Read this (later)

I've been called names. "Encyclopedia Brown," "Velcro Brains," "Know-it-all," "Data ditz," (that one's my favorite, actually).

I confess - I'm a trivia junkie. I come by it honestly; my mom was on Jeopardy, for crying out loud.

So, you can imagine my delight upon discovering Instapaper, the see-it-now, read-it-later tool.

As in read it later on your computer, or read it later on your phone (assuming you have a web friendly phone). Why is this better than bookmarks, del.icio.us, Google reader, etc.? Because it creates a simple reading list that you can skim through, skip through, check off and delete as you go. It doesn't ask for your email. You can password protect it. Or not. One list - one place. On-line. Available anywhere. Simple. Easy. Elegant.

When you're in the habit of opening 20+ tabs at a time (like some who, ahem, shall remain nameless), the ability to add an article or page to a reading list with one click ranks up there pretty close to the invention of the wheel. Or tabbed browsing. Really. Try it. You'll like it.

And by the way, we still have the encyclopedia set my mom won on Jeopardy in 1964 (or thereabouts - if that's not the right year, there will be 4 emails PDQ in my in-box telling me so - you know, from the other know-it-alls in the family).