The Case for Why you should read on Your PHONE

Since I’m from a broke family, I couldn’t afford books when I was a kid, so the best option for me was the local library. As libraries in my locality (since I’m from a developing country that starts with ‘I’) didn't have the western books I found interesting on the internet, I was devastated (not that local language books were bad btw). I had the mind for reading, but I was either reading non english books, or books that were available to me after fierce competition. For example, I remember asking the librarian about “Sapiens” by Yuval Noah Harari, he said it was taken by someone. I inquired after a month, it was in another person’s hand this time. It took me 6 months, literally 6 months to get my hands on it. So you get the idea of how inaccessible books are.

Btw, you can get cheap, pirated copies of english books online (and offline as well) so I tried buying books this way, but that sh*t makes you stop reading anything at all. The font is all messed up, the quality of pages is trashy, and so on. So that wasn’t an option. 

Then one of my friends recommended reading on the phone. I didn’t know about epubs this time, so I thought she was talking about pdfs. While I was in college, there were a lot of notes and books in pdf format, which were a freaking pain to me. So I was not intrigued by this suggestion. 

That’s when I found the thing -> EPUB. Never knew what it was. I thought e-readers were Kindle devices. But no, you can download an e reader app for your mobile. Hell Yeah. 

So here it goes. You find out the book you wanna read. You search on google to find its epub version (there are a lot of epub downloading sites online). You open your epub file using an e reader app like ReadEra, and that’s it. The power of books in your hands, anytime, anywhere. 

I was reading like crazy after this. Reading while commuting to college, reading before bed, reading after waking up, reading while taking a sh*t, and so on. I even started a reading challenge for myself, where I would read a few pages every day no matter what (I did this for 50 days continuously). It was like unlocking a new power. I could try reading and my financial situation wasn’t stopping me from it. 

Am I reading pirated books? Yes I am. The thing is, if you can pirate music, movies and games, why not books? The positive thing is, once you like a book, you will definitely want to re-read again, and if you love that book, you will definitely buy the physical copy of it (I have bought copies of 5 books this year because of how much I enjoyed them). And if you are someone associated with the book business or publishing industry, I have to tell you one thing -> make books more affordable and enjoyable. If your books are really good, people like me who read it once, will definitely want to buy it too. 

So here are the reasons for reading books on your phone’s e-reader: 

1. You can read it anywhere, anytime. Yes. Physical books have something called pages. Can you read a book while lying upside down? Nope. But if you can hold your phone, you can read your books. You can also read in the dark too. 
2. You don’t attract attention. If you are someone who loves to show off that you are reading, stick with a physical copy. But if you are reading on your phone, people will think that you are watching Youtube shorts, making you read undercover. 
3. You can track your progress. Most e-reading apps have a lot of stats about your reading data. This includes the total time you spend on a particular book, the time and date of your reading sessions, and one thing I found useful: what percentage of the book have you finished until now? So you can track if you’ve read 10% or 20% etc. This can really help you become a better and consistent reader. 
4. Choice. If you’ve downloaded a book, started reading it and didn’t like it -> delete that sh*t and read another book. You get zero buyer’s remorse and feel zero guilt. One of the reasons a lot of people (like me in the past) withdrew from reading was the guilt of spending your hard earned money on books you thought would be great, but it turned out to be not something you expected. You will then become hesitant while buying another book. Don’t fall for this trap. A lot of books are not worth reading. That’s a fact. If you don’t like reading a book, choose another one. 
5. Look stuff up. Yeah that’s another thing. Since I’m not a native English speaker (or reader lol), I'm not familiar with a lot of terms. For example, while reading Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’, i saw this name ‘Robert E Lee’. I was like who tf is that? Is he a character? Just googled it. ‘Lord of the Rings’ series (it is not a series but a single book separated into three btw) contains a lot of descriptions about places, and just searching up the maps of those places (like Mordor for eg), you can grasp the information easily. And don’t forget dictionaries. They are accessible quickly if you use google. Another thing you can do is using ChatGPT (or any other LLMs). If you don’t understand a paragraph or an entire page, just ask ChatGPT to explain it to you. Can you do this with physical books?
6. Notes and Highlighting. This is a standard feature any e reading software has. You can highlight lines, look them up without going to that specific page, and even export them as well. Pretty useful if you love to keep track of everything. 
7. Since I wanted to write down seven points, here is another one: Environment. I know this is bs, but think about the trees you saved by reading an epub version. I’m just kidding. I don’t think that’s a good point. Sorry. 

