Reading On My Phone

I recently read a 152-page non-fiction book, exclusively, on my phone. This is the first time I've ever read an e-book. I guess, it's the future now.

How did it go? Well, let's look at ease and comprehension.

I would rate ease as pretty high! On my Samsung Captivate, eReader apps have the ability to show the book with white text and a black background. Without it, the screen's brightness would blind me and probably give me a headache. A 4" screen was barely big enough and because scrolling is continuous, I found it easy to scroll back up and review something I might have missed.

Comprehension is a slightly different story. I felt like I was reading too quickly. I think this is a combination of a couple of habits. On my phone, I'm often reading my RSS feed; something I scan through very, very quickly. Second, I primarily consume books via audiobooks. So sitting down and reading a book exercises a underdeveloped ability to pace my text. This is probably why I skip to my default speed of reading text: ASAP. So long as I forced myself to slow down, I felt I was able to comprehend what I was reading well enough. I'm trying a more opaque book next, so I guess we'll test that conclusion.

The funny bit, is that I read reading "Program or be Programmed", a book that calls out the internet generation for developing the ability to look at piece of text and quickly determine if it's worth reading.