Is Silman tedious for everyone or just me?

I am now very interested in buying Silman's "How to Reasses Your Chess."  Although my children accuse me of spending large amounts of time "getting my dump on", it might nearly be a toss-up with the amount of time I spend at my computer.  Can anyone recommend a simple, clean chess program that I could use to follow along with the book, if I were to purchase Silman's book?  It would be a bonus, I think, if the software would be suitable for composing chess problems (I'm not trying to flatter myself to be a composer--I'm merely interested in trying to see if I can invent a problem or two.)  I'd also be thrilled if the software was free:).  Thank you also, for the recommendations!

Vulkar summed it pretty well.It s of crucial importance to define an objective for the game.Find a gameplan and stick to it.

 I can't speak for any of his books, but the article he writes every week for chess.com has helped me out with all aspects of my game alot, but especially with my endgames.