Let’s just have everyone remain calm here. YES, I do read hard-copy books. I will say not exclusively, but I do come across books every once in a while, and I do like to have them. For this, I can only blame my lovely Wife.
Allow me to explain….
My Wife is the biggest bibliophile I know. She has read more books in the past few years than I ever could. Over the past couple of decades (GULP) that I’ve known her, she has always encouraged me to read more and buy books with her. She is always buying books. Anyway, several years ago, I thought it would be a good idea to pick up the habit, so I did, and not only that, but I did it with gusto! That is if gusto was me doing it digitally, of course. She always encouraged me to keep a list of books I wanted to read that I hadn’t yet read. This “To Be Read” list (or TBR) was something that she always had in her head. She was much smarter than I was, and I never thought I could keep that kind of information in my brain, so I naturally turned to Notion. I found a template which I quickly modified to suit my needs.
1) MY TBR is my goal list – I like goals. Scratch that, I LOVE goals!!! There is something for me in scratching off that goal (or, in my case, switching the status from “todo” to “Done”) which gives me a sense of satisfaction and validation that I have completed things like clicking that “DONE” button on my todo list.
2) Book dates – Something my Wife and I have started doing over the past few years is going on book dates. This usually means going to our local bookstore and wandering around to see what’s new and interesting. After I started reading as much as I could, I would be able to go into the store and find a few books which I could point out to her and say, “I’ve read that one!” which has become a point of pride for me. Now you’re probably thinking, “But Jason, you’re a DIGITAL guy….Why don’t you find the book online and read it electronically??” I mean, yes, I could do that, and sometimes I do, but every once in a while, it’s fun to buy the thing in the moment, you know?
3) Reality bites – Whenever I look at the news, I get depressed. Something bad or evil is always happening, or someone has done something to piss off someone else. IT SUCKS! There is nothing wrong with a little escapist reading to take yourself out of your life for a little while. Yes, you will have to pay the bills tomorrow and get up and go to work and whatnot, but for now, what’s wrong with reading about fictitious situations and people and seeing how they handle whatever the story will throw their way?
4) Sometimes, It’s more satisfying to turn the page – Every time I finish a book, I like to take a moment. I don’t know if anyone else does this (Feel free to comment below on this one), but I like to take a brief second or two, and both acknowledge that I’ve finished another book and think over what I just read. I also like to turn over the cover of the back of the book. It’s a little reading ritual that I have. I like closing the book at the back, It’s just my way of finishing it. It’s trickier to do with a Kindle because when you open your Kindle again, The book you just finished is still there.
As I write this post, I have just finished a series of books on my Kindle, and I’m looking forward to reading a few books in hard copy format. There isn’t anything wrong with reading either in hard copy or electronic. There are some books I’ve come across in hard copy format where the font has been so small that I was forced to get the book again in electronic format to get a bigger font. The trick is not the format, the trick is picking up a book and diving into it. Go read a good book, and see where your imagination takes you.
How do you like to read?
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