I Do the Exact Same Thing

This nicely articulates something I've noticed when I read e-books vs. actual books.



[A]lthough I've never realized it, I clearly reach for a page to turn it when I'm about two or three lines from the bottom. I learned that because I kept hitting the button for the next page and realizing that I hadn't, in fact, finished reading the previous page, and having to retreat. My brain is carefully trained regarding how many words it can read in the time it takes me to reach my hand up, grab a page, and turn it. That all happens in an instant when you press the button your thumb already rests on, so I have to retrain myself not to hit the button until I actually want the page to disappear.



The author also writes about how easy it is to drop beaucoup bucks on stuff that's downloaded instantly, which is partly why I've decided to focus my e-book reading to old things I can download for free:
  • P. G. Wodehouse novels
  • O. Henry short stories
  • back issues of Atlantic Monthly from 1858
  • The Book of Household Management, 1863


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