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Singapore’s National Library Board offers micropayments to build reading habits

288 points · 149 comments · geox

tombert · 1789921845 · focus · HN ↗
I read a lot, and I own a lot of physical books, but I almost never actually read physical books anymore. I'm one of the happy few that used my Kindle for more than a week after getting it as a gift.
I find that reading on an ereader is many times easier for me, primarily because I can make the text gigantic and I don't lose track of my place on the page nearly as often. I'm not dyslexic (I've been tested), but I do think that there's some issue with my brain where if the text is small I really can't follow it. On all my computers the text is gigantic and even then I will click and highlight text as I'm reading so don't lose place. I would love to be paid to read but I don't think I'd love to be paid to read physical books.
I remember my grandmother was wholly unconvinced that my Kindle was a different thing than an iPad or a Game Boy, and that it was not "real" reading, for whatever reason.
1. mulderc · 1789922312 · focus · HN ↗
  One thing I do with my students is show them how to adjust text size and have them try out larger sizes. I think a surprisingly large number of people have never even attempted to change the text size on their devices and many can benefit from something different than the defaults.
  1. tombert · 1789925021 · focus · HN ↗
    I sort of discovered this accidentally twice.
    First was when I go the Kindle I realized I could make the text as big as I wanted so I would do that, as stated before.
    Another time is when I wanted an external monitor and I bought a big TV because it was much cheaper. Because the TV was bigger the text was also bigger, and I realized how much easier it was for me to work.
    I think I used to feel like there was a "coolness" factor to keeping the text small. I don't know why I thought that, but I think what's much cooler than having lots of small text is actually being able to read and understand the text on the screen.
    Now I have no desire to impress anyone, and I keep my text in the browser at like 200%.
    podocarp · 1789994395 · focus · HN ↗
    For me it's not coolness it's just context, 16:9 is too short to fit enough lines and scrolling and jumping is as annoying as tabbing in and out.
    This is also one problem with ereaders for me, especially for anything technical. With paper when the textbook says refer to fig 13.2 or we covered this in section 4.3 I can just flip to that page with my fingers as a bookmark, read it, and go right back. Just not as tactile on computers. Even if you did like lsp assisted jumping all over the place you quickly forget what the heck was going on and where you came in from.
    Of course maybe someone will come and correct me but this is just what I experience. It's still better flipping pages for technical stuff. It's like scribbling a DJ disc, imagine doing that with a mouse or keyboard. It's just… different.
    tombert · 1790006070 · focus · HN ↗
    Technical papers are the one of the few things I still print out, actually. I have never been able to read them from my Ereader.
    That’s primarily because papers are PDF and thus the formatting isn’t as dynamic.
  2. cheschire · 1789925644 · focus · HN ↗
    Even on computer monitors, I always bump the scaling to 125% on modern high resolution screens.
    mulderc · 1789934735 · focus · HN ↗
    I tell everyone to set it to what you find comfortable and then adjust it up a notch.
    Toslink · 1790030596 · focus · HN ↗
    [dead]
    juujian · 1789937775 · focus · HN ↗
    150% gang here. Actually 200% on my laptop but the resolution of that display is just ridiculous.
2. walt_grata · 1789922853 · focus · HN ↗
  I swap between kindle and audible daily. The syncing is generally good, byt i have had issues with some books.
  This alone has caused my reading to skyrocket. I swear i do 1-2 books a week this way
3. matwood · 1789922973 · focus · HN ↗
  I don't have a Kindle, but I've been reading books exclusively on my phone since I had a 3gs IIRC. I've increased the text size over the years and love having the 2-3 books I'm typically reading at once readily available.
4. damontal · 1789924210 · focus · HN ↗
  What’s annoying is when you want to look back at something earlier in the book. Then you have to use the clunky search and hope you don’t lose your current place.
  1. tombert · 1789924678 · focus · HN ↗
    KOReader has bookmark support; if I need to go back a few pages (or use the search), I'll just set a bookmark for my current place so I can easily jump back.
    damontal · 1789927133 · focus · HN ↗
    Right so now we need a workflow to do something as simple as looking back a few pages. I know it’s necessary but it’s definitely a regression.
    TeMPOraL · 1789927968 · focus · HN ↗
    The constraint here is the e-ink refresh rate. That constraint does not exist on regular screens, which is why I'm surprised neither mobile reader apps or even desktop software takes purposeful advantage of it: fast scrolling back with fine, per-page control, keeping page in-place and zero perceptible latency rendering full page. With a finger drag or click&drag movement, this can easily be even faster than with paper books.
    I know this works because I've seen it with some PDF readers on desktop in the past, when I lucked into a combination of lightweight document and right "fit page to display" scaling. And, of course, this works natively in browsers with PgUp/PgDown, but only on the few remaining websites that haven't been thoroughly shittified (no "en-" there on purpose) with JavaScript and excessive styling.