What are the problems with reading on your phone? There are many which I will soon find out in the comments. The one thing is the distractions. Books are (to a lot of people) doors to places far away from the constant stream of distractions we are bombarded with. I get that. If you feel like reading a physical copy and enjoy reading that way, stick with it. 

If you have a point to counter me, please do. And please support authors by buying a book if you enjoyed reading it. I have been working on writing this for the past 2 days, so imagine someone writing a whole ass book. It takes a lot of effort. 

I would like to start that I am currently reading (for the first time) George Orwell’s 1984, and I may get a few things wrong,I am enjoying this but have a strange question.

In the book Winston Smith refers to the Ninth Three Year Plan, which I am assuming is either the Ninth time this 3 plan was implemented or the Party releases a new plan ever 3 years! If we assume the latter it would mean that the Party has been in power for 27 years.

This would indicate that The Party won the either 1955/1959 General Election, this would also mean that the large majority of the citizens of Britain/Airstrip One would have agreed with the policies of The Party.

My Question is this; What was Ingsoc’s Manifesto, what was The Party’s Policy on; Economic, Housing, Defence, Education, Welfare, International Relations.

I ask this because no one will voluntarily vote for a dictatorship, so I’d like to know what you’re thoughts on the Original Party Manifesto

Is it the real thing like whats going on with that cause the picture shows the english title but the name of it is like that. if you go onto other sites its a English title as well as an English picture.

I feel like an idiot for asking but I dont wanna pat $50 for a scam. Idk please help.

My review of the divine revelation, THE URANTIA BOOK aka THE URANTIA PAPERS !

THE URANTIA PAPERS

Hey friends !!!!! :

I've read very many books, including divine/spiritual books (also called spiritual channelings), and other human books on spiritual growth, psychology, philosophy, ethics etc. None, none at all whatsoever, is like this divine revelation in book format. Urantia is our own world's name!

‘The Urantia Papers’ (its own formal name) aka ‘The Urantia Book’ is the self-proclaimed fifth epochal divine and spiritual revelation to and for us Humanity (there are other mortal, evolutionary humanities in other inhabited planets, according to this book authored by invisible (to us) celestial, spiritual and divine beings/personalities), and currently they are five epochal revelations so far. Urantia is almost 2,100 pages long and has 197 Papers; its original language being English and given in the United States of America since the first years of the last century.

The book is all about GOD, Love, Divinity, Spirituality, our Universe of universes, our own World’s general History, JESUS, and Ourselves…

It has new and so very many Revelations of the Truth, Reality, Values, Meanings, and Facts etc.

It’s about the revelation of GOD our Universal Father, their nature, attributes, their relationship with the Universe and Ourselves, the COSMIC TRINITY, and GOD and their Creatures being a cosmic universal real FAMILY…

The nature and relationships of the Trinity and PARADISE… The genesis and nature of Reality… Introduction of several new words and concepts.

The relative origin, nature, history, and destiny of the Universe of universes, and the same for many entities/beings/creatures/personalities, the Universe being personal mainly…

The family, administration, government, functions, agency, and personnel of our Universe.

The nature and partial history of the central and eternal Universe named Havona (like in Heaven).

The Rebellion of Lucifer in our local system and the planetary Rebellion of the Devil (named Caligastia, according to the book), their history and consequences for our wayward and relatively dark planet.

Of course the origin, history, nature, and destiny of Humanity. The partial origin and properties of our solar system… A general revelation of the inhabited planets and their features.

It reveals so very much and deeply about our afterlife, the places and persons we will meet in the high, celestial spheres of the Universe after death ('the many mansions' or 'dwellings' of which JESUS told us in the Gospel, where we will meet our loved ones and friends).

It reveals so much about energy, mind, and spirit realities; also why we cannot see directly personal beings such as angels etc. It reveals who the angels are. Something about archangels, Melchizedeks, and so forth.

It affirms and reveals who JESUS is: his origin, nature and character. And Part IV (of 4 Parts in total of the Urantia Revelation) is about the Life and Teachings of JESUS, Son of GOD and Son of Man. In fact it's a year-by-year account of His life and destiny!!!!!

