I read the occasional e-book, but there’s no denying they have a downside. Being invisible spirits in the material world (if I may quote Sting entirely out of context), they easily slip my mind. I forget where they are (in what application), I forget that they’re there at all and I forget that I was reading them or that I can look things up in them.
But I’ve worked out a solution, I’m proud to annouce. Here’s what to do.
1. Print the cover. Open the e-book on your computer, navigate to the cover and take a screenshot of it. On a Mac, Command + Shift + 4 does the trick, on a PC, Alt + PrintScreen should work. Print this.
2. Take a notepad (the good old paper type, not the digital impostor – you still have several, languishing in a drawer) and stick the print in with glue or tape.
3. Leave the notepad open at the right page and let it lie around the house. It will pop up in unexpected places, as books will – mine will –, thus reminding you of its existence.
This works only for books you want to read more or less from cover to cover. Works of reference demand a slightly different approach. I suggest that you buy one or more blank books, write something like ‘e-reference’ and a subject on the spine (‘e-reference – linguistics’, ‘e-reference – kite-flying’), stick the book covers in and add them to your library, putting each one on the relevant shelf. In the case of the Language Lover’s Guide to Europe, to name an arbitrary example, including it in the ‘e-reference – travel’ book seems best.
This is the first lifehack I share with the world. I suspect it means that lifehacking is going out of fashion.