I’ve been wanting to do this for a while now - rant about all the beautiful things that have happened to me lately, book wise. I remember doing something like this last year, yapping in excitement and disappointment, sharing how I felt about certain things in the literary world. How time flies! It feels not too faraway, when I ranted about how dark romance made me feel, and when I gushed about the release of the last book in my favorite series, it’s been over a year now.
Last night, I needed to download this particular book for a friend, but couldn’t find it on my usual website. I searched the book title, and scrolled through my browser for possible sites where I could get it. As I scrolled, I came across a review on the book, a review with a title that seemed really familiar. I clicked on it, and it was my own review on that book. My heart surged at this, knowing that as much as I’ve helped the author in the little way I can, I’ve also influenced a reader’s choice in picking up the book, all while doing something I love - telling people about books.
This is just one of the many beautiful things I love about hive - how it puts us on the spotlight, impacting people whose we never would have crossed paths with. I can’t begin to count the amount of times I’ve read a review on here, that influenced my choice of reading. Many of us write about our experiences while reading, documenting it for whoever, without too much thoughts, but it ends up making an impact even if we don’t know it. My experience last night warmed my heart, I just knew I had to share it on here.
You know, there are certain situations where embracing change seems like the hardest thing to do - situations which we could easily maneuver for comfort. Maneuvering comfortable situations don’t seem like such a bad idea but what if? Just what if your comfort zone was suddenly upended, and you have no choice but to embrace change, and because you didn’t do that sooner, adapting becomes harder than it should.
Some months back, I got a new device. This was entirely different from everything I’d used before so it took me quite a while to familiarize myself with it. This new device came with a reading app, and for the past three years, I’ve only used one app for reading, which is Moon+ reader. I’ve come to fall in love with its interface, its features and all. So, safe to say, I didn’t like the idea of switching apps but I knew I would have to, eventually.
I gradually began downloading books on this new phone, storing them on here, for days I wouldn’t have the other with me. I continued living like that, till the day I had to give out my other phone. Then, I only had this new app to read. I began using it, familiarizing myself with its interface and all that, and one of these days, I reflected on a feature that has made me reading more seamless than ever before - the inbuilt dictionary.
As a reader, I love to have a dictionary close by, to help with better understanding of new words. With my other phone, I’ve always had to pause my reading, open my dictionary app, before I could access the meaning of the word, or I’ll have to turn on my data if I wanted to access dictionary in the app, and sit through different ads before getting an answer. Now, it’s different. I only have to hold down on this word, click ‘Look Up’, and the meaning of that word is displayed. This is a change I’m really happy about, because ever since discovering it, reading has never been easier.
Thanks for reading.
First image was generated using Gemini, and the others are screenshots of my experiences in the above.