I made a promise to myself (and my partner) after we were forced to find a new apartment unexpectedly and had to deal with moving all of my books: from now on I would make an effort to read more digitally. I’ve tried this before and failed, as I’m squarely one of those weirdos who very much enjoys the feel and the smell and the weight of a book in my hand. The books that I can place on my shelf and look at afterward linger in my memory long after I’ve finished reading them. The digital versions of them? Not so much.
But I know that digital is superior in so many ways: it’s better for the environment, it’s cheaper, and it’s more convenient, especially for me. I am constantly receiving pitches for upcoming books that I might want to see. Nearly every pitch comes with a PDF or a link to the digital version on Net Galley. A matter of practicality: if I could read more ebooks I wouldn’t have to send over my address every time I want to request something new and make some poor assistant create a shipping label and a mail carrier deliver it.
Not much has shifted since my earlier lockdown-era push toward digital reading in 2020. Amazon still wields a vast monopoly in the e-reader space with its Kindles, and Kobo remains a distant second (Kobo often appears in second or third place, usually under “Amazon alternatives,” on those Best e-Readers roundups that appear in every publication funded by affiliate links). Meanwhile Barnes & Noble’s NOOK has faded from the race.
So I decided to opt out of the dedicated e-reader space, and instead go with a Tablet. I make a lot of moral tradeoffs with myself: I would never buy an Amazon product, but I am all in on Apple. I get the latest model of iPad, but I make sure to turn off all notifications that might distract me. This will be a space for reading, not for social media.
My deepest hope for the world of books is that Bookshop will soon bring out its own e-reader to stand as real competition.
Here is where I make a confession: I use the Kindle app. I would not buy a Kindle, but the app is free and it is the most functional digital reading app out there. I told you that Amazon has a monopoly, after all. I also appreciate having the Kindle app on my phone if I find myself without a book and in need of entertainment.
For my purposes the Kindle app works great. I don’t read e-books to own, so I’m not worried about backing up my content in case Amazon disappears it or I get hacked. I get most of my digital reading material from Net Galley, where I’m pre-approved by a bunch of publishers to grab (sorry, send to my Kindle app) any upcoming book that I’d like. There are very few perks that come with being a book critic these days, so it’s important to appreciate the little things.
Sometimes a publisher will send me a forthcoming book as a PDF and then I’ll email it to my Kindle address so I can use the app to read it (yes every user gets a Kindle cloud even if you don’t own a device). Previously I read digitally in order to determine which physical books I wanted to request so I could finish reading. Theoretically, I should be able to read the whole thing that way. Recently Drawn & Quarterly gave me a perfect use case when they sent me a PDF of Lisa Hanawalt’s forthcoming graphic memoir, out in October. It looked beautiful on my iPad and I read and enjoyed the whole thing.
I’m happy to tell you that when I do need to buy a finished ebook, I can ignore whatever they’re trying to sell me in my Kindle library. For the past year or so Bookshop.org has been selling ebooks for download. You can’t read what you’ve purchased from Bookshop on your Kindle, but you can download Bookshop’s own free app for your phone or tablet. My deepest hope for the book world is that Bookshop will one day soon bring its own e-reader to market and provide Kindle with some real competition.
For now, my app libraries are loaded up and all I have to do is go somewhere with my iPad and sit down and read. Too bad that I can’t get rid of the sense when I’m reading text digitally that I’m doing work, when reading in print still feels, even after all these years, a little bit like a vacation.
