How Do You Consume Books?

The pros and cons of paper, digital, and audio books

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Someone recently asked me an interesting question. How do you consume books?

What they meant was, do you read paper books, digital books on a Kindle or other e-reader, or do you listen to audio books? My answer was “all of the above”. I’ve written before about why it’s important to read multiple books at once. It got me thinking more about the best situations for each medium and if we all tend to gravitate toward one of the options.

Let’s explore how I use each of these.

Paper Books

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I typically have at least one traditional paper book that I’m reading at all times. I do appreciate the tactical aspect of cracking open a book and feeling the pages. Typically, I keep these physical books at my nightstand for reading before bed and when waking up.

Maybe it’s just me, but I find that fiction better suits the tangible paper book. I’ve also always preferred fiction at night and non-fiction in the morning. These days, when I read a paper book it’s more of a meandering journey. I don’t have a Kindle telling me that I’m exactly 36% done with the book. The twists and turns of narrative fiction seem to benefit from the physical page turning. Maybe it’s just a psychological thing for me.

There is something special about seeing just how thick a physical book is. A constant reminder that you have a lot of reading ahead of you. No, you don’t know the exact percentage but you do know what those remaining pages feel like.

Let’s talk about bookmarks for a second. Do you all use fancy bookmarks? I have a couple that I’ve acquired over the years that are solid but for the most part, I’m just using scrap of paper. Especially if it’s a library book, I’m typically just using the little receipt with the due date on it to mark my place. Call me crazy, but It is a minor annoyance when reading a paper book. It may feel like a small thing, but losing your place in a long book is extremely frustrating.

Obviously, a paper book can be difficult to read in low-light. I have a small lamp next to my bed that will give me enough light to read before bed without being too bright to keep me awake. While I’m a huge advocate of eliminating screens before bed, I often find the soft e-ink glow of a Kindle screen to be less of a strain on my eyes than a bedside lamp while reading a paper book.

Digital Books

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A bulk of my reading is done digitally. Specifically, using my Kindle Paperwhite. I know there are a few new models, but I haven’t seen a great need to upgrade my Kindle. They’re pretty rugged devices, although I’ve had several of them develop scratches on the screen after throwing them in and out of bags while traveling.

Maybe the most undeniable advantage of reading on a Kindle is the sheer volume of books at your disposal at any given time. For those of us who are working on our ability to focus, this could be a curse. It can be difficult to just read one book when you know that you’re only a few taps away from accessing millions of other books that may be more enjoyable than the one you’re currently reading.

At any given time, I may have 3-5 books on my Kindle that I’d consider myself to be “actively” reading. There may be two non-fiction and two fiction options that I hop back and forth between. There are cases when I make that tough decision to stop reading a book. When you do this on a Kindle, you don’t have to see the physical book staring at you sadly on your bedside table. It can just be out of sight and out of mind until you download your next read.

As I said, I much prefer the backlight of a Kindle to an actual lamp. And yes, I know there is a Kindle App that can be used on your phone or tablet, but I much prefer the paper-like e-ink text found on the actual Kindle. I’m happy to dim my phone and turn on the mono-chrome feature if I want to read a book but don’t have access to my Kindle, but this is a special circumstance.

I do find myself getting through books faster when reading them on a Kindle. The completion percentage can be motivating but also stressful at times. It’s hard to know how big of a commitment you’ve made to a book when you can’t physically feel the thickness. I go back and forth between looking at the time remaining in the book or the chapter or just turning it off so I can be pleasantly surprised.

Finally, I find the highlighting and note-taking features on the Kindle to be severely underrated. Once you start using them consistently, you’ll find them equal to if not better than paper highlights or notes in the margins.

Audio Books

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Audio books have also become a big part of my reading system. Sometimes reading with your eyes can be difficult right? I’m often on the move. Walking my dog, going on runs, trekking my daughter around town on my bike. There are many more opportunities to listen to content than to read it.

By no means am I advocating for you to always be plugged in listening to books. It’s always safer to ditch the headphones when you’re running or riding your bike in busy areas. And I love the bike ride conversations I have with my daughter too much to always be listening to a book. But there are times when the headphones absolutely make sense.

Short non-fiction titles that dive deep into one specific area are perfect for audio books. No offense to any of these authors, but you’re typically not missing a lot of nuance and poetic wordplay that would be nice to visually see on a page. You can crank through a lot of information in a short amount of time and then move on with your life.

Speaking of saving time, I love the ability to speed up the content in an audiobook. 1.5x usually works well for me. Sometimes I’ll push it to 2x if I’m in a rush or feel like the content is dragging along.

I also find that I remember the content of audiobooks much better if I’m out for a walk or run while consuming them. I often link the content with my surroundings. For example, I may walk past a particular tree every day when walking my dog. I tend to remember the specific bit of audiobook that I heard when passing that landmark. It’s just another way to help your brain connect to the information you’re hearing.

There are obvious downsides when trying to listen to a book that has visuals. I know some audio book players can display images but it’s clunky at best. Any book that has pictures, diagrams, or other helpful visuals should be left off your playlist.

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter too much how you consume your books. As long as you’re ingesting the content one way or another you should be fine!

How would you answer this question? Are there any other scenarios that I didn’t touch on?

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Thanks for reading, I’ll see you next week!