How My Reading Habits Changed with Technology in the 21st Century

During my childhood, I started reading as a hobby. On some days, I would sit for hours on my bed or on the sofa, glued to the next engrossing novel.

You could say it was a type of addiction because I struggled to put the book down unless it was time for a meal. Yes, I most definitely took it to the toilet with me, couldn't waste any minutes after all!

I would visit the local bookstore most weekends and rummage through the bookshelves for something that caught my eye. Most of the time, it was fiction but sometimes I would buy a science book.

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Childhood Roots

My fascination with reading began with children's stories, a combination of Roald Dahl, Animal Ark, Famous Five series. I had read some of the classics like The Chronicles of Narnia, Robinson Crusoe, Oliver Twist and Lord of the Flies. By the time I turned 18, I owned two bookcases crammed with books to waist height.

As a child, teenage fiction was hot in the 2000s and it felt like I couldn't keep up with the latest must-reads. To this day, there are dozens of books on my list that I never got round to reading. I was enchanted by Harry Potter, the Lord of the Rings, Redwall, Alex Rider and A Series of Unfortunate Events.

Back in 1998, I had begun to read Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone via the recommendation of my English tutor. I was hooked and she then gifted me with the Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban as presents.

I was fascinated with the series long before the first film was released. Harry Potter resonated with me intensely because it funnily enough shared similarities with a primary school I attended at the time. I think the cathedral and the school houses were big reasons as were the characters' ages. The final book was released in 2007, just a year before I graduated from high school.

On every release day of the newest Harry Potter book, I would ask my parents to take me to the town bookstore early in the morning. I would grab it from the shelves and line up to pay. I was obsessed with the storyline and wanted to find out its continuation, having waited for over 2 years.

The Emergence of the Internet

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This all happened before the digital media revolution was in full swing. Sure, I played a lot of offline video games like Rollercoaster Tycoon, Total War and The Sims. But I also had plenty of time for reading. As I reflect, I realise that my reading habits hit a turning point in the late 2000s for a number of reasons.

I had new distractions. I had just gone to university to do an integrated masters degree in engineering and began learning about "adult skills". The social and digital media age was exploding, and simultaneously, I lost a bit of interest due to what I perceived to be a lull in English literature novels.

Gradually, I had less time for reading fiction, and shifted focus onto my first ever smartphone. I was reading news articles, blogs and non-fiction writing. This had more relevance in my life as I pursued my degree, made friends and hunted for jobs.

I had heard about various ebook reading devices including the Kindle but was not tempted to buy one because I had preferred to buy physical books.

As I would typically read for hours, I was convinced that I did not feel like staring at a screen for this. There were also minimal price differences between physical books and ebooks, so the latter did not attract me.

Portability for Travel and Work

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A few years later, I bought an iPad for general use and after a while, reconsidered the convenience of ebooks. I was travelling quite a lot for university and work so couldn't really carry books with me.

Devices like the iPad made it possible to store hundreds of books in one device and carry it with me. The ebooks did not take up any additional weight or space like a physical book. They were just there all the time.

At a crude estimate, the books that I owned would have weighed around 30kg! My iPad weighs under 500g and is capable of many more functions in addition to reading. The screen size was fairly similar to most books so didn't detract much from the reading experience.

My interest in reading books had somewhat returned, this time largely non-fiction genres. I became interested in autobiographies, self-development, personal finance and of course engineering. It has also given me easier access to Chinese books through the Internet.

In the last few years, I have accumulated several hundred books on my iPad, confirming my switch to becoming a hoarder of digital books!

I still don't have time to read the vast majority of them but the app has a place on my dock as a reminder. This is the best way for me to continue this habit of mine, wherever I am in the world.