My Favourite Tech for Reading Books - Kindle vs iPad vs Books vs Audiobooks - video Dailymotion

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Transcript

00:00Hey friends, welcome back to the channel.

00:01Now, reading is one of the things that I love

00:03and that I'm sure you love as well.

00:04But life is really hard for us these days here in 2021

00:07because we've got way too many methods of reading books.

00:10We've got Kindle, iPad, physical books, God forbid.

00:13We've got audio books.

00:14And so in this video, I'm gonna try and answer a question

00:16that's been plaguing philosophers since the dawn of time.

00:18What is the best way to read books?

00:20So for each of these different ways of reading,

00:22we're gonna be comparing them against one another.

00:24And we're gonna talk about the cost and affordability.

00:26We're gonna talk about the convenience,

00:28the aesthetics of reading, the ease of note-taking

00:31and the durability of the reading method of choice.

00:33And for each one, I'm gonna share my personal thoughts

00:35on which of these four methods are used

00:38in different circumstances in my life.

00:39Let's get into it.

00:40All right, method number one for reading

00:41is the one that's been around since the prehistoric era.

00:44And that is the method of physical books.

00:46Now, in terms of price, physical books are pretty reasonable.

00:48You can get a book for between $5 and $20.

00:50And if you go to a secondhand bookstore or a public library,

00:53you can get them for cheap or virtually free.

00:55Convenience wise though,

00:56we're gonna give books a one out of five.

00:58The problem with books compared to devices

01:00is that you have to carry a physical book around.

01:02And so if you're the sort of person

01:03who carries a book around with them,

01:04then that's totally cool.

01:05But every time I've tried to carry books with me,

01:07it ends up getting like smushed in my bag

01:09and I end up never really taking it out.

01:10But the place that physical books really shine

01:12is in the aesthetics of the reading.

01:13Like a lot of the anti-Kindle people say that,

01:16oh, there's something nice about reading a physical book.

01:19And I would agree.

01:20I think in terms of reading aesthetics,

01:21physical books are gonna get a five-star rating from me

01:24because with Kindle, iPad, audiobooks,

01:26you just don't get that nice feeling of the book.

01:28And when you're reading a book, you feel,

01:30you know what, I'm gonna sit down and read a book.

01:32I don't really think that when it comes to sitting down

01:34with a Kindle or sitting down with the iPad.

01:35That's probably the single best thing

01:36about the physical books.

01:37In terms of their ease of note-taking,

01:39we're gonna give this a three out of five star.

01:41It is possible to take notes from books

01:43while you're reading,

01:44but usually you have to have a pencil on you

01:45taking notes in the margin.

01:46Or like I do, you can use these physical book tag things

01:48to kind of create bookmarks.

01:50And then theoretically at some point,

01:51I'm gonna go over my bookmarks for this

01:53and actually type them up.

01:54So ease of note-taking,

01:55we're gonna give a three-star rating.

01:57And then in terms of durability,

01:58we're gonna give these a three out of five

01:59because you can toss books onto the floor

02:02and it's like totally fine.

02:05But for example, this is a book I had in my backpack

02:08and it just got squished amongst everything else,

02:10amongst all the tech and devices and things.

02:11This is not very good.

02:12And also, if you pour water on books,

02:16they don't do particularly well.

02:18I remember I used to spill water on my Harry Potter books

02:20when I used to sit and read them in the toilet

02:21and they would just end up dying.

02:23So durability gets a three out of five.

02:25Now overall, physical books are still kind of nice.

02:27I do have quite a few physical books around the house.

02:29I don't read them very often,

02:31but I will admit it is nicer.

02:33Like if I'm winding down for the evening,

02:35it feels nicer to sit down and read a physical book

02:38than just to sit down and read the Kindle.

02:39So that would be probably the best thing about them.

02:41Now we're moving into the 21st century

02:43and we have here the Kindle.

