Let me get the excuses out of the way first:
This month, for work alone, I’ve driven over 2,000 miles, flown over 1,000 miles, and spent at least one full work day in four different states.
Translation: I’ve been busy.
I had hoped with all the travel I had coming up this month—nights spent in hotels, hours in airplanes, layovers small-town airports—I would find lots of time to read. I’m introverted by nature, and more than happy with a meal shared with a book and a quiet night in the hotel, sports on the TV and my book (or iPad) in my hands. I actually thought that spending so much time on the road could artificially improve my e-reading experience. Lots of time alone, multiple books in one place and easy to carry, something I’d always have with me everywhere I was, from the airplane to the hotel, by the conference room.
But…no.
I can count miles, and I can count nights, or states, or hotel rooms; but this month I can’t even count pages. The Kindle app for iPad doesn’t have pages. It has numbered sections—of which I can make neither heads nor tails—and it has percentages, but no pages. This month, to date, I’ve read 76%…of one book.
To be fair, it’s a good book (Steig Larsson’s The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest), and it’s the final book of a trilogy, so I’m savoring it a little bit—but to be honest, it’s sad. 24 days, and not even one book completed.
I’m not willing to blame e-reading for my lack of reading. But I’m also not willing to continue my e-book only experiment. I think I’ll do a lot of reading on the iPad. It’s easy to find, and relatively cheap to buy, e-books. And, contrary to my e-book reading record and my own expectations, I don’t hate reading them.
But I do love reading books on paper. I’m glad to have another way to read, but even the iPad can’t convert me. I’m a reader first. E-reader second.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, my iPad is calling. I need to finish my first (e-)book of the month.