Why do I read more on the web
The phone, that’s the answer.
I thought about this today, while I was reading something on NNW.
To be honest, I have been thinking about this since I read the latest Roden by Craig Mod. It was all over the place in the right sort of way, dense, packed with stuff. My kind of a post (article? essay?).
I haven’t slept with a phone in my room in over a decade. (The weirdest flex, yes.) If possible, I don’t sleep with it on the same floor. Chatting with Simone Giertz a few months ago, she had a brilliant idea: what if the only way to turn on the electricity in your home was to dock your phone at the front door? Me, I dock it in an avoidable corner to charge so that I don’t accidentally see it when I get up. I try my hardest to not look at it until after lunch (a phone-free morning is something I’ve been writing about for 10+ years). But even if you can’t go that far, at least get it out of your bedroom. The only networked device (only screen) in my bedroom is a Boox Palmaand I love it and still use it daily after about nine months. It has two apps: Readwise Reader (for whom I’m an advisor) and Kindle. That’s it. If I wake up in the middle of the night (which is thankfully rare), I just read a little on its gently-lit screen, and am soon re-slumbering.
when do I get to read?
- When I get up, I take my phone to the toilet. Then, I read the feeds I follow.
- While travelling. During weekdays that’s from home to work and back.
- Sometimes, at home. If there’s nothing else.
the device that you carry with you all the time
That’s this phone, the one I’m typing on.
I decided to write more, write daily. Ever since I read Hugh Howey’s definition of a successful writer, I decided to be more protective of my time, guarding it like Gollum does the ring. I stopped listening to podcasts while walking. It’s mostly classical chill or Weightless (10 hour version) on Apple Music.
That has meant no time to read. Or half the time I had while travelling than earlier.
Most of the times, all I have is this phone with me. I love reading the book, but I can’t pull out the book in the middle of work and start reading.
And so most of what I read is the web.
I could read on the kindle. But the book I am reading is borrowed from the library. It is a hardcover. I love hardcovers. That does not sync to my phone.
a problem with no solution
That’s what this feels like. And why I am super tempted by the Boox Palma, or a similar device.
But that would make reading pleasurable. It will not sync the hardcover to the Palma.
And it is also why I feel I will continue reading more on the web.
Why I feel that fast is a problem, is because there is comparatively less time available on the web to get an idea across. Some things for sure work better here, but not all things.