02:45I have here the Kindle Oasis.

02:46The Kindle Oasis is probably a little bit overkill.

02:48You could do with the Kindle Paperwhite.

02:49And out of everything I've ever bought,

02:51I would say the Kindle is one of my top three

02:53most life-changing pieces of tech.

02:55Because the thing with a Kindle is once you have a Kindle,

02:57it does cost a bit of money to buy,

02:58like 69 to 99 pounds on Amazon, whatever.

03:01But once you have a Kindle,

03:02suddenly the friction to buying and reading new books

03:06just gets reduced basically down to zero.

03:09Like I've read so many more books over the last 10 years

03:11since I've used the Kindle than I would have done

03:14if I had to wait for physical books to arrive.

03:17Anytime someone recommends me a book,

03:18I can literally hop onto Amazon

03:19and just buy it immediately on the Kindle store

03:21and start reading it there and then.

03:24And that is the sort of thing

03:25you just don't get from a physical book.

03:25Let's talk about cost now.

03:26So a Kindle, I think,

03:28is a pretty high return on investment purchase.

03:3069 pounds for the cheapest Kindle, that's not too bad.

03:33I'd basically recommend a Kindle for everyone.

03:35Now, Kindle books are not that much cheaper

03:37than traditional physical books.

03:39These books are probably the same price on Kindle

03:41as they are in physical version.

03:43But the nice thing about Kindle

03:44is that often Amazon does run sales on them.

03:46So you can often get books for 99p

03:48or less than a dollar or even a few cents.

03:51And that's pretty good for eBooks.

03:53You don't really get that with physical books.

03:54So overall, I think if you have a Kindle,

03:56you would save more money in the long run

03:58than if you bought physical books.

04:00But I think the real benefit of getting a Kindle

04:02is in terms of the convenience.

04:03And we're gonna give this a five-star rating

04:06because it's just so convenient.

04:07You carry a Kindle around everywhere.

04:08Well, I don't personally.

04:09I have my Kindle on my bedside.

04:10And so whenever I wanna read at nighttime,

04:12I just get into bed and read on my Kindle.

04:14That's ridiculously convenient.

04:16If I'm going traveling, I always take the Kindle with me

04:17because I know that if I'm on a beach

04:19or if I'm chilling in a coffee shop or if I'm in bed,

04:21I can always just read whatever I want on the Kindle.

04:23The aesthetics of reading though are not that great.

04:25Like it's quite a functional utilitarian device.

04:28It doesn't feel good to be reading a book on the Kindle,

04:31which is why I'm only gonna give it

04:32a two out of five-star rating for this.

04:34But even though the aesthetics of the Kindle

04:35are only a two out of five,

04:36the ease of note-taking on a Kindle is great

04:39because the really great thing about a Kindle

04:41is you can highlight anything.

04:42And if you can, you can highlight anything

04:44and then you can export your highlights

04:46to whatever you want.

04:46So I use a service called Readwise,

04:48affiliate link in the video description

04:49if you wanna check it out.

04:50I use a service called Readwise,

04:52which automatically collects all of my highlights

04:53from Kindle and Instapaper for articles

04:55and Air Audio for podcasts.

04:57And it puts them all together

04:58and then it sends those highlights into Notion

05:01and into Roam, which are the two note-taking apps

05:02that I care about.

05:03This is absolutely game-changing.

05:05I really wish I had highlighted more books

05:07when I was younger,

05:08because I used to read them but not really highlight them.

05:09But now I just highlight the hell

05:11out of all the books that I read

05:12whenever I come across something that resonates with me.

05:14And I know it's gonna end up in my note-taking system

05:16if I need to use it at some point in the future.

05:18So for ease of note-taking on a Kindle,

05:20we're gonna give this a four out of five.

05:22The reason it's not a five out of five

05:24is because it's actually quite hard to type things.

