Back in early 2012 I wrote a post about how I had noticed that I was reading more books since I had bought my iPad. Now a bit more than a year later I thought it might be worth revisiting that and think about what has changed.

Am I Still Using My iPad?

Absolutely. After my work laptop (where I obviously spend many hours a week working) it’s the device that I spend the most time using. All the time I used to spend on my computer reading articles has been translated to the iPad. I’d say I spend at least a couple hours a day using my iPad, often more, especially on weekends. So I’m still reading a lot of web content these days (though probably a little less than when I wrote the previous post) and I’m still doing it on my iPad. It really is an excellent device for that kind of activity.

Am I Still Reading Books on My iPad?

No, but it’s not because I stopped reading ebooks. I decided to get myself a Kindle as I’d been interested in trying one out for some time, and, just as many people before me, I have found it to be an excellent device for reading ebooks. I was happy enough reading books on my iPad but the Kindle is just much more convenient, because:

• It’s small enough to hold comfortably in one hand
• The battery life is much longer than that of a tablet so you don’t need to think about charging it much. I can go about a month between charging and thinking about doing it again, which is great.
• I used the Kindle reader app on my iPad but it didn’t have the store aspect build into it. The Kindle does, which makes it that little bit more convenient when I want to download another book.
• Being a standalone device I can sit down and read without feeling the itch to switch to another app and do something. That wasn’t ever really a big problem for me but there are so many thing besides reading a book that I could be doing, so it’s nice to have a reading environment with just a little bit less temptation to do something else.

Reading In General

My book reading goal for 2012 was eight books, which isn’t a lot but it was more than I had been getting through in previous years. I ended up going well over on that goal. I started reading 21 novels or short stories and completed 17, of which two were short stories. I may never get around to finishing some of the books I started and didn’t finish because they just didn’t hold my attention.

In the last post I thought that the two main reasons why I was reading more with my iPad around were because it was convient and because I thought it was cool. I they both still hold up, though the coolness has now shifted to my Kindle since that is where all my book reading happens. Convenience is always an important factor, but idea that something is just plain neat is always a good motivator and I’m still finding that to be the case even after having a Kindle for over a year now.

The advantages and disadvantages that I mentioned in may last post still stand, and nothing has really changed there. Amazon does have some kind of lending facility in place now for customers who have a Prime membership, but as far as I know that isn’t available in Australia. Even if it was I’m not sure I’d get it. For the $70+ dollars a year it would likely cost I could buy a half dozen books and I don’t go through them all that quickly. For those in the US who have Prime for quicker deliveries I guess it’s just a bonus that they can borrow books as well, but I don’t think I’d bother with it simply so that I could borrow in the first place, not unless I was reading a lot more books than I am.

The Future (again)

I see myself continuing to read at about the same pace I am currently, which means I’ll probably still be able to knock off around a dozen books a year. That’s hardly a voracious pace of reading, but it’s a pace that I’ll be happy to be able to achieve. It’s quick enough that I should feel like I’m getting something done and quick enough that I should be able to get to most of the books I think I’d like to read in a somewhat timely fashion.

This week was a little bit different from how I would normally spend a typical week. For one I’ve been reading and playing games a bit more than normal, and then I decided to watch a game of ice hockey. Since I’m really not into any sports in general watching a sports game it pretty out of character for me, and this is one that’s not even played in my country so that makes it that little bit odder still.

The Stanley Cup Final (Ice Hockey)

So after seeing a few people tweeting about the Stanley cup final game that was played this week, and also reading about the rioting that occurred in Vancouver because the Canucks lost, I decided to download and watch the final game of the cup. About the only contact I’ve ever had with ice hockey is via the movie The Mighty Ducks and it’s sequel. Given that I felt that was a chance it could be interesting (I enjoyed the movies after all), but wasn’t sure if a real game would be much like the ones portrayed on the silver screen.

I can happily say that the game was enjoyable enough and, assuming most games are similar to this one, I could probably stand to watch it from time to time. The fact it was a grand final probably makes it more interesting that a regular games is though, so who knows. I don’t really want to watch footy regularly, but I do enjoy watching the AFL grand final each year because it’s usually a good game with plenty of action and tension.

More Reading

I decided to read The Redemption of Althalus again (I must have read it at least three or four times now), so I bought it on the Kindle store and have been reading it on my iPad, even though I already have a hardcover copy of the book. Books are nice and all, but I’m more interested in the content that the physical medium so I wanted to have a digital copy. Digital has it’s issues and restrictions at the moment (the conversion of most books seem to have typos here and there, so the quality control could stand to be improved) , but as someone who wants to avoid accumulating physical items that need to be stored and moved I find the idea of digital media to be very attractive and it’s something that I’m planning to make use of for the foreseeable future. Also after a discussion with Doug last weekend, I’m beginning to think that one day I might have to try to get back into the Wheel of Time series, and reread it all the way through. The last book I read was book nine or ten, but with the final book due out later this year it might be time to try and take a crack at finishing the series. I really enjoyed reading it when I was younger, and I must have read all of the first 6 or so books at least twice at one point. Presumably that is one series of books that I should be able to buy digital copies of, which would be great from a space saving point of view. If I bought physical copies of all the books the series would probably need an entire shelf to itself, which doesn’t do much for my goal of reducing my physical item count. Plus, if I have digital copies, I can have them on my phone as well and my iPad, and having the books with me all the time means a slightly greater chance that I’ll decide to read a bit when I find myself with an opportunity.

I wish it was possible to get digital versions of all the old books that I have, though I’m not going to hold my breath on that. I’m pretty sure some of them are out of print, and while the publishers could probably make some money (in the long run) by getting all their back catalog converted into digital format, they aren’t likely to do so any time soon. They still haven’t embraced the digital medium well, despite the fact that adoptions seems to be going well, and it’s quite probably the way of the future. Given the fact that books of recent years would have their manuscripts in electronic form already, there certainly isn’t much of an excuse for not creating a digital version of the book and benefiting from those sales as well as the sales of physical copies.

More Games

So after watching a short video about it from the Playstation blog I decided to buy the platform game Outland. It’s pretty neat. The visuals are a bit different, with your character and most of the enemies, and even the levels themselves, being shown in a profile kind of style, where you see the outline but no real detail within the outline. It doesn’t sound that great when described like that, but it actually presents well and I quite like the look. The running and jumping of your character make for a nicely flowing game and the light and dark spirit switching is something different. There are various obstacles that will damage you only if you are the opposing spirit colour so switching to a matching spirit allows you to pass those obstacles without being hurt, and then in contrast there are the enemies that can only be damaged when you are the opposing spirit colour. The result is a game where you can find yourself fairly rapidly switching back and forth between the two spirits types as your run and jump and fight your way around a level. It’s an unique mechanism that I haven’t encountered before in a game, and so far I’d say it’s one that lets the games designers create some interesting challenges.