Statistics, baseball thrives on these sorts of numbers and more and more sports are doing the same thing. But these numbers have nothing to do with sports, but rather they are the statistics that I received in October when Kindle released their Summer Reading figures. I had not been expecting this, since I had never received any such numbers or statistics previously. But times they are a changing and now Kindle is providing such numbers.
So what is 12-76-1 all about? The breakdown is very simple. 12, the number of books I read on my Kindle during the summer reading challenge.
76, the number of hours I read this summer on my Kindle (a little more than 50 minutes every day). And finally, 1. That tells me that I am in the Top 1% of Kindle readers. Whew! That is a lot of reading, especially when you realize it does not take into consideration the number of physical books I read over that time period.
And while I love to read, and statistics are great, what has made it possible is the changes I made in my reading habits. Instead of watching TV after 10:00 PM, I now spend that time reading. I sleep better and I enjoy my books better. But there is one more HUGE difference. I now read the majority of books on my Kindle! Yep, a devout fan of physical books with well over 3,000 books in my library, I now am doing about 75% of my reading on the Kindle from Amazon. I have the newest version which cuts down blue light, does auto-bright on the screen, and most importantly it allows me to control the font size!!!
I am now 69 and font size, the darkness of the print and line spacing have now become paramount. Let me give you two examples. I began reading the hardback edition of “The First Man in Rome by Colleen McCullough, as well as “The Pillars of the Earth” by Ken Follett. I love both authors but had hard times reading both of those books in their hardback editions. So, I got both on Kindle and was able to finish them in short order. All because of font size, brightness and line spacing.
Now we all have our favorites. My family and I have been devotees of Amazon’s Kindle, and while I have not used any other companies device I will assume the Nook or any other type of e-reader will give you similar benefits. I have always been a voracious reader which has translated into providing book reviews here on my website, but the typical age-related eye issues most all of us encounter, as well as my personal issue of peripheral neuropathy in my hands, makes it difficult for me to even hold some of these large books. But my Kindle makes it easy for me to hold, to use it on my phone app, and to take everywhere (including my kids music recitals and graduation!).
Plus, in the past 15 years the number of pages in a book has risen by slightly more than 25%! Why is that? I have always had a suspicion that publishers are asking authors for more pages in order to justify the pricing of books, or quite possibly plots and storylines are just getting more enhanced, expansive and detailed. But no matter what the reason, the fact that books keep getting longer has gotten me to the point where I am reading more and more books on my Kindle and I am loving it more!
So if you are having issues with font size, brightness, line spacing or just want a really neat gift for your birthday or the holidays, there is no time like the present to realize that we all can co-exist with both a physical library of books, or reading on a Kindle or any other e-reader of choice.
12-76-1. Good numbers but, more importantly, more reading and more fun for me and that should mean more book reviews and author interviews for all of you here at ViewsonBooks.com!