05:26Like it does have a keyboard on it and a touch screen,

05:28but it's like really slow and annoying

05:30to actually type stuff out

05:31if I wanted to expand on a highlight.

05:33So mostly because of the highlighting,

05:35we're gonna give this a four out of five.

05:36And finally, when it comes to durability,

05:38not particularly durable.

05:40I've dropped lots of Kindles.

05:41I have had them crushed in my bag.

05:42They do all right.

05:43Let's give it a three out of five.

05:44And the Kindle Oasis is waterproof,

05:46but it's a little bit overpriced.

05:47You probably don't need the Kindle Oasis

05:49unless you like buy a poolside or a beach a lot.

05:51You don't really care about the,

05:52well, I personally don't really care

05:54about the waterproof nature of it.

05:55So personal thoughts on the Kindle.

05:56Kindle is my absolute favourite way to read.

05:58It's not as aesthetic as books,

05:59but the convenience and the ease of note-taking

06:01and highlighting makes it a winner in my category.

06:03And honestly, basically everyone in the world

06:05who can afford it, I would recommend a Kindle

06:07because I guarantee it will change your life.

06:08But let's say you don't wanna get a Kindle

06:10because you already have an iPad or a tablet

06:13or even a phone.

06:14You can always use the Kindle app on your iPad

06:17or on your phone or on your tablet.

06:19And the Kindle app is pretty solid.

06:21The Kindle app isn't the one you have to use.

06:22You can use iBooks as well or Apple Books

06:25or whatever it's called.

06:26And then you can buy eBooks from Amazon or from Apple

06:29and you can read them on your device.

06:31Let's start by talking about price.

06:32Now, obviously you've got the price of the device,

06:34but if you're gonna read on your phone,

06:35chances are you've got a phone anyway,

06:36so the price doesn't really factor into it.

06:38And certainly if you have an iPad,

06:40you're probably not buying an iPad to read books

06:42because that's a weird use case for an iPad.

06:44So you probably have an iPad anyway

06:45if that's what you're concerned about.

06:46And then price-wise, it's exactly the same price

06:49as Kindle Books,

06:50because you can just read them on a different device instead.

06:51In terms of convenience,

06:52we're gonna give this a five out of five as well.

06:54Like most of us, well,

06:56we always carry our phones around, right?

06:57And it's very convenient

06:59to be able to read a book on your phone.

07:01In fact, I have Kindle on my home screen on my iPhone.

07:03And for example, when I was in Japan for two months

07:06and I was taking the train back and forth

07:07into Tokyo city center for two hours each day,

07:09I was reading a Song of Ice and Fire,

07:11the series on my phone while standing up in a carriage.

07:13And that's a lot easier to do on a phone

07:16than it is even on a Kindle where you have a bigger device.

07:18Obviously, I wouldn't be taking an iPad out

07:20and reading on there.

07:21So five out of five for convenience,

07:23but in terms of reading aesthetics,

07:25I'm gonna give this a one out of five.

07:27It is less nice reading books on the iPhone

07:29and on the iPad than it is reading on the Kindle.

07:31The nice thing about the Kindle

07:32is that it's got this e-ink screen.

07:34So it doesn't look like you're looking at a screen,

07:36but whenever I'm reading on my iPhone or my iPad

07:38or my MacBook on the Kindle app,

07:39I always feel like I'm looking at a screen.

07:41And because I spent all of my life

07:43looking at a screen anyway,

07:44it's a bit annoying to have my reading experience

07:47also be based on looking at a bright LED screen.

07:49But the place where iPad and iPhone and MacBook

07:51really outshine everything else

07:53is in terms of their ease of note-taking.

07:55Now, when you're on the Kindle app on the iPad,

07:58again, you can do the highlight thing as well.

08:00So I could just select some text and highlight it,

08:02and then that would automatically synchronise via Readwise

08:04into Roam Research for my note-taking.

