My First Nine Years with Ebooks

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In July 2019 it’s been 9 years since I switched to reading only ebooks instead of traditional ones printed on paper.

Two reasons contributed to the switch. The first is back then my aging eyesight was making it increasingly uncomfortable to read printed text. The other reason is in July 2010 a friend bought an ebook reading device, a 6” Cybook Opus e-ink unit, and, as a geek, I was intrigued. I bought one for myself, started experimenting, and loved the experience, which I told in an ebook.

The Opus, with its high legibility and ability to increase the font size, made reading enjoyable again. And it made me discover the convenience, affordability, and wide selection of ebooks.

I later bought a Kindle 3 ereader but ended up doing most of my digital reading on Android phones with the Kindle and Google Play Books apps. I use the Google Play Books website on a desktop system, currently a Chromebox, to read content that’s not a good fit for small screens, such as programming books with source code.

Since July 2010 I bought 270 ebooks, 1 audiobook, and 5 printed books. I got the latter only because they were very interesting but no equivalent digital version was available, or were written by friends. I bought 170 of the books from Amazon Kindle, 35 from Google Play Books, and the rest from other retailers. Over the same time I read roughly a third as many free ebooks.

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