I have joined the revolution

[ivyfic]

I got a Sony Reader last week, and have been carrying it around with me everywhere. I <3 it. A lot. But there are some drawbacks.

+ Much easier to read on the subway than a book, since I only need one hand to hold it and turn the pages, leaving the other free for holding onto a pole, and preventing that whole trying-to-turn-the-page-while-train-goes-around-a-curve awkwardness.

- Since I have so many different things to read all in one shiny package, I've discovered that as soon as something starts to lose my interest, even a little, I switch to reading something else. I can already tell this is going to lead me to being a quarter of the way through twenty different things. There are some books that I only finished because it was the only book I had with me—good books, too, just not page turners. It's going to take discipline now to get myself to finish things.

+ Portable fanfic! Fanfic on the subway!

- Portable fanfic! Leading to the old problem of "if I'm in bed, it counts as sleeping, right? Even though I'm actually reading." Note to self: caffeine =/= sleep.

Comments

[ecmyers.livejournal.com]

You could just leave one or two of your "current" reads on there so you don't get distracted.

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

I wonder, though, if that particular type of self-control needs to be learned, or if it's just a natural tendancy. I tend to carry half a dozen DS games when I bring my DS somewhere, even if I'm only playing one or two of them, and I very rarely swap around.

[ecmyers.livejournal.com]

Maybe. I sometimes switch around between a DS and GBA game, but usually it's more a choice of reading a book over playing a video game.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Well, you've just pinpointed why I don't own a video game console--because I get bored easily. I've never had the drive to finish a video game.

Books, though, I've gotten less disciplined about with time. From seventh grade up till college, I finished every book I started and wouldn't start a new one till I finished the old one. I only had one bookmark. That bookmark is still in Moby Dick.

I should point out, too, that a lot of what I'm flipping between are submissions, and for those there really isn't a point in continuing it once you get bored.

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

I still have that strong drive to finish a play-through of a video game once I've started it; even if the game sucks, I tend to want to push through to see the entire plot. I've actually been keeping a list of my full and partial play-throughs since freshman year of college.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Oddly, I only seem to have that drive for TV series. DVDs are a godsend. Before that I had print outs of episode guides that I'd cross off as I caught things in syndication.