Offcuts

Somewhere over Rajasthan, I opened the Kindle app on my iPad mini and started reading a book I'd just bought. This is my second time leaving paper. I own over 800 physical books now. The shelves at home are full. Unfortunately, the floor stacks have become their own piece of furniture. It has its own beauty but it's borderline messy.

The arc of my reading journey, if you're interested is as follows. In February 2017, I gave up on paper and bought a Kindle Oasis. It was my first Kindle device and I got the Oasis instead of the Paperwhite because I wanted the light one with longer battery. I immediately fell hard for it. I also made a sensible rule — physical for illustrated or graphic books, digital for everything else. You know if you travel with a couple of books, they cross 3kg easily, which is the sort of fact you learn when you're the one carrying them and find yourself moving to the cabin bag at the check-in counter.

Five years in, 2022, I drifted back to pens, highlighters because… there's a specific satisfaction of dog-earing a page. I sold the Oasis and went full paper again. Bought more books than any single human should own in a country where we pay rent by the square foot.

During my last trip packing, I pulled four books off a shelf for a two-week trip, weighed the bag, put three back. I packed the thinnest one and finished it on day two.

Which is how I ended up here, at 35,000 feet, opening the Kindle app again.

No Kindle device this time. This time it's my favourite iPad mini with the pencil for notes. Goodnotes in split view occasionally. On the iPad with a matte screen guard, it feels like writing. Will apply the same rule as before — illustrated books stay physical, everything else goes digital. This time it's just a different device.

I hope this sticks.