Where do people store all the things they want to consume?

I feel like this probably has been talked about but I’m not even sure how to do a search for it. (I try to search for things before posting as many topics are already answered.) So if you know of a thread, then I’m all ears.

Recently, I started a simple Apple Note that lists all the things I am interested in consuming in the future.

  • Movies
  • Tv shows
  • web videos
  • books
  • pdfs (this may not be possible except for me to just manually list the name)
  • articles
  • newsletters (pre-subscribing)

I would love some sort of process that I can bookmark things to (if it’s a movie, I would just bookmark the movie’s imdb page). If I don’t have a website link, then the ability to manually type something in. I can see pdf’s being an issue.

I do have Reader but I tend to like to put things in there that I’ve already read and want to keep. I want something that serves more as an inbox.

There was a recent discussion about bookmark management, so one possibility is that you could use a bookmark manager and simply bookmark all of these things, and it would be “content agnostic”. I think one of the best pieces of software I’ve integrated into my workflows this year is Anybox, which is a bookmark manager. Since everything you mentioned has a URL associated with it, you could conceivably keep all of those in a bookmark manager with some combination of folders, tags, statuses, etc. to keep track of what you want to consume.

For example, I usually keep PDFs in DEVONthink, and for those I want to read, I might add a “to read” tag to the document in DEVONthink. Since Anybox supports URLs from apps as well as websites, I have that tag bookmarked in Anybox, so it’s easy to both mark something “to read” (in DEVONthink) and access those items I’ve tagged “to read” (in Anybox). Anybox has good Shortcuts and Widget support, so it’s easy to both add and access content in that app on various platforms using various workflows/approaches.

On the other hand, you could also use specific apps and services that have appropriate metadata for the content type, like IMDb for movies and TV shows, as you mentioned. I’ll put in a word for LibraryThing for book management. I started adding books in my library, books I wanted to read, books I had read, etc. back in 2008 and have been using it consistently ever since.

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Sofa App is enjoyable and useful. I use it for everything except books, where I use Book Tracker

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  • The movies and tv shows that I ripped in the past are archived on an external drive. If I want to watch one of them I check justwatch.com first because most of them are usually available for free . . . somewhere.

  • web videos and PDFs containing bank numbers, SSN, etc. numbers are stored in EagleFiler on my Mac

  • eBooks and audiobooks remain on Amazon. I gave up stripping them of DRM using Calibre years ago.

  • Other PDFs, articles, etc. are stored on Google Drive. I capture/save many of these using Goodlinks.

  • I bookmark most things in Google Keep with the rest of my notes, but you could use almost anything, Apple Notes, Pages, etc. to keep a list of links.

  • When I’m researching a topic I frequently bookmark links in a Safari folder, save stories, etc. in the Reading List, and then export everything (bookmarks and reading list) to an html page, on Google Drive, when I’m finished.

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Thanks. I remember hearing about Sofa previously but forgot all about it. Will check it out.

I largely gave up tracking. If I get to something I get to it, if I don’t I don’t.

If I really want to see/read/listen/watch something I’ll go out of my way to.

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For movies I use Letterboxd, and I use Readwise Reader for articles, though I am thinking of switching back to the free version of Instapaper once my Readwise sub runs out.

For everything else, I keep Obsidian docs for To Watch, To Play, To Read, etc. It’s simple, but it works. As intriguing as apps like Sofa and Serial are, they have never really felt right to me.

I agree. Why turn entertainment into another burden to manage?

Exactly. I have enough inboxes in my life already collecting things to be done.

TV and movies: Trakt.

Articles: Readwise reader.

Books: I’ve messed around with a bunch of apps and am currently using DevonThink sheets but honestly any ol’ list will do. A list in Apple Notes is fine and I may just do that. Pen and paper would be fine for those who use that technology.

I agree with @Synchronicity and @geoffaire about not turning entertainment into another burden to manage. I treat the books, TV and movie lists as simple suggestions and reminders, nothing more.

I do abuse my read-it-later list — I put far too much in there.

There are things I want to consume and I don’t want it cluttering up a task manager.

And by being intentional about it how I spend my time, I (hopefully) won’t go down stupid mindless rabbit holes.

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And by being intentional …
[/quote]

I am a digital hoarder in recovery. I’ve declared read-it-later bankruptcy more times than decency allows. If I gave myself the luxury of an inbox, it would be full of the digital equivalent of rubber bands, miscellaneous keys to lord knows what locks, and enough old magazines to create a fire hazard.

I keep what I refer to as my “syllabus” in a collection of markdown checklists in NotePlan. (There’s a checklist for each area of interest, and that list can contain items of any medium—i.e., there isn’t a separate list for books or videos or exhibits or whatever.) To make sure I’m being genuinely intentional, I don’t let myself just drop a link in the relevant note and call it a day: I make myself create something akin to a bibliographic entry for the item I’m adding and manually add it to the checklist. I might add a little note to the entry documenting who recommended it or why I’m adding it.

