Blackout Reading

Vade retro, Satan.

So there I was, this past Monday, almost picking up a book and actually reading it!

[28th April 2025 – the day of the Iberian blackout.]

Can you believe it? The sort of thing a power cut almost drives us to do!
But I managed to hold myself back.

As fate would have it, we had bought a newspaper the weekend before. One of those old-school, printed, paper ones. A pure act of nostalgia.

Ah, those cursed cravings for the good old way of reading the news…

Of course, destiny might have bought the newspaper, but hadn’t yet found the time to read it. So nostalgia won, but ended up parked on standby, thanks to the “normal” hustle of modern life.

But lo and behold, fate did find time in the end.
And so, instead of reaching for a book, I reached for a paper newspaper.
(And no, I wasn’t to light the fire for lunch. 😄)

Since it was a weekly newspaper, I still have a few pages left at home to get through.

In the end, only half a workday was lost to the blackout! Add to that the school run and some important radio time… there’s only so much one can do!

All this left me with a few questions to reflect on, like trying to distil juice out of thin air.

📌 Are paper books dying?
(I mean, printed newspapers already have, haven’t they!?)
With eBooks, audiobooks, websites and YouTube channels full of summaries… With chats gpt doing synopses, some deep, some light, and all ready to go deeper into any topic you fancy…
With all this, will books die?

📌 Has that influencer who says they read 100 books in a year actually flicked through all 100?

📌 And does that same influencer remember the key takeaways from each of them?

📌 Is reading the same as saying you've read?
Because these days, it seems there’s more urgency to show that you’ve read something than to actually read it.
A race to post on Instagram, on LinkedIn, or wherever.
Nothing against it. Reading is always good.

📌 But are we truly reading... or just skimming?

📌 Do we really want to absorb ideas, or just collect book covers and yellow-highlighted quotes to share online?

📌 And if the goal is to absorb ideas… is reading a whole book still the best way?
We spend hours reading to get a few key points and yet chats gpt can give them to us in under a minute.

Personally, I’ve started using my commute to and from work to listen to audiobooks, maximising and optimising my time.
I use chats gpt to give me book summaries that help introduce a topic or structure my thoughts.
I also watch and listen to YouTube videos about books. All of it works together.

At the same time, the explosion of podcasts with guests of all sorts and on all kinds of themes often leads me to hear, directçy from the source, experts, writers, thinkers or just passionate amateurs from across the spectrum.

Because each person is unique, when we read or listen, we extract our own lessons.

📌 In the rush of modern life, is slow reading still allowed?
Because let’s face it, some books deserve to be read slowly.
To pause. Re-read. Fold a page. Scribble a note in the margin. Reflect. Go back.
But in this “100 books a year” mode… is there still time and space for that?
Does modern life even let us make that time?

Truth be told, I do miss calmly leafing through a book and letting time drift by.

And what about you, do you still read printed books?

Or have you already surrendered to summaries, audiobooks, and podcasts?

📝 Let me know in the comments below. 👇

And yes, I’m also guilty of stacking books I don’t read… but I just can’t resist buying them.
[But they won't wait for long.]