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Reading for 2024 – read more??
In 2024 (46 books as of writing) I read more than 2023 (31 books total) which makes me happier but is still below the previous 9 years of around 70 books per year. I’m not resolving to “read more” as many people do but I am going to be purposeful about 30 minutes devoted to books before I start work in the morning. I did that in December and read 3 books. This week my “book” time is devoted to transferring my notes into Obsidian. Much as How to Write a Lot advises, the practice of “book time” involves all the things around books like notes and writing about books.
The 30 minute focus should also help me produce more videos on books and ideas for 2025.
I know many people talk about reading faster and all that jazz, but really the only thing you need to do is set aside more time for reading. Forget all the stuff about less eye movement or only glancing at the beginning 1/3 and end 1/3 of a line, spend more time reading instead of with all the other distractions that come into your life.
12 Books for 2025
The other reading related thing I’ve been thinking about for 2025 is a book club. This would be a monthly book that we could read together. I’d send out my weekly insights and at the end of the month write something longer on the book (with a YouTube video and maybe podcast) and if anyone wrote about the book as well and sent me the link I’d round up all the other thoughts on the book?
Is anyone interested in joining me for 12 books in 2025? January’s book would be Right Thing Right Now by Ryan Holiday so we’re starting with an easy read. I’ve enjoyed his other books on philosophy and have always found a number of good reminders about how I want to act.
Members would get some extra perks like an ebook of the content I write.
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Kobo or Kindle?
In Canada the Kindle is hampered by design decisions from Amazon. Bluetooth is deactivated so you can’t use the device for audiobooks and it doesn’t hook up to the Overdrive/Libby service to let you borrow books from the libraries in the country. Kobo doesn’t have this library limitation though so I’ve been wondering about getting a Kobo to help stop some of my book purchases next year.
If I make the move I’ll have to do some “work” to liberate my books from Kindle and get them on Kobo. There is an Obsidian plugin to sync highlights but it’s more work than using the existing Readwise integration to sync your Kobo highlights to Obsidian but that only seems to work for books you purchase from Kobo not books you sideload via Calibre.
One big thing you’ll miss is Kindle Unlimited books. Yes I’ve read some stuff via Kindle Unlimited but there are so many books to read that you won’t run out of things to read if you avoid Kindle Unlimited. Kobo does have Kobo plus though. Kobo also has a much better story for repairability.
When you look at the videos below you’ll notice that I’m looking at the colour versions but as I think more I’ve never worried about the colour of highlight on my Kindle. I take my notes to Obsidian and there I do some sorting of the ideas so maybe colour doesn’t matter.
Kindle Colorsoft vs Kobo Libra Colour
Moving to Kobo after 10 years
Also includes a link to fixing Kobo metadata for series and the stylus looks interesting.
How To get your Kindle books on Kobo
Comparing phone vs Kindle vs Kobo vs Fire Tablet for reading
Kobo Clara Colour review
Libra colour vs Clara colour
The comics look pretty nice on either.
Long Live the Kobo
Part 2 with a talk about Library integrations which Kindle doesn’t do in Canada at all.
Loosing 300 books on Kindle
Cautionary tale about downloading your Kindle books because Amazon can take them away. I started this process of putting them in Calibre this week, it’s going to take a bit with 780 books in my Kindle library.