How The iPad Is Changing My Reading Habits

Growing up, I used to read a lot. My favourite author was Enid Blyton and not a week passed without reading an Enid Blyton book. I read a lot of comics too; The Adventures of Tintin and The Adventures of Asterix & Obelix. Somewhere along the line between Junior High and Senior High, I completely lost it.

I don’t know why I developed a dislike and a lazy attitude towards reading. I was brought up as a reader. My mom made sure I registered at the Sunyani Regional Library and borrowed a book every week. At the same time, I was bringing a book from the the school’s library. I remember my mom would drop me and my kid brother at the library every day of our school vacations. We thought it was cruel and unfair for her to drop us off at the library at 09:00 and pick us up at 16:00. All we wanted to do was stay home, play with our Sega 2 console and sleep.

Thanks to the iPad, my reading habits are changing. I am rediscovering the old me. I always said I would rediscover the habit of reading with the iPad and gladly, I am. I could touch on other habits and how beneficial the iPad had been but I think ultimately, what I am grateful for is it helping change my reading habits.

The iBooks app and the iBookstore provides a wide variety of books to choose from. No more waiting for the Silverbird Lifestyle Store to get a book from the New York Times Bestseller List. I can make purchases directly on my iPad. I can also add epub and pdf files, making it easy to read reports and other documents on the go.

It is great to read on the iPad. I enjoy reading on the trotro, the bus stop and before those boring meetings begin. I can bookmark pages, highlight texts, add notes, change the font size and type, change the background colour, listen to music whilst I read, look up meaning of words with the in-built dictionary as well as search in Google or Wikipedia.

Currently, I have 650 books and pdfs on the my iPad. Now, I may never be able to read all 650 but it’s cool keeping a library. I have read a couple of them and I am currently reading Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make A Big Difference.

The iPad beats the Kindle hands down in reading. The added advantage is the ability to install the Kindle app and buy books from the Kindle Store. I prefer iBooks and the iBookstore over Kindle though.

If you got a few cedis to spend, spend it on an iPad and some books. Most importantly, it is green!