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?

1. When I get up, I take my phone to the toilet. Then, I read the feeds I follow.
2. While travelling. During weekdays that’s from home to work and back.
3. 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.

I write while I travel.

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.