Reading again, thanks to Boox

Android / Linux E Ink Devices
1

My Boox Nova 3 color has been seriously underutilized for the year + that I’ve owned it. I use it almost exclusively for work. It is my primary note-taker, when taking raw notes. I also use it for reading PDFs when I’m in the field, such as reviewing data at site inspections.

What I didnt use it for was reading for pleasure. Since becoming a lawyer, I have read less and less each year, as reading workloads increased and eye strength receeded.

God knows what prompted me to browse the Boox online library, but I downloaded a copy of Grants memoirs. I have become completely absorbed by it (and I’m not really a history buff) but what I have come to appreciate is what a wonderful reader this device is. It is perfect to hold, text is comfortable on my aging eyes and battery life is long enough to make the device trouble free.

I can hold this device like I did with paperbacks when I was a teenager absorbing novel after novel. It can be easily held overhead while laying down or braced on a pillow while reading on my side. I am loving it. More importantly, Im reading for pleadure again. I have missed it.

Good job Boox. I am currently in the middle of the battle of Shilo, hanging on every sentence. Marveling at how well Grant wrote.

9 Likes
2

He was greatly assisted in his writing my Samuel Clements (Mark Twain).

It’s really ironic how the gentleman of letters from that era (Gen. Robert E. Lee) chose not to write his memoirs, while the rough-shod farmer (Grant) did.

There is at least one text which notes how Ely S. Parker, an Iriquois who served in the Union Army highly-regarded Grant, and whose father, upon seeing a picture of him well before “the recent unpleasantness” as one of my great aunts always described it, augured that he would be a warrior.

4 Likes
3

I commend Rebel Yell: The Violence, Passion, and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson, S.C. Gwynne, Scribner, 2015 as a companion to the Grant book.

I’ve enjoyed everything by Gwynne that I’ve read. Same with H.W. Brands:

  • The General and The President - MacArthur and Truman
  • The Age of Gold - California gold rush
  • T.R. - Teddy Roosevelt
  • Heirs of the Founders - the rivalry of Clay, Calhoun and Webster
  • Andrew Jackson
  • The First American - Ben Franklin

Especially Stephen Ambrose:

  • Nothing Like It In The World - building of the transcontinental RR
  • Undaunted Courage - the Lewis and Clark expedition
  • Crazy Horse and Custer
  • Empire of the Summer Moon - rise and fall of the Apache (and the backstory for the John Wayne movie “The Searchers”)
  • and several WWII books including Band of Brothers and Supreme Commander (Eisenhower)

And two singles, one by Steve Luxemburg

  • Separate: The Story of Plessy v. Ferguson, and America’s Journey from Slavery to Segregation

and the other by Noah Feldman

  • Scorpions: The Battles and Triumphs of FDR’s Great Supreme Court Justices

I’ve done these in physical books. Kindle and Audible. All provide fascinating context to events in history we’ve never heard of and or only got part of the story about. I hope some of them are of value to you.

5 Likes