How Do You Consume Books?

The pros and cons of paper, digital, and audiobooks

Chris Jennings
6 min readMay 7, 2022

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Someone recently asked me an interesting question. How do you consume books?

What they meant was, do you read paper books, digital books on a Kindle or other e-reader, or do you listen to audiobooks? My answer was “all of the above”. I’ve written before about why it’s important to read multiple books at once. It got me thinking more about the best situations for each medium and if we all tend to gravitate toward one of the options.

Let’s explore how I use each of these.

Paper Books

I typically have at least one traditional paper book that I’m reading at all times. I do appreciate the tactical aspect of cracking open a book and feeling the pages. Typically, I keep these physical books at my nightstand for reading before bed and when waking up.

Maybe it’s just me, but I find that fiction better suits the tangible paper book. I’ve also always preferred fiction at night and non-fiction in

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Chris Jennings

I write about the intersection of technology, productivity, and mindfulness. See more of my work at iterate.substack.com