Kindle is my sleeping pill

14 Sep 2024 • 7 minutes read

Have you ever bought something thinking it'll solve all your problems, only to find out it's, well, not quite what you expected? That was me with the Kindle. I picked up my first one back in 2013 when I started college, convinced it would be perfect for reading lecture slides. Spoiler alert: It wasn’t. I quickly realized that scrolling through PDFs on a Kindle was a recipe for frustration, not academic excellence. But once I started using it for what it was actually built for—reading books—it became one of the best purchases I ever made. And it has stuck with me ever since.

Then college soon became my full-time distraction. Reading took a nosedive as I traded books for campus chaos, group projects, and whatever new club promised free food. Turns out, this is a universal experience if Reddit's r/suggestmeabook is to be believed. Do note that while I use “Kindle” a lot here, it’s really just shorthand for e-readers in general—whether it’s a Kindle, Kobo, or whatever fancy device exists now. I’m sticking to Kindle because, well, that's how my brain works.

Now, despite that initial disappointment, I absolutely loved my first Paperwhite. It was the OG model, and it had this revolutionary feature: you could read in the dark. I know—groundbreaking, right? I liked it so much that I got another one in 2019, and honestly, it was a game-changer. That is until I lost it last month at Almaty airport (RIP). Trust me, losing a Kindle in a foreign airport stings more than realizing you still haven’t finished reading Infinite Jest.

The Snobbery of the Hardbound Elite

Cast your mind back to 2013—when hardbound book snobbery was at its absolute peak. Everywhere I went with my Kindle, someone would be all too eager to lecture me on how they just "love the feel of a real book," how they’re "old-school," and how Kindle was the devil’s invention. Sure, you like the smell of books, but you know what smells better? Not carrying 1100 pages of David Foster Wallace on a six-hour flight.

Now, I'm not saying they were wrong—I'm just saying that the convenience of having one slim device versus lugging around multiple hefty books, plus being able to read in bed without a lamp, makes a pretty compelling argument. Let me tell you about two key moments that really made me appreciate my Kindle.

Moment #1: The 12-Day Family Trip

As my highly scientific reading graph (which is totally real) shows, I experienced a resurgence in reading in 2018. In 2019, I was reluctantly dragged to my mother’s hometown—a trip I had dodged for a solid decade, thanks to college. What was supposed to be a six-day trip somehow stretched to twelve (I suspect time moves differently in new places, or maybe I just had nothing else to do). I was burning through books at a rate of about one a week back then. Thanks to my Kindle, I ended up reading three books on that trip alone. One night, I ran out of things to read, but in minutes, I had a new book downloaded. If I had packed paperbacks, I’d have spent most of the trip twiddling my thumbs or, heaven forbid, making conversation

Moment #2: The Pandemic Lifeline

When the pandemic hit, and we were all stuck at home, things got weird fast. The days began to blur together and video games like Minecraft helped pass the time, but reading became my true anchor. My reading graph skyrocketed again during lockdown. It was a way to stay calm when the world outside was anything but. With deliveries halted and bookstores closed, having a Kindle meant I could instantly download whatever I felt like reading. It was like having a library in my pocket—and, honestly, a bit of a mental health lifesaver.

My Kindle Sleep Trick

Here’s the thing about Kindles—they're sneaky little habit-forming devices. Back in 2018, I made the brilliant move of swapping out Instagram doomscrolling and late-night YouTube rabbit holes for 30 minutes of reading before bed. Thanks to the Paperwhite’s glorious backlight, I conditioned my brain to fall asleep within 30 minutes of bedtime reading. Even if I only read for 10-30 minutes a night, that added up to at least eight extra books a year. It’s a habit that stuck, and I only realized how much I relied on it when I lost my Kindle last month. Sure, I still scroll through Reels sometimes (old habits die hard), but my Kindle has become my go-to tool for winding down.

Too Many Books, Too Little Time

Now, let’s not pretend everything is rainbows and seamless downloads. We’re living in the golden age of content, and just like with Netflix, sometimes having too many options can lead to paralysis. I’d download dozens of books, only to leave them untouched in my digital library. It's a bit like hoarding, but with less clutter—though I’m sure paperback lovers can relate to the piles of unread books too.

Enshittification of Kindle

One thing that’s been bugging me over the years? The drop in Kindle build quality. My first Paperwhite, back in 2013, felt like it could survive a fall down a flight of stairs. But by the time I bought the 4th-gen Paperwhite in 2018, it felt... flimsy. It’s like going from wearing a perfectly tailored suit to throwing on a college hoodie—functional but just _not the same_. And while the 5th-gen Paperwhite didn’t plummet quite as dramatically, the trend is unmistakable. Maybe it’s because Amazon is focusing on their more premium devices like the Kindle Oasis, or maybe it’s just the slow creep of corporate cost-cutting (a.k.a. enshittification).

Final Thoughts

At the end of the day, despite all the little annoyances, I still love my Kindle. Losing it reminded me just how much I rely on it to keep my reading habit alive. If you’ve been on the fence about e-readers, I always recommend them. Even if you end up reading just a few more books a year, it’s worth every penny.

That’s it for now! If you liked this post, hit subscribe at the bottom. I’ve got more musings on tech, travel, music, and gaming coming your way—plus a mega-post about my time in Kazakhstan. See you in two weeks!

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