured a book can’t be that different. The best part of this app is that you can sync up your books between devices, so I can start reading on my Kindle, then pick up right where I left off on my phone!
2. Overdrive
As a kid, I loved going to the library and picking out a whole stack of books to bring home. As an adult, I don’t get to visit the library in person quite as often as I would like. But with Overdrive, I can visit it digitally! Overdrive is an app that allows you to use your library card to take out eBooks, audiobooks, and other digital content from your local library. As with physical library books, you have a set amount of time to read them—but since digital products get returned automatically, you never have to deal with late fees. Overdrive is by far the app that I use most often, and I mainly use it for audiobooks. Since audiobooks are the one format that I rarely get review copies in, it’s turned into my main format for pleasure reading (as opposed to reading for the blog, not that that’s not a pleasure!). If I’m looking for something new to read and not really feeling what’s on my shelves, I can log into the app, browse through the library, and download an audiobook onto my phone in a matter of minutes—all without spending any money or leaving my house. Libraries, folks, they’re pretty awesome. My favorite thing about this app is that you can add multiple libraries! I currently share library cards with my sister, so if I can’t find the book I want in my local library, I’ll look it up in hers. Overdrive also has all the features I like in an audiobook app, including the ability to read at different speeds and a button to quick rewind or fast-forward in 15-second increments.
3. Readercoin
This is the newest app I’ve downloaded for reading. It markets itself as the app that “pays you to read!”—which is a bit of an exaggeration. Basically, you get points for every 10 minutes you can spend reading, and can eventually cash them out for prizes like $5 in Paypal cash or donate to charity. But even if you read for several hours everyday, it will probably take you a few months to earn enough points for that $5 reward. So, if you’re looking to turn your reading habit into a serious source of income … that’s not what this app does (if only!). I, however, prefer to think of it as a tiny financial incentive to read books I otherwise might not have gotten around to. The best part of this app is that it has hundreds of classic novels that are in the public domain available as both ebooks and audiobooks. Having the classics in audiobook form at my fingertips has been a game-changer for me, and I’ve found the point-based system has successfully gamified my reading experience. Since you can get extra points by keeping up a multi-day streak, I make sure to get in 10 minutes of reading the classics everyday, even when those old books drag on or get slow. I’ve already plowed through The Secret Garden, and Little Women, and am working my way through The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. The one downside is that this app doesn’t give you the option of changing your reading speed, so you’ve got to read everything at a normal pace, and the public domain recordings can be a little hit or miss. But I am slowly making my way down my list of classic novels I never got the chance to read for school! If you want to check out this app, you can get a head start on your points by using my referral code: “Julial8u.” The referral code also works for their sister app Podcoin, which gives you points for listening to podcasts. The Readercoin and Podcoin points all go into the same pot, so you can earn rewards twice as fast! If you’re going to be reading books and listening to podcasts anyway, might as well earn a few pennies for it, right?
What apps do you use for reading? Have you tried any of the ones above? Let me know in the comments!
I just started listening to audiobooks and I listen to podcasts all the time, so thank you very much for this post! I’m not sure I’m ready to switch from my trusty Apple Podcasts app to Podcoin, but I’ll consider it. I also read on my Kindle app and I just renewed my local library card a couple of weeks ago to use the Overdrive app. Hopefully you just got a bonus since I used your code when I signed up for Readercoin. 🙂
I like the Kindle app because I can set it to turn pages like I could in a regular book, or I can switch it to scroll mode. I also like that I can set it to night mode for bedtime reading. I also like that I can read on my phone and it saves across multiple devices — I also have an Android tablet. Although I have the Overdrive app, I confess I haven’t done anything with it besides register with my local library card.
I also use the Google Play Books app and the Apple Books app. The main reason I initially got the Play Books app is because I like to compare Google vs. Kindle eBook prices for books that I can’t get fast enough from the university library. I also have a Google account and an Android device. It works just like the Kindle app, but it’s synced to my Google account. For my iPhone, the native Books app is also handy for PDFs.
Yup, got your ReaderCoin bonus. Thanks for using my code!
For some reason, I barely use the native Books app on my iPhone, except when the occasional pdf ends up there. But I should explore it more and see what that app has to offer.