    wiether · 1789930685 · focus · HN ↗
    When you go back in a physical book, you also put a bookmark (either an actual bookmark or one of your finger) to be able to resume reading where you were, no?
    tombert · 1789938605 · focus · HN ↗
    To each their own, it has never really bothered me honestly.
  2. dewey · 1789979718 · focus · HN ↗
    That's the only issue I have with ebooks and the reason why I would never read a technical / reference book on it where you want to jump around and have your fingers in some pages to flip back and forth.
5. lofaszvanitt · 1789925181 · focus · HN ↗
  An you bought one for her.
  1. tombert · 1789938033 · focus · HN ↗
    Ha, no, I actually don't talk to that grandmother anymore and probably never will again since she's extremely racist and doesn't like my (Hispanic) wife. I wouldn't buy her gifts at the best of times.
    hackernud3s · 1789958304 · focus · HN ↗
    Grandmothers are going to be racist, that's just a default setting. I wish I spent more time with mine when they were around.
    tombert · 1790006478 · focus · HN ↗
    I have two grandmothers.
    One is racist in a way that is somewhat understandable (e.g. using outdated words like “oriental” to refer to Asian people). For her, I am more or less fine just rolling my eyes and continue talking to her, because I think she is ultimately a decent human who is just a victim of her time.
    My other grandmother is not like that. She is actively very racist in a way that I don’t find forgivable. I don’t talk to her after Trump won in 2016.
    It’s not that voting for Trump is in itself enough of a reason for me to cut someone off, but in her case the moment he won she just dropped all pretense and started being racist in ways that I have no interest in engaging with.
    It’s a little sad, it’s not like all my memories with her are bad or anything, but it’s life doesn’t always work out like we want it to.
    hackernud3s · 1790130429 · focus · HN ↗
    My grandmother grew up fleeing eastern Europe from a Nazi invasion so I can forgive her for feeling certain ways that I don't agree with.
    I grew up watching cartoons in a suburb. It's not my job to pass judgment on her.
    Also FTR: Oriental means "Eastern" in Spanish.
6. sien · 1789948004 · focus · HN ↗
  I don't think you're one of the happy few.
  You're more like one of the happy many.
  Amazon has sold an estimated 70 million Kindle readers.
  Ebook sales are at least 20% of book sales.
  I read 60+ books a year. Almost all on my Kindle. My partner and my sister are similar. I know of one person who has bought a Kindle and not used it much.
  Australians alone are reading 1.6 billion pages a month on Kindles.
  <a href="https://www.techguide.com.au/news/gadgets-news/australians-devoured-1-6-billion-pages-a-month-on-their-kindle-e-readers/" rel="nofollow">https://www.techguide.com.au/news/gadgets-news/australians-d...
  1. bossyTeacher · 1789972189 · focus · HN ↗
    Without knowing the physical book equivalents, these numbers mean very little.
    timcobb · 1789977629 · focus · HN ↗
    > Ebook sales are at least 20% of book sales.
  2. MathMonkeyMan · 1789981744 · focus · HN ↗
    I didn't read OP's remark as "few people make long use out of e-readers," but rather "many more people have e-readers and don't use them," which I'm willing to believe but don't have any evidence of. At the very least it's likely to reflect the case with physical books. The people who don't read you don't hear as much from.
    tombert · 1790005977 · focus · HN ↗
    I don’t have any data, it just feels like a lot of my friends who got kindles for birthdays or Christmas would use it for a week and then then it would sit in a drawer for the remainder.
    To be fair, I don’t think most of those friends actually read that much though.
  3. Accacin · 1790003518 · focus · HN ↗
    I'd be surprised if a lot of people aren't like myself. I prefer physical books at home, but if I'm out and about travelling I always take my kindle.
    Saying that, I rarely buy ebooks. I generally 'find' them online but only if I own the actual physical book. If I don't have the physical book whilst I'm travelling, I'll buy the eBook and then I'll usually buy the physical book too.
    tombert · 1790005897 · focus · HN ↗
    I get a lot of books from Libby to read from my library.
    Annoyingly they don’t work with KOReader but the Pocketbook reading program is competent enough nowadays.
    thewebguyd · 1790006344 · focus · HN ↗
    > I prefer physical books at home, but if I'm out and about travelling I always take my kindle.
    Same. I prefer hardcovers, I usually look for first editions, etc. I'd prefer not to lug them around so I also have a kindle for if I want to read away from home. I usually borrow the ebooks from my library though when the ones I want are available so I'm not buying twice.
    I don't think I could ever get rid of physical books entirely though. There's a somatic element to reading that I appreciate that you lose entirely with an ereader.
7. rapidfl · 1789972927 · focus · HN ↗
  > primarily because I can make the text gigantic and I don't lose track of my place on the page nearly as often... where if the text is small I really can't follow it. On all my computers the text is gigantic
  +1 I prefer the Kindle for the exact same reasons.
  I used to read a lot of physical books. But I can't tolerate physical books after I started reading on the Kindle, especially books with tiny text.
  Plus it is easier to keep a better posture with the Kindle.
  But it still does not feel so good to buy Kindle ebooks. Somehow purchasing physical books seems more justifiable.

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