Why I still print things out

Every few weeks I print out something long that I want to read properly: an essay, a chapter, sometimes a piece of documentation. Then I read it with a pencil in my hand.

On a screen I skim. I always have. My eyes jump to the next heading, the next link, the next tab. On paper there is nowhere else to go, so I stay.

The pencil matters as much as the paper. A question mark in the margin, an underline, a short note that says “no, see page four”. These are tiny arguments with the author, and they are how I remember what I read.

I keep the pages in a box file, roughly sorted by year. I rarely go back to them, but when I do it is like finding an old conversation with myself.

It is not efficient. It uses paper and ink and an afternoon. I have decided that some things are worth doing slowly on purpose.