bookworm spirit

I used to be that person who would strongly advocate for physical books over an e-reader. 

Physical books just hit different: flipping the pages, the smell of the paper, a fresh book mark or stray receipt as a placeholder, knowing how far along you are in the story by how wide you crack the spine... there's nothing like it.

Then, after years of mooching off J's iPad whenever I wanted to play around with some handwriting/drawing on my photos, I finally caved and bought my own - a mini version.

The plan was to use it solely for my creative outlets like on-the-go photo editing, mood boarding, brainstorming, mapping projects in notion, etc. But then, I downloaded the OverDrive app and synced my library accounts (yes, plural, because I have a library card in two different counties). Then... I noticed a few books for which I was way down on the waitlist for a physical copy were available for immediate digital download. 

Sometimes I wait months for a book I want to read to become available at my local library, and by the time it's ready for me to pickup, I'm not in the mood to read it anymore. Some seasons all I want to read are thrillers or mysteries, but then a couple months later I just want to breeze through a few cheesy romance titles. If i'm in the romance headspace, and the thriller I put on hold last year finally becomes available, I'm way more likely to let the hold lapse and miss out on reading the title altogether.

Yes, I know, I could go out and buy the book for myself, but as someone who was basically raised on library books, I now only purchase books that I would re-read in the future (or from a trusted, no-fail author, can't-miss). 

 

So, I downloaded that book and then a few more.

Then I downloaded some of the recommended titles based on what I had recently read.

Then I tried a couple months of kindle unlimited since they were offering a free trial.

Then before I knew it, it had been two years since I cracked open a physical book for myself!

I'm always encouraging the boys to read their books, and Gabriel absolutely loves reading. It's one of his favorite activities, and sometimes I catch him staying up in bed with one of the books from his shelf, "reading" with the glow from his nightlight (and by reading I mainly mean looking at the pictures and pointing out different letters/colors on the page). 

His little bookworm spirit warms my heart, and I want to make sure he keeps it up, so I went out and grabbed a few hard copies of books on my reading list so I can lead by example. Because even if I'm reading a book on my iPad, for all he knows, mom is just on yet another device again.

But at night, when I'm laying in bed and unwinding from the chaos of the day, I'm probably going to grab my iPad. It's quicker, easier, and I don't need a nightlight to dig into a fresh story.

But if anyone asks, physical books are still better.