Hannes Johnson dot Com

I’ve been using this cool tool called Instapaper by Marco Arment for a few weeks now and it has helped me read articles that I probably wouldn’t have without this handy tool.

What does it do?

Well, according to the FAQ “Instapaper facilitates easy reading of long text content.” It does this through a “Read Later” bookmarklet that you add to your browser. Then, next time you find an article online that you don’t have time to read you just click “Read Later” and it adds it to your Instapaper list. This is not a brand new idea per se… I’ve been using bookmarks for a similar purpose - created a specific folder for “Read later”, “Read ASAP” - I even started categorizing them - splitting them into sub-folders “January 2008″, “February 2008″ - but even those sub-folders just filled up and I only read a small percentage of the articles I bookmarked. I’ve also tried using del.icio.us and tagging articles with “toread” - it’s the same, I only check out a small part of the article I tag (although the tags “towatch” and “tolisten” have been more useful - perhaps because I don’t use them as frequently). I even tried out a Firefox add-on called Read it Later - but that doesn’t work any better than the bookmarking folder system.

Why is Instapaper so great?

The thing that makes Instapaper special is that I can easily access my “read later” list through my cellphone - which is excellent if I have to wait anywhere - waiting for a ride, waiting in line at the supermarket, etc… Or if I’m anywhere else away from a computer and nothing else to do ;)

Check out Instapaper here.

What do you think? Will Instapaper help you read more stuff? Do you often come across an article that you want to read but you don’t have time to read it right then?