Thanks to all the folks who participated in the poll 🙂 🙏 I am happy that the community gave a good chunk of the votes to the 'Paperback/Hardcover' mode (I too am one of them 😀). On the other hand, it is surprising to see a low number to the 'Kindle' mode, which brings me to my next question:

Is buying a kindle worth it? (from the poll, it doesn't look favorable but looks can be deceiving)

I understand that it's a personal preference, but the folks who have it, how has been your experience? Do you feel like you can read more? Or do you have better apps to highlight and revisit your notes using kindle or anything else?

I have been watching over some of the book-tubers, and they usually prefer (and recommend) using a kindle as it allows them to read more, take better notes and revisit them more frequently. Hence, I have been wondering if it is worth investing Rs 10K to buy a kindle?

If you travel and read, I do not think anything else gives you the flexibility of Kindle. I was reading a lot during my last long solo trip. I was riding a bike across 3 countries and I constantly felt I had more luggage than needed. Travelling solo, and then during lockdown in Laos, the Kindle was very useful. Can not imagine carrying books or buying books around.

1. Agree with @wide-carpet-65149 on this. If you are a frequent traveller, nothing beats the flexibility of Kindle. Carrying tens of thousands of pages on a single inch space is the best there can be! 2. I read mostly before going to bed. It augments my sleep. And I usually stay in hostels, travel by trains/bus at night. Kindle gives me an opportunity to read even in dark without disturbing my co-travellers. And if I am at home, I sleep cuddled to my mom. If she goes to sleep early, I can still read a book without having to turn the lights on and snatching her sleep. 3. If I feel like checking out a book quickly or the author's tone, I don't have to order a hardcover and wait for a day or two. I can do so in a minute. And often, free of cost thanks to websites like https://b-ok.asia/ 4. The built-in dictionary of Kindle is super-awesome. You just long-touch the word you don't understand and voila! You get a dialog box with its meaning. Without having to leave your book or touch your phone. That way, you also look up more words and don't just fly over it, as there is less friction now. 5. Even if there is no appendix in a book, I can simply search a term in the book and look up where else that term has appeared in the book to understand more context. 6. There is a simple reason why reading is faster on a Kindle and you end up reading more books: The width that you eyes have to scan back to the starting point of next line is smaller. You tend to read faster if there are only 5-6 words on a line, and your eyes don't have to blank-scan a long width to jump on the next line. Your eyes spend only microseconds to go on the starting point of the next line, but when you add up these microseconds for the entire length of the book, it makes a large difference! There are just many many more reasons to love Kindle, but these are just few!

Kindle's backlight is a major advantage in hostels too, just like @sticky-sandwich-47614 mentioned. Plus it is the most readable device in sunlight, not as good as a book but close. Also, I try out multiple books before continuing with one. This is too hard to do without a Kindle or a digital device. Most good hostels do have a small collection of books and you can exchange at many hostels. But I find the Kindle way easier still.

Okay, thanks for your inputs @wide-carpet-65149 and @sticky-sandwich-47614 🙂 I am not much of a frequent traveler (i.e., travelling once a week or bi-weekly or so). I usually travel periodically in a couple of months. I love reading physical books, but the challenge is note-taking. If I am reading just for fun, it doesn't matter, but if I have to take notes then I can highlight the required text, open notion/obsidan/OneNote (or whatever), write down the points, and hope to revisit them someday.

I actually do this. It's a difficult habit to develop, but I am trying to work on it 🙂

I have come across Readwise which is supposedly a very good tool to help with all these tasks. Have you guys faced a similar situation? If yes, then how do you tackle it? Do you also use Readwise to supplement your reading?

@quick-judge-84214 my Kindle/book reading is only for fun for the last couple years. Fiction, fantasy, sci-fi and related. I do not take notes for these so I can not relate to it. All my work related reading happens on my laptop/screen. Work related notes reside in a couple apps but most stay in some form of Markdown documentation for team or myself to access.

@quick-judge-84214 Kindle does allow you to take notes by highlighting a piece of text and typing your notes for it. If I am not wrong, this can also be synced with an online account once you connect to internet, for books genuinely bought from Amazon, and it syncs with Goodreads account as well. The only drawback is that I find typing on Kindle a little cumbersome. The keyboard is not as smooth as in mobile devices and that's something the Kindle team needs to work upon.