With Memorial Day Weekend behind us marking the unofficial start of summer, now is a good time for caregivers to relax a little. Good activities for stress relief include exercise, meditation or spending time on a hobby. One key hobby caregivers can revisit this summer is reading for pleasure. The Scribd app offers access to free books for caregivers to read directly on their phones.
When users first download and open the Scribd app, they first need to create an account. New users can sign up for a free trial for the first 30 days of access. Then, it costs $8.99 per month.
After creating an account, the app asks you to scroll through a variety of book categories on the screen and select a few that interest you. They are broken up by sub-catergory too to help caregivers find the categories relevant to them. Options include Career & Money, Science & Tech, Health & Fitness, Lifestyle, Personal Growth, Entertainment, etc.
The app will automatically add these selections to your personal library. It will also then uses these selections to provide personalized recommendations to you in the future. On the homepage of the app, users will see a Browse section and a Recommended section. The Browse area is organized by genre, while the Recommended section instead displays items from a mixture of genres. Once three or more categories are selected, the app will build a list of personal recommendations for the user.
The app will actually break down recommendations into books, audiobooks and magazines. Caregivers can scroll through the covers and titles to select the ones they’d like to read. Once caregivers find a book they’re interested in, they can click on the cover to start reading it immediately, or to save it for later.
Once caregivers find a few items they’d like to read, they can locate them in the Library area of the app. It shows the book cover and then if users click on that, it takes them to the full text.
Caregivers can scroll through and read the book, and then when they’ve finished a reading session, the app will save their spot so they can pick up at a later time. Users can also create lists of titles they’d like to read to share or to keep private. Caregivers could create a list of titles they’re interested in, and another of books they might like to share with a senior client.
The Scribd app is available for Apple or Android platforms.
Senior caregivers, let us know your feedback on this app and keep us posted if you discover additional apps that assist with caregiving duties and help relieve caregiver stress. You may also refer-a-friend to a senior caregiving job and win prizes weekly and monthly on Caregiverlist.