08:06But the even cooler thing is I can tap on it

08:08and I can add a personal note.

08:11And if I'm adding a personal note,

08:13that saves to Readwise as well.

08:15But obviously it's a lot easier to type something out

08:17on the iPad or on my phone,

08:18where I have a decent touchscreen, a decent keyboard.

08:20Even on my MacBook, if I'm reading on there,

08:22I can type things out.

08:23That's infinitely easier than trying to type

08:25on the crappy keyboard that they've got on the Kindle.

08:28And it's also infinitely easier

08:29than having to find a piece of paper to take notes on

08:31when reading a physical book.

08:33So overall, in terms of use case,

08:34often what I'll do is that I'll read a book

08:36either on Kindle or I listen to the audiobook.

08:38But then if I know that it's the sort of book

08:40I really wanna take extensive notes on

08:41or I wanna write a summary of,

08:42I'll often just open it up on my iPad

08:44and then in split screen mode,

08:45I'd be using the magic keyboard

08:47and I'd be taking notes and summarizing the book

08:49while flicking through it on the Kindle app on the iPad.

08:52That's like a really, really, really good user experience

08:54that you don't really get with any other device.

08:56So I'm gonna give this a five out of five for note taking

08:58and that's my most common use case

09:00in terms of reading on the iPad.

09:01And finally, in terms of durability,

09:03this stuff's not particularly durable.

09:04Probably can't drop it.

09:05It's not waterproof, but you know,

09:07I just shove it in my bag at all times

09:08and I have the paper-like screen protector on me on the iPad,

09:11matte screen protector

09:12that makes it feel like paper when taking notes.

09:13Link in the video description if you wanna check it out.

09:15And finally, the fourth method of reading

09:17is in fact audio books using Audible.

09:19I'm sure there are other audio book services.

09:21No, Audible are not sponsoring this video,

09:23but Audible is by far the most popular one.

09:24It's the one that I've been using for years at this point.

09:26I often say, even when they're not sponsoring my videos,

09:29I often say that if there was only one subscription service

09:32that I could ever have in my life,

09:33it would be a subscription to Audible,

09:35which I think is about $15 a month.

09:37And for that, you get one free audio book credit

09:40each month, basically.

09:41Price-wise, most people don't get through

09:42more than one audio book a month.

09:44I get through a lot of audio books a month,

09:45so I just spend a lot on audio books.

09:47If you buy audio books individually,

09:49they're like ridiculously expensive.

09:50It's like $25 on average for an audio book.

09:52But if you'd get it through the Audible subscription,

09:54it becomes much more reasonably priced.

09:56In terms of convenience, listening to stuff,

09:58I'm gonna give it a four out of five.

09:59It's not as convenient

10:00as just being able to whip out your phone

10:02because you do generally have to put headphones in,

10:04but that's one of the things I love about the AirPods,

10:06for example, that I can just whack them in

10:07and immediately open up the Audible app on my iPhone

10:10and just immediately start listening

10:11to whatever I wanna listen to.

10:13So this is what I do when I'm cycling

10:14to my coworking space these days.

10:16It's what I do when I'm doing any chores around the house.

10:18It's what I do when I'm setting up the cameras.

10:20Basically, whenever I've got downtime,

10:22I'm always listening to something on Audible

10:24and it just makes it so, so, so convenient

10:26to listen to a ton of books.

10:27Now, in terms of the reading aesthetics,

10:29it's not quite the same as the feeling of reading a book,

10:32but audio books really are a good user experience.

10:35If you haven't tried audio books yet,

10:37I really recommend it.

10:38It's fantastic.

10:39Because they're often narrated

10:40either by the author of the book themselves

10:42or by a professional voice actor, narrator type person.

10:45And the really cool thing about audio books

10:46is you can listen to them at multiple speeds.

10:48So for example, mostly I listen to audio books

10:51at between 1.5X and 2.5X speed.

