The one thing my e-books and audiobooks can’t do

I grew up in a house full of books, so it’s not surprising that I like to read — I had my parents as examples. I remember I loved reading as a kid. Not just comic books (yes, those count as reading too), but proper books, like all of Roald Dahl’s classics and The Famous Five series by Enid Blyton. Those stories were so exciting. As I grew older, my interest shifted towards non-fiction and work-related books.

But somewhere in my thirties I lost touch with books. I would still pick up a book every now and then, but it wasn’t really a habit anymore. The birth of my daughter might have something to do with it. Though looking back, I mostly blame social media for stealing my attention. But since a few years I have made it a habit again to always be reading at least one book. The device on which I consumed social media — my iPhone — also turned out to be the solution to reading more.

My iPhone has made it ridiculously easy to read. I have subscriptions to Audible (audiobooks) and Storytel (audiobooks and e-books), I can buy almost any book instantly as a Kindle e-book with Amazon’s one-click purchase feature, I have digital subscriptions to two newspapers and my Pocket and Medium apps are full of saved articles. All these things have made my iPhone an infinite stream of interesting content to read. There is almost no friction, making my iPhone my ideal reading companion.

But today I realized a big downside of doing all this reading on my phone, triggered by what Levar Burton says in this clip:

His mother read not just to him, but also in front of him. It hit me:

If I’m using my phone to read, other people can’t tell I’m doing it.

To them, I could be doing anything on my phone. When I am listening to an audiobook, to my girlfriend and daughter it just looks like I’m doing the dishes — they can’t see I have my earbuds in. Or if they can, they might think I’m listening to music. And when I’m reading an ebook or an article on my phone, to them I might as well be scrolling through my Twitter timeline, or googling (which, in all honesty, is also often the case). I don’t like this.

I want to give a good example to my daughter, but she just sees my on my phone. Perhaps it’s no wonder that she likes to use her tablet all the time as well. I’m not being a good model, like Levar Burton’s mother was and like my parents were.

So here is a note to myself: if you are going to read in the presence of your family — make sure they can tell you’re doing it. In other words: unless you’re alone, read a damn physical book.