It occurred to me today that we now consume our books in a lot more ways than we used to. Growing up, a book was printed on paper, and you had something to hold and turn the pages of. Now, there are a lot of other ways, from e-books to audio-books, and still the original paper versions.
It would be interesting to find out now, how people actually get their books.
Personally, I have a large selection of paper books, a very large collection of e-books in my Kindle library, and my Audible account is very extensive.
On a day to day basis, it’s the audio books that get used most often. The main reason for this is that I have a day job as a delivery driver. Having an audio book playing means I am still able to ‘read’ while I am working. My biggest problem with this is that the narration can make or break the experience, and I’ve had some books where that has caused me some major irritations (I really suggest you avoid the Game of Thrones books on Audible for this very reason).
When I get home, I can pick up my Kindle, or even a paper book, and continue to enjoy my reading. Now, the Kindle is great, but it comes with some drawbacks, mainly around battery life. My old Kindle would last for days, but the later ones are not quite so power efficient, meaning I have to charge it more frequently, and it will often run out of juice at exactly the wrong time.
I do have another option though. I can read everything in my library on my computer. Yes, the one I am writing this post on. Admittedly , I can play my audiobooks on the computer as well but the same problems still exist. There is the Kindle application, but that does limit the file types you can actually use, and I’ve collected a lot of electronic books over the years that won’t work on the Kindle.
My workaround for this is an application called Calibre. Every book in my e-book collection, works with this application, and it helps that I can order my collection in pretty much any way that I want it.
This isn’t an advert for Calibre, there is no sponsorship involved in this post, and I have nothing to gain with this recommendation, however, I have found it to be a really good application if you do have a large collection of e-books in your library.
I would be interested to hear how other people using this site consume their books, feel free to reach out to my via the Contact us link at the top of this page.