Where Do You Stream Music?

I have been using YouTube Music recently, instead of Spotify, and that is so much better. If you have a free Spotify account, then you basically spend listening to two minutes of ads for every three or four songs that you listen, and that is terrible. The worst part is, it literally counts the number of songs before it throws up the ads again, so it's not like ads pop-up every few minutes you listen to those songs. So, even if you are just shifting through songs on a radio, the ads are bound to hit you up. I have been listening a lot on my laptop during this lockdown period, and YouTube Music has definitely been better. Though, there are ads here too, these ads are literally just 5 seconds. Also, you have the option to skip to another song without having to compulsorily go through the ad!

Free Spotify also does not have half the good songs that you want to listen to. This hurdle is mostly overruled in YouTube Music. It has pretty much had every song that I have looked up for, and so far so good! There seems to be a disadvantage on the phone that if you come out of the app, the YouTube music stops playing/gets paused. This is not so on my laptop that supports android apps! It keeps playing on as I do my other things, and that is really convenient for me!

Free Spotify does not allow you to download songs offline. But YouTube music allows a certain number of downloads for free. It just makes it easier if you want music on the plane or on a train, or generally while travelling because that is when network is an actual problem.

I used to use Saavn, and I genuinely think it was much better than the free Spotify, though less appealing in how it looked. I have also heard that Amazon Prime Music is good, but I have never really tried it. But I think I am starting to like YouTube Music, and might just forget about Spotify in a while. 

Which streaming platform do you use? Do you have better suggestions or a playlist for us? Share it in the comments below!

5 Fun Reading Lists With Something For Each Of Us

Have you already read all the books on your list? Looking for good resources to fill up your reading list again? Check out some of these brilliant reading lists that can get you going for the next few months. Also, most of these resource links have further links inside them to guide you to several more interesting reading lists on their website! 

1. For those who love the solved and unsolved mysteries of Science, and the men and machines behind it, check out this wonder list of The Greatest Science Books of 2016, a treasure compilation by none other than our favourite brainpicker! Popova writes in her introduction to the list:

"The question of what makes a great book of any kind is, of course, a slippery one, but I recently endeavored to synthesize my intuitive system for assessing science books that write up to the reader in a taxonomy of explanation, elucidation, and enchantment."

The books in this list seem very interesting, and are essentially a part of my to-read list. Hope I can get to them soon, covering a few of them before college reopens!

 

 2. For the authors, writers, and all those who love the craft of literary expression: how about Hemingway's list of essential books for aspiring writers? Because, Hemingway believed and said:

"As a writer you should not judge. You should understand."

Writers can also check out this list of 24 books that shaped one of the greatest writers, Gabriel Garcia Márquez. This list looked so wholesome and endearing that I had to include it all in my own to-read lists!

 

3. Are you in the a-book-a-day-keeps-the-gloom-away phase? The Reader's Digest list on 18 classic books that you can read in a day is absolutely wonderful. This is a list I can endorse, having read some of the brilliant classics in the list such as The Little Prince, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Animal Farm, Fahrenheit 451, The Great Gatsby, and many more!

4. Are you curious what other authors are themselves reading? I came across NY magazine's article- 23 Authors on 26 Books They’re Reading to Escape the Present Moment- a list that was chosen during these tough times to read, and escape to the better world among books, and also part of an "ongoing effort to provide productive distractions from what’s happening outside of your windows and on your screen" from the magazine! Do check them out, there are some very interesting titles from Hemingway to Austen to Phyllis Grant, and so many more! It's a fresh list, and something you should definitely check out.

5. Do you have young kids, brother or sisters around you? Do you want good books they can read during this lockdown? You can check out my reading lists where you'll also find a review for each book. You can also see my post on Literature For Young Girls, my all time favourite books, and other reading lists.

Check these links out in leisure, and do follow my blog to keep getting new suggestions and book reviews! Happy reading!

Fancy A Quote? Then, Make Sure You Save It

I have started reading a lot more nowadays- books, articles, magazines, daily newsletters(you can check some of them here), interesting pieces from archives of the blogs I like, and more often than not I feel like saving a quote, or a phrase or the article. When I read more on the same, or when I come across something interesting about what I previously read, I feel like adding it to the previously saved article or quote. A repository of the wondrous sources of information under every theme I read is what I am talking about. 

For someone who has great discipline, maybe Google Docs or a simple word document where they can copy-paste the links/quotes/phrases/notes, compile and categorize them according to relevant tags, would suffice. But, if you're like me you'd be the lazy dude who just reads an interesting article, tell yourself you'll do the copy-pasting of the links later, and then just forget. Instead, what we need is an extension that is convenient to use and is always there where resources can be saved, compiled, categorized, tagged and everything- all in that same instant. That's why I use Diigo. 

I opened an account with Diigo in 2012. But, I never used it much until I started doing a post everyday since December 2019. Like I said in one of my previous posts where I was talking about the power of habit, I found myself reading more the moment I started writing regularly. I had to explore things, and not keep my mind stagnant in order to be able to write the post for the day. When I was reading more, I felt the need to create a repository of quotes and links, and anything I was going to cite/use/refer in my writing. So, I started to use Diigo again, and this time I'm just loving how all of it gets neatly stored and put away then and there!

What is Diigo, and what does it do? 

"Diigo is actually an abbreviation for Digest of Internet information, Groups and Other stuff."

Diigo has a tagline that says it all: better reading and research! It allows you to bookmark any web link, highlight and attach notes to the web page that you bookmark, allows you to compile many bookmarks into an outliner that can be shared and collaborated. The best part is that what you save on diigo will exist intact even if the web page itself is taken down later. I really like how my personal library on Diigo is developing! 

I have started reading most books in their kindle version, and Kindle Highlights sorts out my needs for the quotations and excerpts that I want saved from the books. However, I save these along with other leads, lists, and essays from the various blogs and newsletters that I read in Diigo, so that all of them are presented in a compiled form for any tag I want to view. 

This is a really cool tool that can be used for anything- be it for your academic research, personal repositories, or just internet-collectibles! Check it out, today!

WriterDuet: A Lucid Platform

I have been attempting to write a story in script/screenplay formats, and WriterDuet is the wonderful discovery that makes the whole thing look so much lesser of a mess to me in this first experimentation of mine! It is not for nothing that this writing tool is called as the 'Google Docs' of Screenplay. 

With automatic backups and sync, this platform is really cool to use. It acquires a sense of the flow of the sequences, and is very useful even for those attempting to write a full-length script for the first time. When used with a desktop version, the software saves the work neatly in both offine and online modes- making it a reliable platform that doesn't require you to keep hitting the save button. 

The features that appeal the most to me are the real-time collaborations allowed on the platform, and the neatly filed and comprehensive edited versions of the script with co-writers. It also has this cool provision to put up a mind-map of the scenes in the story, allows outlining, tagging, and taking notes while writing. Customizing your experience with the platform is a pro-feature of WriterDuet, but the free version in itself is great. 

The whole process is neatly arranged, and the space looks stylish and clean- you genuinely feel like writing when you open the tool! It's been one of the coolest finds, one that makes you happy to have found it at the right time! You can check them out here if you are interested- WriterDuet. 

Happy writing!