The unexpected benefits of a Kindle
The benefits of digital reading are getting harder and hard to ignore
Yes I know.
You love the smell of paper, and the solid feel of a book in your hands.
I know you are proud of your physical bookcase. I know sunk costs are painful.
I know you are worried about EMF etc.
But… the benefits of digital reading are hard to ignore.
You may not have considered some of the upsides, that could considerably level up your reading experience!
Here are six unexpected benefits of reading digitally.
Reading Revolution
1. Carry All Your Books With You
I pick up my iPad, and I have access to all my books, and can get access to nearly all the world’s texts! It’s mind blowing.
2. Kindle Your Notes & Highlights
Just tap the screen of your tablet to highlight sections and type in any notes you want to take. I then go to https://read.amazon.com/notebook and can see all my highlights in the one place.
3. Dictionary
Tap and hold a word to see it’s definition instantly. Amazing. This single feature has built my vocabulary like nothing else.
4. Kindle Time Left in Chapter/Book
Picture this. You are lying in bed after midnight, reading one of those books you just can’t put down. You look down to the bottom of the page and see “2 minutes left in chapter” and “2 hours 48 minutes” left in book. Here you can make a smart decision, just finish the chapter!
5. Kindle Daily Review
Is this the best kept secret for readers of the whole internet? Daily Review helps readers better retain what they have read over time. Daily Review periodically serves your highlights back to you at time intervals that have been specifically designed to help you with retention. The frequency at which the highlights are served back is based on the Ebbinghaus retention curve, the most efficient way science has found to consolidate learnings in your memory. The review intervals increase, from 1 week, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, and then annually. (You need to be logged in to your Amazon account to access this link https://kindle.amazon.com/refresh/.) UPDATE: Sadly this feature has now been removed.
6. Read Without Fear of Judgement
I think it was Alicia Loughlin who pointed out to me — when you are reading digitally, your book cover is no longer visible to the world! So yes, reading the Kama Sutra on the train to work is now fair game.
Useful Links
Ebooks are excellent, but whatever your format of choice, just keep reading.
(Note: I read with the Kindle App on an iPad Air with the brightness turned right down to minimise eye strain. (Cheers to Simon Cohen who makes a good point of additional benefits of the actual Kindle e-reader device “distraction-free, easy-on-the-eyes e-ink screen”!)
