I got my first iPod in November 2005. This purchase sparked the digitalization of all of my music. I listened to things I hadn’t heard in years. The iPod quickly became at the primary means at which I listened to music. Now, my iPod goes with me everywhere I go, my music always just a button press away.
The net effect was a vast increase in the amount of music that I listened to. I probably listened to more music in the year after I got the iPod than the combined five years before it. And I listened to music not just on the iPod. I listened to more in the car, more while cleaning, more doing homework at my desk. My life was suddenly accompanied by music whenever possible.
This past December, I received an Amazon Kindle as a present. Like the iPod before it, I had a sudden re-awakening of love of reading. The Kindle has become my companion, going with me everywhere, always giving me something new to digest. The net effect is that in the past three months I have read sixteen books.
But not all of these were Kindle books. Several were off-the-shelf physical books. The Kindle made me more aware of how much I was reading and has driven me to read more. The source of those books is completely irrelevant. The Kindle was investment into forcing myself to make time for reading, and so far it is paying off.
Being a reader is a habit. Like any habit, doing it more reinforces that habit. The Kindle is a luxury item. I understand this, and thus is definitely not available to everyone. But its ability to inspire more reading is not intrinsic to it either. For someone else, it might be a new bookshelf, or audio books, or even simply a fancy bookmark. Whatever can make you more aware of reading and encourage you to make time for it is a positive in my book. Good luck and good reading.
- That is all.
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