Top Ten Tuesday | Things That Make My Reading, Blogging and BookTubing Life Easier

Hi guys. Did you know I've never done a Top Ten Tuesday post before!

I love reading these weekly posts on all the blogs that I follow but have never actually done one myself. This is partly because I was usually struggling to find the time to do them but I also could never quite get a full list of 10 items for a topic. So since I'm now able to spent more time on my blog, I decided it was only right that I did a Top Ten Tuesday post and since this week's topic was 'Things that make my reading/blogging life easier' it also gave me opportunity to research some more ways to speed up the blogging/booktubing process and automate aspects where possible.

So grab a cup of tea and enjoy my Top Ten Things that make my reading, blogging and booktubing life easier. I hope you discover something new that could help make your life that little bit easier too :-)

#1 Overdrive - Accessing my Library's Digital Catalogue
I'm fortunate that my local library has a Digital Catalogue on ebooks and audiobooks and, even though the current collection is not large and is mostly adult books, I have been able to find some great ebooks and audiobooks to read/listen. (Currently have Tunnels Audiobook and I've got my eye on Poison Study ebook). With the use of my Overdrive Kindle App, I can quickly access my library's catalogue at any time or day and, as long as the book/audiobook is available, I can download it instantly and start reading/listening. I sincerely hope my library continues to grow this system as it is certainly something I can see no reason to stop using it. At some point though, if the catalogue continues to increase at its slow pace, I will run out of books! :-(

#2 My Notebook - The Fountain of all Cold Tea and Crumbs Knowledge
If it wasn't for my little notebook that I carry around with me everywhere, then there would be no regular content on the Cold Tea and Crumbs YouTube and blog. I am that kind of person who relies on creating lists to stay productive and remembering important information. Brain like a sieve as the saying goes! In the early days of Cold Tea and Crumbs I didn't need a notebook as there was less to remember but now that I am addicted - yes I think its fair to say that I am addicted - to the booktubing/book blogging community than a notebook is needed. I write down everything - people who have tagged me to complete a tag - then short notes on my answers, video and blog post ideas, my schedule and anything else relating to Cold Tea and Crumbs. If I ever lost this little notebook I would be mortified!

#3 Social Share Buttons - Sharing content across multiple platforms easily and quickly
I'm sure that everyone has a million social media accounts with all the big contenders (twitter, facebook, pinterest, tumblr and goodreads) and it can be a job in itself publishing content across all of these platforms. I hate copying and pasting content but in order to save time sometimes that's just what you have to do. Well I still try to not do this where possible, who is going to read a book review on my blog if they've already read it on goodreads or tumblr? I therefore use the social share buttons on my blog to share my content in snippets across my social media sites. By using this I can share my content with thousands of people who don't know anything about my blog in about 15 minutes maximum. How great is that? If you don't have social sharing buttons on your blog yet, I'd seriously consider it - I use ShareThis and it's so simple to install.

These buttons don't work but they are located at the bottom of the post 

if you want to share this post with your friends.

#4 Bloglovin - The utopia of all blog following services

Nothing more needs to be said about Bloglovin other than its one place where all the content from blogs I follow listed in one simple and easy format. If you don't know about Bloglovin, then check it out and don't forget you can follow this blog through bloglovin - just click the blue box in the left sidebar or below:

          

#5 Kindle's Multiple Device Sync - Continue from where you finished last time
I read whenever I have a spare 5 minutes and sometimes I don't carry around my Kindle or a physical book with me but something I do always have is my iPhone. If I've been reading a book on my Kindle, when I come to read some on my iPhone the Kindle app syncs with the position on my Kindle and I can continue from exactly where I finished last time. When I get back home, the same again, my Kindle knows where I finished on my phone. Absolute intelligence - enough said!

#6 Kindle's screenshot feature and Photo Editor combined
I like to show book covers on my YouTube videos and here on my blog, but when I purchase a Kindle book the cover is usually on a white background and only covers about 70% of the space (sometimes it's even less). I therefore screenshot that page and then use an app called Photo Editor on my Kindle to crop the white background so the cover is full-screen. This is just a personal preference of mine and if it was hard and long winded I wouldn't do it but Photo Editor is so easy to use, I'm able to have lovely Kindle covers to show in my videos or images for my blog quickly and easily.

#7 Tweetdecks's Trend Columns - Constant hashtag fun
Are you taking part in Bout of Books 8.0 at the moment? Fed up of clicking on the hashtag to see what everyone is up to? Well, Tweetdeck's web and desktop application which allows me to add a column just for the hashtag #BoutofBooks makes life much easier (I also did this for #30DayRead and #BookTubeAThon). This means whenever I log into Tweetdeck I have everyone's tweets already loaded in one place and easy to navigate just like my normal timeline. Such a great feature and I also love the new update which allows you to schedule tweets too. Thank you Tweetdeck developers.

#8 iPhone - My connection to world
All my social media platforms in one place and the ability to quickly reply to goodread friends requests, twitter mentions and notifications of YouTube and blog comments. Enough said. I would be lost without my phone. All I need now is for both blogger and YouTube to make replying to comments via a mobile or tablet device easier and I'd be one happy blogger/vlogger :-)

#9 Kindle's highlight feature - my holy grail review tool
I read probably 50-75% of books on my Kindle at the moment. This is partially due to ease as I can carry one small book like sized object around and have millions of books at my finger tips but also because I can sometimes sneakily read a couple of pages whilst at work - *shhhhh* I didn't tell you that though.  The fabulous things about Kindle books is you can spend 5 seconds highlighting that amazing sentence that you want to quote or that amazing aspect of the story that you want to include in your review so quickly and easily. I would be lost without this feature and I'm sure that there's even more that I could use this feature for than I already do too.

#10 Fellow book bloggers and booktubers - The reason I'm still doing this everyday
And lastly, the thing that makes my reading, blogging and booktubing life easier (and more enjoyable) is the interaction with fellow book bloggers and booktubers. Because of the community involved with book blogging and booktubing, I have meant so many nice people and so many people I would actually regard as friends. I look forward to chatting and meeting more and more of you. Here's some of my favourites to watch on YouTube:

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So guys, those were the Top 10 Things that make my reading, blogging and booktubing life easier. I'd love to hear yours, so feel free to write yours or a link to your blog post/video in the comments section below :-)

This is a weekly meme created by Broke and the Bookish.
Visit their Top Ten Tuesday page for all the other upcoming topics and to see other people's posts.