About ten years ago, I decided to change: switch to digital-only reading. As far as possible, of course. I couldn’t afford to buy any more books. The reason is not monetary, since I continue to acquire dozens of digital works. Buying books also means buying space, installing shelves, keeping them tidy and clean.
Having these books for future reference is nice, highlighting them, remembering certain passages… but beyond the sticky romance, I have nowhere to leave them and in the end they end up being a obstacle in my daily life and an additional problem in each one. move. The transition hasn’t been easy, and buying more books is the work of a repeat offender.: Getting me out of a bookstore is more difficult than getting me away from ADX Florence. But it made up for it for two reasons.
Switch from Kindle to 13-inch iPad Air
I bought my first Kindle in 2011, a few weeks after arriving in USA. For 99 dollars, they promised me a very light device – only 170 grams – with just the right amount of lighting and storage of more than a thousand works. I liked the digital ink, but that booklet space never convinced me. I understand that such a contained device is perfect for its original purpose, the best way to read on the subway without suffering the ups and downs. But I grew up reading comics and graphic novels Format A4. And I always had this thorn in my side: I needed something bigger, more alive.
So I combined those digital reading days with a tablet Huawei MediaPad M3, acquired in 2017 —and a free PaperWhite—. A rather modest 8.4-inch toy that I quickly filled with comics and books, managing them with the Android app Prestige e-reader, a kind of iBooks with the nostalgia of traditional bookstores. I also remember using ReadEra for encyclopedias, CDisplayEX n for manga and YAC reader for European comics and the rest of comics. Everything is orderly and correctly labeled.
If I remember correctly, it was in 2019 that I returned to Apple and bought a 64 GB silver iPad. I remember that it didn’t cost me much, around 350 dollars. The first to jump ten inches —10’2, to be precise—and a screen and speakers that won everyone over. I liked it, but I was still missing something extra that I never knew how to define.
A few years later I traded it in for an iPad Air. in green, the fourth generation model. I’m not hiding, it didn’t convince me because of its limitations, saying goodbye to the 3.5” headphone jack port, but it was so light and so spacious – 10.9 inches, bordering on a new limit – which I admit that I enjoyed it like crazy. However, I’m missing even more storage – is there another parallel world where Apple offers microSD card slots at no extra cost? – and, above all, a screen with better contrast.
Upgrade to 13 inches, read in A4 size
You can imagine what’s coming now: I’m going to buy the iPad Air 6, with the M2 processor and upgrade to the 13 inch. I’m not entirely satisfied with the IPS panel at 60 Hertz, I would have preferred an OLED panel with a variable refresh rate from 1 to 120 Hz. But the jump compared to the fifth generation is real. And I know these 617 grams: more than half kilo on the hand, after a while, it becomes tiring. The same weight as my paperback edition of “Mody Dick,” after all.
But at least there is, finally, the basic upgrade to 128 GB of storage, with the possibility of expanding to 256 and, for the first time, up to 1 TB, something historically reserved for Pro devices. And as our good friend Pedro says, it will be in pastel blue, my favorite. Because this iPad has something moving inside, it’s the perfect balance between a humble fitness tablet and a professional device With all the letters.
Honestly, this decision strikes me as one of the smartest ploys Apple has executed in recent years: If I’m looking for maximum portability and just enough power for everyday tasks, the 13-inch iPad Air is far more functional than the same as a MacBook Air M2. The first costs me 949 dollars and I can adapt the keyboards, mice and Apple Pencil that I have at home. The second part of 1,199 dollars and that doesn’t offer me much beyond that.
That 13 inches equates to a much tighter waist than I’ve been looking for for years. An A4 sheet measures 29.7 cm, it is 13.4 inches diagonal. Reading all these canonical graphic novels like Watchmen, The Incal, Contract with God or Maus in this format is an important step. And I want to give it away. So I read on iPad because I no longer lack anything. An e-reader handles inks much less well and does not have the power needed for various functions. An iPad is always more versatile.
And what about the tactile experience: I replaced fun with a pencil with fun with an Apple Pencil. Paragraph underlining, dictionary lookups, and more are more intuitive than ever. it even amuses me elaborate fr Apple Music small playlists that act as soundtracks for depending on which books.
I manage files, convert formats, etc. thanks to Caliber, Kovid Goyal’s virtuous tool. Read comics, through the national wonder called YacReader, created by Luis Ángel San Martín, software engineer from Oviedo. Finally, I read books, as it could not be otherwise, in Books, but I also don’t leave Amazon Kindle aside, to synchronize my account and my hundreds of purchases and gifts received over the years. AND My shelves are now cleaner and more organized.. Live light, with less “noise”, as Steve Jobs said.
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