I've been using Serial Reader on and off for several years, as you can tell from my Goodreads shelf. Basically this is a free app that takes books with expired copyright, and breaks it into chunks. You get one chunk a day (the site says 20 minutes, but obviously that will vary with your reading speed), and that's it.
For some books, the sheer size of them is daunting. I've tried so many times to read Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. I want to read it, I am excited to read it... I haven't read it. It's too big, I get overwhelmed by it. With Serial Reader, I can see an end date. I know how many days left I have to read it. Currently I'm reading The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo through the app. I know I'm about four issues behind, but I know I can easily catch up; there isn't the overwhelming feeling of having read for an hour and only made 1% progress.
It also helps me in a weird way: I can use this to wake up. I know that I can start my day reading a little bit of fiction, and kick starting my brain into preparing for the inevitable horror of sitting up to get out of bed. I can gradually make progress, focus on reading the daily chunk of the book, while I'm slowly sitting up. Having that focus, and making sure I'm taking my time, has helped me faint a lot less. It's wonderful being able to start my day without passing out immediately, and reading at the same time.
Serial Reader has also let me read one of the books I wanted to read for the longest time. The Mummy! Tales of the Twenty Second Century by Jane Loudon came to my attention when I was 15, and I had been trying to look for it. No library had it, it was out of print, I was getting all of the usual obstacles. Then... one day... I found it. It was available on the app. I started and finished it in 2018, and it was perfect. I'm making it sound more dramatic than it really was, but it felt dramatic at the time.
In short, I really love this app, and I'm so glad I have a phone that lets me use it again. I have missed it.
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