The physical book experience

I am reading Dune Messiah, and instead of my Kobo or my XTEINK readers, i decided to try the old-fashioned way for once.

Since I am done with The Left Hand of Darkness and with The House on the Borderland—both with a pending review coming soon—I decided I would give Frank Herbert’s Dune Messiah a shot at last.

Even though I have a digital copy, I owned this one in paperback format, and decided to go with the analog experience!

My edition is pocket sized (it fits on the back pocket of my jeans at least) and the first thing I did before I started reading it was make a papercover for it, which helps with preservation and privacy.

I have to say, the experience has been very enjoyable so far. I have read 55% of the book by now during my work commute and I’m completely gripped to it.

On my previous two reads I would often get sleepy mid-paragraph. Maybe I’m simply very invested on this story, but I think that there are a couple things I have to do with a paperback that keep my mind’s subconscious occupied a bit.

Grip the book itself without covering the text.
Keep the book open with both hands or with a specific hold.
Make sure the sunlight hits the page I’m reading at a good angle.
Make sure there is any light at all to be able to read.
Keep the bookmark out of the way, and place it once I’m done.
Write down the page count since there are no stats.
Look up words I don’t understand by other means.

One thing that happened unexpectedly was creasing the spine of the book. I hadn’t really considered the difference in quality between pocket-sized and slightly bigger paperbacks. My copy of Dune (the first book) stays open and won’t crease the spine, meanwhile the pocket edition of Messiah won’t stay open by itself. The low quality binding is annoying, and the crease was painful, but then again, such is life sometimes. Besides, a book is made to be used!

In the end, reading physically has some caveats, but there’s a lot to appreciate about it. Despite the issues of cheaply made books nowadays, most of the ones I own are bigger and better made. I’m looking forward to checking those out, since we can only go up from there!

This is day 58 of #100DaysToOffload