Over the past few years, I felt like my reading habit was on a decline. Perhaps it’s a combination of social media distractions and my life becoming increasingly busy, but despite the copious amount of books I own, and my love for the written word, I realised I just hadn’t been reading enough. By reading, I don’t mean scrolling through countless banal articles in my Feedly RSS feeds, Reddit posts or Tweets (are they still called Tweets? I don’t know anymore). By reading, I mean actively sitting down with a good book, and getting totally lost in its narrative.

Then in August 2023, I started considering what I once scoffed at: the ebook. I was firmly in the camp of physical books, and I still adore the feel of a real book, the scent of the pages, the beauty of the design and typography. But the convenience of the Kindle kept persistently gnawing at the back of my mind. And I came to the conclusion that perhaps dabbling in a new format of reading, one that peculiarly straddles the line between the analogue and digital world (more on that just now), might be just the thing to get me back into the reading habit.

The Kindle I ended up getting was the base model. I find that its simplicity in singular functionality the best thing about it. Unlike the Paperwhite, it’s smaller form factor is also nicer to hold and lighter. It’s really good at reading ebooks, and that’s about it. No Instagram to distract. No competent web browser to trawl. Just an e-ink screen, and words. Perfection.

Speaking of e-ink, I find it really easy on my eyes. It does a good job mimicking paper. Rather than looking at a screen, with light shooting out at your eyes, the e-ink display has no backlight, but a few LEDs that illuminate the surface.

Perhaps the biggest take-away from the few months of use has been a noticible increase in my reading speed. In the span of about 3-4 months I found myself blasting through 8 books, including discovering and devouring Richard Osman’s delightful Thursday Murder Club series. Whilst this number might seem low to most self-proclaimed avid readers, I was never one to read a copious amount of books to start with. But the instantaneous nature of online shopping, the almost addictive-like feel of tapping to the next page, and the little progress percentage in the bottom corner – coupled with the clever reading-speed and time-remaining-in-chapter line – have all contributed to me moving through books a lot more fluidly.

Of course, there’s the argument of quality over quantity. Fewer but better books rather than rushing through novel after novel. But reading more is always a good thing, and returning to a more regular habit of unwinding my mind with words on almost-paper has been good for me. I think that the act of reading, rather than being ensnared by the quick-dopamine hits of mindless scrolling on the ‘gram (although I’m not immune to the occasional social media binge) helps to calm the mind, to escape from the minutiae of everyday challenges, and, in my case, a way to also explore ideas that are directly feeding back into my writing projects.

Having extolled the virtues of the e-reader, I must admit that for the last two weeks, after waiting until I had a good block of free time, I’ve been hefting through the mighty tome that is Robert Galbraith’s The Running Grave, the latest Strike novel, in paperback. I had told myself upon getting the Kindle that I would still return to the printed page for some special books, and the Strike series is one of them, one of my favourite modern mysteries.

But as 2024 unfolds, I look forward to spending many hours with my Kindle as I work through my reading list for this year. I might even post a little about my impressions of some of those books. Stay tuned.