I have been using modded Kindle for quite sometime and I have been enjoying the customisations of KoReader. The only concern is that sometimes too much customisation options could be overwhelming. At times, as a consumer, we can tell if we like or dislike this design/view/approach, but we cannot identify what/why we like a specific aspect of the whole experience. For instance, I am a Readera User on my phone as well, it lets me change some aspects reasonably. These settings are enough for any reader to get immersed in the book they are into. While I can confidently say that I like the overall experience of using the app, I cannot pin point what I like about the aesthetics of this app. When we talk about Ko reader, you have the option to adjust your line spacing, margins, fonts, status bar options, homepage view, and on top of this, so many plugin options and all of this is overwhelming and it distracts me personally from the reading experience itself.

This has caused some friction in me using Kindle and Ko Reader as much as I would like to read. But all that changed in the recent past when I have discovered an Instapaper plugin for Ko Reader which is a blessing in disguise.

For the uninitiated, Instapaper is an article aggregator (or that is how I would like to use it). I have a free account in Instapaper and a browser extension for Instapaper in my laptop. If I find an article I like, I can just click the extension icon and this URL gets saved in my Instapaper account. Or, I can open Instapaper in a separate window and add the URL manually too. And then I have Instapaper app on my phone which cleans the contents and displays it in a readable format (Mobile friendly alignment and removal of ads). I can choose to download images of these articles, or just read the text part of it. I can create tags, folders and organise these links in a way I wish. Instapaper can read the whole article out to me in multiple voices from which I can choose from.

Do I want more? Yes. I did not want to read them on my phone. Bingo !! There is an Instapaper plugin that is available for KUAL or KoReader for Kindle. Self Explanatory and simple steps for one time configuration. After that, whenever you send an article to Instapaper and also when your Kindle is connected to the Wi-Fi, the latest articles are locally downloaded (also customizable) to the Kindle and you can read them from within the KoReader on Kindle. What a blessing that is !!

Do I want more? Oh Yeah. I like to read a lot of Tamil short stories and Tamil essays that are available online. Lots of writers maintain an online presence and write latest stories on their blog-site. This option opens up a world of possibility. Whats more? Project Madurai has all their books in HTML as well as PDF format. I have not been using HTML version before now, but suddenly I can send these HTML links to Instapaper and suddenly I have a whole book available into Kindle without much effort.

If this experience can be compared to anything, it must be Rain + Coffee + balcony + Ilayaraja songs + School/College Days. I don’t think the new anxious me is capable of enjoying rain today even with a balcony, coffee and Ilayaraja songs !! But that’s a story for another day !!

What else is stopping me to read now? What am I trying to pick up my reading habit even more? Coming up next 🙂