10:54At the moment, I'm listening to one called

10:55The Millionaire Fastlane, which I'm listening to

10:57at I think two and a half times speed.

10:58That's pretty good.

10:59It means I can get through the book

11:00in two and a half times the normal rate.

11:02And I can do that while doing other stuff crucially.

11:04So absolutely incredible for convenience

11:07and pretty okay for reading aesthetics,

11:08four out of five stars on that front.

11:09The main issue with audio books,

11:11and this is why I don't like audio books,

11:12is that it's really, really, really hard to take notes

11:14while you're listening to an audio book.

11:16Like yes, on Audible, you can bookmark sections,

11:18but there's no real way of exporting them.

11:20It's just an absolute nightmare

11:21to take notes from audio books.

11:23So the way that I actually do it is

11:25if I like a book so much on Audible,

11:27I will just buy it again on Kindle

11:29and then I'll take notes on my iPad using a split screen,

11:32taking notes on Drafts or in Notion or in Roam

11:34with the Kindle app open on the side.

11:36And so I'm afraid note taking from Audible

11:37gets a one out of five in my book.

11:39And finally, durability, pretty hard to assess,

11:42but like they always live on the cloud

11:43and we always have phones.

11:44So durability, let's call it a five out of five, why not?

11:46Now, before I tell you about exactly

11:48what my favourite method is

11:49and how these different methods fit into my life,

11:51we're gonna have a quick note

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12:53So overall thoughts

12:55about these four different methods of note-taking.

12:57If I could only choose one, it would be the Kindle.

13:01And if I could choose two, it would be Kindle plus Audible.

13:04But in fact, I actually use all four of these

13:06in my life in different ways.

13:07So Kindle, I always have at my bedside.

13:09I always read in bed on the Kindle

13:11and I like the Kindle Oasis.

13:12It's a bit overpriced,

13:13but it does have a more of a warm light

13:15and I use it on dark mode.

13:16So usually I just lie in bed,

13:18I get my Kindle out, I read.

13:19And then when I noticed myself starting to fall asleep,

13:22I'll just chuck it across the floor on the bedside table

13:24and then I'll fall asleep.

13:25So this is how I read the bulk of the books that I read.

13:28Second most common is Audible.

13:29I listen to Audible when I'm cycling,

13:30when I'm driving, basically whenever I have downtime.

13:33And then, as I said, if I need to take notes,

13:35I would just buy the book on Kindle

13:36because it's totally worth it and I will take the notes.

13:38I use the iPad generally only when I want to take

13:41copious notes from a book that I've read

13:43or when I wanna summarize it,

13:44where I'll have split screen open, Kindle on one side,

13:47Notion or Roam or Drafts on the other side.

13:49I'll be summarizing insights from the book on the iPad

13:51and posting them on my website.

13:52So you can check that out at alibedal.com

13:53if you wanna see my book summaries.

13:55And finally, in terms of physical books,

13:56I only really have these around the house

13:58because they look cool

13:59and so I can show them off in videos.

14:00But I actually found that

14:02if I wanna relax for the evening and I'm not in bed,

14:05if it gets to like 9 p.m. and I think,

14:06you know what, I'm not gonna play World of Warcraft tonight,

14:08I'm gonna read a book.

14:09Then usually I'll pick up a physical book

14:11and sit on the couch and just read a physical book.

14:13So in a way, all these four methods of reading

14:16fit into my life.

14:17But if I had to choose the absolute best,

14:18it would be the Kindle, followed by Audible,

14:21followed by physical books, followed by the iPad.

14:23So hopefully you guys found this video useful.

14:24If you wanna learn more ways of reading,

14:27you can check out this video over here,

14:28which talks about exactly how I read 100 books every year.

14:32So thank you for watching

14:33and I'll catch you in the next video.

14:34Bye-bye.

My Favourite Tech for Reading Books - Kindle vs iPad vs Books vs Audiobooks

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