who brings a book to a bar?
"Is that a Kindle?" I asked, white knuckle grip nearly crushing my brown bottle of O'Douls.
"Yeah," he sipped his IPA and set it down upon the ring of condensation that was forming on the 'paperwhite' screen of his Kindle.
"So, do you just use it as a beer coaster, or are you gonna actually read anything?"
---
This was my first sighting of a Kindle in the wild.
It made an impression on me.
Cozy... comfy... a bit pretentious in a bar setting?
Let's be real: a Kindle in a bar is better used as a coaster or conversation starter rather than to get any real reading done.
It's also free advertising...
Which led to me getting one for Christmas.
And I must say, it's a real game changer.
---
"Kindle Time"
Turning off my TV at 10pm each night and switching to "Kindle Time" has been my best new habit of 2024.
It is the first "Domino" to fall, leading to a cascade of good habits...
1 - getting to bed at a reasonable hour
2 - waking up to natural daylight
3 - reading way more than I otherwise would have
I sit in my favorite chair... put on my heated blanket... and start to read.
So far, I tore through The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway.
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I wanted to get a feel for his punchy, economical writing style. That book felt like a time capsule to France and Spain of the 1920s. (and I'm also pretty sure I got second-hand liver damage, despite being 6.5 years sober, from how much alcohol they were consuming in each chapter). Eventually, I want to watch the PBS documentary about Hemingway to learn more about the man... and explore more of his works.
I also made a lot of progress through The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky. Which I otherwise would not have read because of the yellowed pages and small print in my paperback copy, which is hard to see in dim lighting. Luckily, the Kindle makes it easy to change the font so that it is comfortable to read at whatever distance you prefer to hold it from your hungry eyes.
Currently, I'm working through The Damnation of Pythos by David Annandale. It's my first foray into the Warhammer 40k universe. I'll write an email dedicated to that after finishing it. But I must say, I've done more highlighting of passages purely in awe of the creativity of the prose than I have in any other book I've ever read. Stay tuned.
---
I have piles and piles of unread books ($8 for a paper grocery bag full from the local library)...
Files and files of half-listened to Audible audiobooks...
But the Kindle compels me to read.
I'm very OCD when it comes to reading physical books.
I must have the perfect lighting, and the perfect posture, highlighter and pen ready to go.
And those conditions do not lend themselves well to winding down for bed in the evening.
Enter Kindle Paperwhite.
I can dim the screen and enhance the warmth setting so it looks like a cozy paperback in any lighting.
I can easily highlight important passages with my fingertip (and review them all in one place later in the Annotations section of the app. No flipping from page to page. Just highlight after highlight. All juice. No pulp)
So I'll read until my eyes get droopy and the TV in my minds eye runs out of battery power.
But sometimes, I will hit a marathon of reading for an hour or two... Tearing through chapters that I would not have otherwise read, if it were not for the ease of reading on my Kindle Paperwhite.
Get yours here:
Happy reading!
Ben "All Juice No Pulp" Miller
PS - what are some of your favorite reading hacks and rituals? Any good book recommendations?