Light Bags, Heavy Reading: A Bibliophile’s Journey as an Expat

I recently met up with someone who follows The Prepared Expat. He was about to take a flight and I asked him what he likes to do on plane rides. He said he loves to read, but he had already read all the books he’d brought on his trip, so I gave him a book I had read. His experience reminded me that I had solved this problem for me long ago, by embracing digital books. Unlike many tips on The Prepared Expat, this one is mostly my story, but I think there’s lessons for everyone to be learned from the story.

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How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Digital Book

I’m a bibliophile—book lover, for all of you who don’t like to use Greek words in English. I’ve read 382 books since I started tracking 5 years ago. Call me a nerd (I am!), but I’ve always loved books. I started actively collecting books when I was 9 or 10 years old, going to book sales, garage sales, and used bookstores to build a collection of books. By the time I went to college, I had probably over 200 books. By the time I graduated, probably 300. Whenever I moved, it didn’t feel like home until I had put my books on the shelves.

And then I became an expat and my book situation entirely changed.

For five years, I packed a small suitcase full of books when I traveled,¹ but when I returned home, I always brought all my books with me.I didn’t want a situation where I had to leave some behind because I had too many. It worked ok, but it wasn’t great because I was always “limited” in my book reading and purchases. When I returned to the US for graduate school, I started buying books again.

When my wife and I decided to “permanently” become expats, I faced a dilemma. I had 400+ books that I wanted to take with me and definitely didn’t want to leave behind in storage…but there’s no way I was gonna pay to ship 400 books. So my wife and I decided to go digital with all our books. I sold off nearly my entire library, keeping only a few special physical books, and gave myself permission to repurchase digital books of whatever I wanted. Though I really do prefer physical books to digital ones, after six years of living as an expat and with a library of over 1300 books, I’m convinced we made the right decision.

Here’s why I think expats should seriously consider embracing a mostly digital book library:

Why expats should get digital books

First, digital books are highly transportable and light. Physical books are incredibly heavy and take up a lot of space. Digital books are neither. I read on my iPhone, which I’d already be carrying with me, and the Kindle I own is less than 8 ounces. For comparison, the paperback version of Harry Potter Sorcerer’s Stone is 8 ounces. A digital book reader weighs the same as a small paperback, yet it can store thousands of books. As an expat, reducing the weight and volume in your bags is incredibly valuable.

Second, digital books give you near-infinite selection. This is invaluable for an expat, since there’s often not books available in your native language or, if there are, they’re often quite expensive. But with digital books, no matter where you are in the world, you can choose from millions of books. You’ll never be without something to read in your native language if you embrace digital books.

Third, public libraries often have programs where you can borrow digital books. This is a fantastic benefit for expats, especially if you have kids. One thing I miss greatly is that there are no public libraries where I live, but having access to a digital library makes up for that. We can borrow from our US library almost any book that we want, even though we’re halfway around the world. This is especially great for our kids, who go through dozens of short books a week.

There are other benefits of digital books—digital text can be more easily searched and archived, you can adjust the font and text size, etc.—but these aren’t unique benefits to expats. The biggest value to me as an expat are these other reasons, and they’re enough to keep me buying digital books.

However, there are some downsides inherent to digital books. Even though I keep buying digital books and don’t regret that, I still buy some books in physical form for a few reasons:

The Downsides of digital books

First, physical books are a sensory experience for me — the sound, the smell, the feel, the taste — they all are part of the joy of reading.² Digital books simply don’t replicate that, and I regularly miss it.

Second, a physical book helps me focus on reading. Reading on a phone means distraction is just one app or notification away, and even if you a “Reading Mode” where you silence notifications, your brain still knows those other distractions are available. Picking up a physical book puts your mind in “reading mode” even as it removes phone distractions.

Third, a physical book sets an example to others. Kids imitate what they see and will pick up books to “read” just because they see you do it. If you only read on a phone, they don’t know that you’re reading. Reading on a dedicated e-reader, like a Kindle, improves this somewhat, but only if the child is old enough to know that that device is only for reading.

Fourth, writing notes or comments in a digital book leaves a lot to be desired. Writing comment on a Kindle e-reader is such a horrible experience, I’ll often open up the Kindle app on my phone to write the note, and then switch back to the Kindle to read. Neither are anywhere as good as taking notes in a physical book.

Fifth, digital books readers—phones or dedicated readers—use LED lights in the display and so disrupt your sleep. The blue light from electronic LEDs tricks our brains into thinking the sun is out and so delays the release of the “sleep hormone” melatonin. The release of melatonin is one of the triggers your body needs in order to go to sleep, so its delay typically means you’ll fall asleep later. Sleep researcher Dr. Matthew Walker reports in his book Why We Sleep) that “reading on an iPad suppressed melatonin release by over 50% at night. Indeed, iPad reading delayed the rise of melatonin by up to three hours, relative to the natural rise in these same individuals when reading a printed book” (page 269). As a result, I try not to read digital books in the last hour before I go to sleep.

Additionally, it’s worth noting that you need Wi-Fi to download books onto your device, and your device needs battery to run. That means digital books take a bit more “advance planning” than physical books, though it’s relatively minor.

Because of these downsides to digital books, I do buy some physical books so that I can read a physical book in front of my kids or late at night. I don’t buy many, and I make sure they’re books I’m willing to “leave behind” if I had to travel, but I do still like having some books on my bookshelves. The vast majority of books I own, though, are digital.

Conclusion

While they’re not perfect, digital books provide inestimable value to expats. You can have thousands of books on a lightweight device that fits in your pocket, you can choose from millions of inexpensive books in your native language, and you can access digital libraries so you have constantly new content. I still wish I had my 400+ books—selling them literally hurt—so long as I’m expat or might be an expat later, I know I’ll still buy primarily digital books. If you’re an expat, or might become one, I’d encourage you to seriously consider embracing digital books.

Are there any benefits or downsides I missed? Please share in the comments below!

Speaking of books…

Subscribe to The Prepared Expat via email and I’ll send you a chapter of my book 100% free! Yes, it’s a digital book.

Footnotes

1. Tip: US airlines don’t weigh your carry-on bag, so you can fill that with your books. Do NOT try this with airlines that might weigh your carry-on bag (many Asian airlines), as they’ll will charge you for going over weight. FYI, Air China is the WORST offender: I flew on United which explicitly doesn’t have a weigh limit for carry-on bags and connected to Air China, which does. Rather than respecting the baggage policy of the original airline–which, when I called, they said they did–they weighed my carry-on and charged me for being overweight. Incredibly frustrating experience. ↩︎
2. No, I don’t actually taste my books. I’m just checking if you’re reading. ↩︎