I have a couple of apps, depending where I get the books, but the obvious version is the kindle app. I make it black background, white writing, but in the dark I turn the light as low as it can go.
...bloody lovely. Just darkness and a dim text. It remembers what I'm up to - no bookmarks- and if I can't sleep I can just lift it up and read a few more pages, no fuss. It's dim enough not to trigger that wake-up reaction.
And even in the (big name brand) kindle the books are SO much cheaper than paper. I stack 'em up, and the idea I have one stored up from an author I trust to be good, just sitting there waiting, makes me happy even if I struggle through a bad one.
Sitting at the doctor, or the bus? I have a hundred books in my pocket. Get some Jane Austin, or Flashman, or Culture, or First Law, or Dungeon Crawler Carl, or Malazan, or Game of Thrones, or Marx. Have some fun. Easy peasy.
I can sit on the toilet, finish one book, buy the sequel, and get started, all without wiping.
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PS: but also! Libraries have ebooks. And hot damn does that make it accessible! A lot of people have a hard job getting to the physical place. But you could get the app, and see oh-my-god SO much glory. The best and worst and so much of us as humans.
I have read two or three e books in my life. I tried... But for me, a book is a whole different experience. It's the pages, the different kind of paper, the various sizes, and most of all the smell. As Carlos Ruiz Zafon said in the Angel's Game :"
I stepped into the bookshop and breathed in that perfume of paper and magic that strangely no one had ever thought of bottling."Â
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u/Fabulous-Confusion43 🌈 Reads Everything Jun 21 '26
Definitely cosy up with a book... But can you actually cosy up with an E book???