Here’s How the Kindle Scribe Is Improving My Reading Game

It’s an age-old story: Young girl is a voracious reader. But, as she grows older, the demands of life command her attention and prevent her from keeping her nose in a book as much as she would like.

Hello, it’s me, I’m the girl. Despite my longtime love of reading, I haven’t come close to hitting my annual New Year’s goal of reading 52 books in 52 weeks since I was old enough to start making New Year’s goals. Heck, in recent years, I’ve been lucky to hit 10 books per year.

But this year, I wanted to get serious about prioritizing daily reading (for my mental health, my stress levels, and to support my sleep)—even if that meant watching a bit less real estate reality TV (a real sacrifice, I know). To keep myself accountable to my goal, I decided to arm myself with a tool that I knew would encourage me to stay on track: the Kindle Scribe, which you can get for $100 off until June 9.

Amazon Kindle Scribe 16GB Digital Notebook and E-Reader w/ Pen — $240.00

Originally $340, now $240 until June 9

Comes with:

• Kindle Scribe
• Basic pen
• Charging cable

• Lightweight
• No glare like with some e-readers
• Ability to sketch or mark up books, documents, and lists with pen
• Better for the environment than paper books

• Expensive when not on sale
• Bigger than your typical e-reader

Before I had the Kindle Scribe, I found that there were two things holding me back from reaching my reading goal. First, books, even paperbacks, can be *really* expensive, and the library near me isn’t accessible by public transportation, making it difficult to go pick up books. Two, as much as I love books, I hate wasting all of that paper when I know there are e-readers available to me.

The Kindle Scribe solved both of these issues for me: Although the price made it an initial investment, it quickly evened out, given how inexpensive Kindle books are compared to physical books. And, if you have a library card, you can check out books from the library via the Kindle from the comfort of your couch, which also helps to minimize paper waste of printing new books. In theory, the Kindle Scribe was exactly what I needed, but I was nervous to see whether I would actually like it.

When it first came, I was surprised by its size—but despite almost being the size of an iPad, it was still lightweight (like, equivalent to a hardback novel), even when I put a protective cover on it. Once I downloaded my first book, it took about a half an hour of adjusting to reading on the tablet, but after making the font size bigger and getting cozy, I found myself enjoying the novel so much that I forgot that I was even using a tablet.

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The thing that sets the Kindle Scribe apart from previous Kindles is the addition of a pen—and let me tell you, I adore it. With my old Kindle, I never felt the same satisfaction tapping with my finger to the next page like I’d get from flipping the page of a paperback, but for some reason, the pen scratches this same itch.

Plus, it allows me to handwrite “notes” in the margins, so I can mark up my Kindle books the same way I do to my paperbacks (a sin for some book lovers, but I think it adds character). Added bonus? Any time I need to sign or fill in a document, I can import them to my Kindle and fill them out there—no printer required.

As of now, I’m happy to report that not only am I on track to meet my goal of reading 52 books in 52 weeks, but I’m actually surpassing it. Thank you, Kindle Scribe.