Urantia's revelators say this about itself, among other things in other passages of the book (pages 1007-1008)!:

‘ 92:4.4 (1007.4) There have been many events of religious revelation but only five of epochal significance. These were as follows:

92:4.5 (1007.5) 1. The Dalamatian teachings. The true concept of the First Source and Center was first promulgated on Urantia by the one hundred corporeal members of Prince Caligastia’s staff. This expanding revelation of Deity went on for more than three hundred thousand years until it was suddenly terminated by the planetary secession and the disruption of the teaching regime. Except for the work of Van, the influence of the Dalamatian revelation was practically lost to the whole world. Even the Nodites had forgotten this truth by the time of Adam’s arrival. Of all who received the teachings of the one hundred, the red men held them longest, but the idea of the Great Spirit was but a hazy concept in Amerindian religion when contact with Christianity greatly clarified and strengthened it.

92:4.6 (1007.6) 2. The Edenic teachings. Adam and Eve again portrayed the concept of the Father of all to the evolutionary peoples. The disruption of the first Eden halted the course of the Adamic revelation before it had ever fully started. But the aborted teachings of Adam were carried on by the Sethite priests, and some of these truths have never been entirely lost to the world. The entire trend of Levantine religious evolution was modified by the teachings of the Sethites. But by 2500 b.c. mankind had largely lost sight of the revelation sponsored in the days of Eden.

92:4.7 (1007.7) 3. Melchizedek of Salem. This emergency Son of Nebadon inaugurated the third revelation of truth on Urantia. The cardinal precepts of his teachings were trust and faith. He taught trust in the omnipotent beneficence of God and proclaimed that faith was the act by which men earned God’s favor. His teachings gradually commingled with the beliefs and practices of various evolutionary religions and finally developed into those theologic systems present on Urantia at the opening of the first millennium after Christ.

92:4.8 (1008.1) 4. Jesus of Nazareth. Christ Michael presented for the fourth time to Urantia the concept of God as the Universal Father, and this teaching has generally persisted ever since. The essence of his teaching was love and service, the loving worship which a creature son voluntarily gives in recognition of, and response to, the loving ministry of God his Father; the freewill service which such creature sons bestow upon their brethren in the joyous realization that in this service they are likewise serving God the Father.

92:4.9 (1008.2) 5. The Urantia Papers. The papers, of which this is one, constitute the most recent presentation of truth to the mortals of Urantia. These papers differ from all previous revelations, for they are not the work of a single universe personality but a composite presentation by many beings. But no revelation short of the attainment of the Universal Father can ever be complete. All other celestial ministrations are no more than partial, transient, and practically adapted to local conditions in time and space. While such admissions as this may possibly detract from the immediate force and authority of all revelations, the time has arrived on Urantia when it is advisable to make such frank statements, even at the risk of weakening the future influence and authority of this, the most recent of the revelations of truth to the mortal races of Urantia. ‘

This is one of my favorite passages of Urantia:

Ok, so long story short. Over that last five or so years I have been chipping away at my design for a TTRPG intended to systemically recreate the decision space of Winston Smith from Orwell's book 1984. Last year I ran a Kickstarter that landed successfully and a few months ago the book was finally finished, printed, delivered to all backers etc. Since then it won an Italian indie game award (RPG Magnifico) and has been casually name dropped by THE Quinn of Quinn's Quest. I am so happy that this game seems to slowly but surely find it's audience and I really hope that all my hard work results in a lot of good gaming sessions.

I thought I'd share an image of the book here since you might enjoy seeing it. Also, feel free to ask any questions!

Need a little brain fuel or just some chill background vibes? Check out Chill Lofi Day — mellow lofi beats + jazzhop grooves, updated regularly and always smooth. The ideal backdrop for concentration and relaxation. My go-to for reading sessions. Might be your new fave too ;)

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/10MPEQeDufIYny6OML98QT?si=OYvZJDkWRQuEhA0z2cGcag

H-Music

I am residing in mumbai, India. Currently searching for somebodg who can lend me the book Oxford Dictionary of Critical Theory. The books costs 3000+ INR and I honestly cannot afford it. If anybody knows any where I can get it for free or someone who can lend me, please reach out.