All of us are aware of the sheer volume of resources available to us. There are so many excellent books and blog articles to choose from that many of us find ourselves hard pressed to slow down and meditate on what we read. Now, more than ever, we identify with the words of Ecclesiastes 12:12 which states, “Of making of books there is no end.” The rich blessings we enjoy can also be a burden, particularly if we don’t remember what we read.

One way in which the volume of resources we enjoy is a burden is that we are tempted to hurry through what we are presently reading because we want to get to the stack of other good resources that await. Even if we do take our time reading, the fact that we read so much causes us to forget a good bit of what we read. We continually take in more information.

What should we do about this? I think one solution is to determine to re-read books instead of just going from one new read to another. In Advice on Reading Choices I discuss this approach and provide other considerations.

Enter Readwise

Another solution to helping us to retain and continue to meditate on what we have already read is software that target readers. Readwise is a program I discovered a while back that helps me remember and reflect on past reads. I absolutely love it!

This is how it works. Readwise connects to every way by which we read digitally. Whether it is a book on Kindle, a blog post, podcast, web site, Apple Books, Twitter, PDFs, emails, or a library book, if I highlight something, it goes straight to my Readwise. It will automatically include the source and page number or location as well.

Many of my book are in print, but Readwise takes care of this, too. I can upload a quote from a hard copy book I am reading by manually typing it in. Or I can take a photo of it and add it to the program easily. I can add tags or notes to the quote as I upload it, or wait to do so later.

The Daily Feed

Readwise can do a great many things that I haven’t tapped, to be honest. My favorite feature, however, is the Daily Readwise. I have set the program to send me a daily email that includes 5 quotes from books that I have read. This morning, my Daily Readwise email included quotes from books read several years ago and even last week.

I have found this daily feed to be a tremendous help to me in remembering what I’ve read. It helps me remember not just the content, but also the books themselves. As you can see in the picture of today’s feed above, I can favorite the quote to make it show up more frequently, discard it, give it a tag, or share it on social media or an email. I use these features daily. I ended up deleting a few of the above quotes and tagging the others.

Here is a recent quote I shared from Readwise:

As I use this platform, I weed out quotes I deem not necessary to keep long-term. The good ones I tag to make them searchable. You can see how this proves very helpful when studying topics as well.

Interested in Readwise?

This program is potentially very helpful to you if you read a lot. Its value is greater still if you teach or write frequently.

Some people might like the concept of Readwise, but not the price. For me, it is well-worth the annual subscription, so much so, that I wrote an article about it to get the word out!

Readwise can be experienced through a free trial period, but it is a paid program. If you would like to give it a go, use this link and it will potentially help me as well: https://readwise.io/i/forrest6.

If you have tried Readwise or currently use it, please feel free to express your opinion of the program in the comments. Or maybe you have discovered a similar program that you prefer. Please let us know!

What is important is that we meditate on God’s truth, however that works for us.

Photo courtesy pexels.com.