Going back to paper books

For several years I read almost everything on my phone: articles, newsletters, even ebooks. The number of words per day was high, but at the end of the month I could remember very little of what I'd read.

This year I went back to paper books. Nostalgia had little to do with it. I wanted to see whether my reading habits would change.

Reading slower

The first thing I noticed was how much slower I read. On a phone my eyes skim, skip lines, hunt for the main point. With a paper book there are no notifications cutting in and no links pulling me elsewhere, so I read every sentence.

I also read less, one or two books a month. But I remember what's in them and can retell it to someone else.

Writing in the margins

My favourite new habit is writing in pencil in the margins. Underlining a sentence, noting a question, marking where I disagree. Opening the book again months later, those notes show me what I was thinking at the time.

For a designer there's a side benefit: I pay more attention to how books are set. Margins, type size, line spacing, how chapters break. A printed book is the most carefully crafted typography I hold in my hands every day.

You don't have to quit screens

I still read technical docs and news on a screen. Paper is for things I want to keep: novels, books about the craft, books about how to live. The two kinds of reading do different jobs.

Where to start

Pick a thin book, under 200 pages. Put it where you most often pick up your phone, like the bedside table or the dining table. And let yourself abandon a book that isn't working. Reading one you enjoy matters more than forcing yourself to the end of one you don't.