- get a book via what I consider the most powerful combo in history, the kindle + library card
- if I like the book enough, i'll order a physical copy to have
I definitely am not getting that sensory feeling you describe when reading a book for the first time, but I also rapidly acquire new books and feel free to put down books I'm not enjoying due to the seamlessness of the e-reader x library card experience.
value derived from reading = quality of reading x time spent reading
With the e-reader, I decrease the quality of the experience but I increase the time reading, so I think I come out of it even.
However, my current process makes me select what books I think will be valuable to me later at the time of reading, rather than letting its lessons sit with me for years before wanting to pick it up again.
Love getting to read about your process, Evan. I'm also a kindle library reader, for the most part. If it gets you to the page, to someone else's words, more often than you'd be able to with physical books, I think your equation works out, and you're getting a lot of value out of the e-reader.
If you take notes somehow while reading on an e-reader, and put those notes in a place you can find later – last year and this year I've been keeping a spreadsheet of the books I read and keep notes on my main takeaways or the phrases that really resonated or inspired – then I think you can still access that long-term, circular kind of learning that physical libraries offer.
My current process is:
- get a book via what I consider the most powerful combo in history, the kindle + library card
- if I like the book enough, i'll order a physical copy to have
I definitely am not getting that sensory feeling you describe when reading a book for the first time, but I also rapidly acquire new books and feel free to put down books I'm not enjoying due to the seamlessness of the e-reader x library card experience.
value derived from reading = quality of reading x time spent reading
With the e-reader, I decrease the quality of the experience but I increase the time reading, so I think I come out of it even.
However, my current process makes me select what books I think will be valuable to me later at the time of reading, rather than letting its lessons sit with me for years before wanting to pick it up again.
I have a lot to think about...
Love getting to read about your process, Evan. I'm also a kindle library reader, for the most part. If it gets you to the page, to someone else's words, more often than you'd be able to with physical books, I think your equation works out, and you're getting a lot of value out of the e-reader.
If you take notes somehow while reading on an e-reader, and put those notes in a place you can find later – last year and this year I've been keeping a spreadsheet of the books I read and keep notes on my main takeaways or the phrases that really resonated or inspired – then I think you can still access that long-term, circular kind of learning that physical libraries offer.