Nothing goes into my read-it-later app, video queue, or new music playlist unless it’s on the syllabus. It’s work, but it keeps me focussed and intentional. I’m at that age where there just aren’t enough “somedays” for all the available “maybes,” but I do keep a checklist for those serendipitous discoveries that warrant further exploration when I need a dollop of adventure to keep things fresh.

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Depends on why it’s on the list.

E.g., movies:

  • little kids’ movie night list has things I’ve promised I will watch with them soon.
  • older kids’ movie night list is similar, plus some from school curricula
  • my wife and I are (slowly) going through a special list we made
  • my just-me list, mostly requests to watch and review/opine
  • unplayed episodes of a friend’s movie podcast’s archives are ones I haven’t seen yet

Books and albums are similar.

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Even entertainment items can be for uses other than to “consume”: analyzing movies, for example, or keeping track of allusions for a writing project across multiple sources. Whichever tool or tools make sense for the task(s) at hand — might be specialized or generalized, depending, but the important thing is to choose while being mindful of your needs.

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I moved to sofa from Movie tracker because I didn’t want managing my entertainment and general interest to be burdensome and too detailed, but it is helpful to be able to put things of interest in a pile or list so that I don’t lose track or have to spend time searching for the half-remembered details when I decide I am in the mood to watch or read something.

I also find it helpful to let sofa keep lists of things I have watched in genres I am particularly interested in to stop me wasting time watching 20 minutes of a movie before I have seen enough to remember that I’ve seen it before and can now remember the plot. It’s as easy as moving it from a “interested” list to an “archive” one.

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  • Movies > List in an Apple Note (basic but it serves its function, I can add the title, paste a link, make a note of a streaming service that has it, etc.)
  • Tv shows > List in an Apple Note
  • web videos > I sort them by topic, I have two lists in Reminders and two lists in Freeform
  • books > Book Tracker app (was recommended by this forum and I see it’s recommended in this thread already, it’s a great app and the developer is very responsive)
  • pdfs > DevonThink (it has a read/unread function that’s very useful for this)
  • articles > Reader (it is a little odd that you’re using Reader for an archive when its main purpose is to provide you with a good reading experience)
  • newsletters (pre-subscribing) > I don’t have a good system for this. Sometimes I save the link in Reader, especially if I’m in a rush. Sometimes I add it to the Reading List in Safari. Sometimes I just leave the tab open for days on end. Sometimes I put the feed straight into Reeder (my RSS app) and then delete it later when I decide I don’t like it enough.

For YouTube videos, I’m using the Play app to keep a queue.

I did use that for movies and shows, too, but recently started keeping all of that in Channels DVR, which is a like Plex, with a media library, but with its original focus having been on television, but with its media library features increasing. A community member created a tool, Stream Link Manager, where movies and shows from various streaming servers appear in my library in Channels, and when I click to play it, it launches the correct app and goes right to the content. So, in the screenshot below, two of the three episodes actually launch in Amazon Prime, with NBC News being the one to play directly in Channels. That happens on both my iPad and Apple TVs.

Channels allows the creation of Collections and also Playlists. I keep a “Stuff to Watch” collection.

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Physical books (runs into many thousands) on bookshelves. I know there will be some that never get read. Oh well.

Ebooks on my Macs, iPad, and iPhone. As with physical books there will be some that go unread.

PDF saved to folders with others related to the same subject domain.

TV shows are serendipitously selected. Currently (binge) watching K-dramas on Netflix, Apple TV, Disney+, and anywhere I can find them. But I do not have a plan; other than watching productions that contain some favourite male and female actors.

Web videos on YouTube. Means I get to watch Seth Meyers, Stephen Colbert, Saturday Night Live the best bits of Jimmy Fallon’s show — but does mean I miss the absolute best bit which is The Roots — without giving up storage space on cable STB.

Articles in the media for the most part only the current news is of interest. Anything that I think I might want to refer to again, which is about 1 in 10,000 articles across 10+ different agencies, gets bookmarked.

STEMM articles related to health conditions get download as PDFs and saved as others of that ilk in relevant folders.

In a recent Korean language class the tutor asked each student what was the most recent movie they had seen at the conema. I simply can’t remember what or when that. If there is a movie I want to see then I wait for it appear on the cable STB.

Newsletters in printed form get skim-read for anything of burning concern before being consigned to the paper recycling bin. Online ones have been amassed in folders in my email archive but as my interests and passions change I clear those out — mostly unread.

Basically my approach is serendipity. Go with the flow. And change my mind often. Only a few things absorb my interest for years: baking, cooking (especially the cuisines of other countries and different ethnic groups), the novels of Jane Austen, my three second languages — including my current one of Korean, the 49ers, Formula 1, Le Tour de France, and green politics (including the Green Party of England and Wales).