The first time I picked up a tablet, I had no idea why I wanted one. Other than it was something new to use, a new gadget to fill up a backpack full of devices, I didn't have a firm plan for what it was actually going to be used for. That's probably why it didn't last too long, and I got rid of it a few months later.

I've owned a lot of tablets over the years. The majority have been equipped with iOS on board, but I've used Android tablets, and I'll still go to bat for the HP TouchPad with webOS on board. That fire sale a few years back was pretty awesome, and while the tablet didn't live up to any hype it might have had at the time, I was still sad to see it fade out.

The best tablet experience I've had to date has been with iPads, and while I've owned just about every version of the mobile device to date, it's one that I'm never really attached to. Eventually I decided that I was just going to use it for reading and writing, and for awhile that was definitely the case. But even that didn't last long, because I've got a perfectly nice laptop that I can write on.

And holding a tablet, even as they got thinner and lighter, to read just didn't seem that appealing.

I've started reading a few books on my phone lately. That was a decision more in line with me not wanting to check Twitter all the time, so instead of opening the app I'll open a book instead. It's been working well so far! But, if I'm being honest, there's still just something I'm not a fan of when reading on a phone. It may just come down to the fact I still prefer reading an actual book, but the ease of buying a digital read is hard to argue with.

Nothing extra to carry, either. It's all right there, ready to go.

I went through my digital library for both iBooks and Amazon Kindle recently, and was surprised to find how many titles are present in both. iBooks is filled primarily with scripts (I found its easier to upload them there), but reading them on a phone isn't any fun. A tablet in this case is a much better option.

Meanwhile, Kindle has a lot more books. That just comes down to the fact I've used the Kindle app for a long time, across devices. But I had forgotten just how many books I had bought on there. There were even some options that I had been sure I had bought physically. I even remember looking for, and not finding, one of the books I bought digitally. (It had been a while!)

Before the end of the year I asked if you listen to more podcasts than you do music, so I wanted to extend that thought to consuming even more content. How often do you find yourself reading a book on your phone? Or do you prefer to read on a tablet (and, if so, do you carry it around explicitly for this reason)? Let me know!