For the last couple of months I've been doing most of my reading using the one of the best tech combos of 2010: Instapaper and the iPad. Instapaper is a Web service that allows you to save Web pages (stripped of all the crappy advertising and "design") to read later. Instapaper also has an iOS app that lets you save Instapaper articles off line and read them. The iPad's screen and the apps simple layout make reading a breeze.
What this combo does for me is make it possible for me to read longer articles than I normally would. You know how it goes, during the day you scroll through your Twitter and RSS feeds and see some interesting articles that you want to read, but you've only got ten or fifteen minutes between meetings or a half hour for lunch. So you bookmark the page and hope to get back to it later-on your work computer.
Now I send the page to Instapaper and can read it a my leisure on the iPad. It means that I actually read most of those articles.
It has helped me rediscover they joy of reading well crafted pieces of journalism. The best manage to inform and entertain. The tell a story while educating you or presenting a compelling argument.
I read an article about a serial killer in Moscow who managed to hunt for years because his victims were poor. I read a sad story about a high school athlete who died due to multiple head injuries. I read a great article about the effects of solitary confinement.
Even of you don't use Instapaper, I recommend reading more long form journalism. Read stuff you normally wouldn't. Read things that seem interesting or odd. The nice thing is that even long articles are only a few pages long. They only take 30 minutes, maybe an hour, to read. It is well worth it.
