The idea of adding another subscription service to your arsenal is likely daunting: Netflix, Hulu, Spotify, the New York Times crossword puzzle. These things add up: you spend money, certainly, but you also spend time lost in their worlds, searching for what to watch or listen to. (Or, scrolling back a few years to find some untouched Monday puzzles.)
But not all subscription services are created equally: some can improve your cognition, make for a great gift, help you sleep and enrich your commute. Well, one service in particular can help you do all that: Book of the Month.
The subscription service is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: you sign up and get a “real” book delivered to your doorstep each month. Even better, you get to choose which book you want from an already curated selection of five amazing books. So basically, you get the illusion of choice while knowing you can’t go wrong, and without the lure of a rabbit hole of options to get lost in. (Sorry, Netflix.) And though my personal preference skews towards physical, readable, destroyable books, science supports this too.
Researchers have been looking into the differences between reading “real” books and e-reading for a while now, and seem to agree that while e-readers may be vital for certain readers, if one can read in print, there are perks. One benefit is that reading on paper may help you remember what you’re reading better, as writer Drake Baer explained in Business Insider. This may be because scrolling through an e-reader is distracting, something Erik Wästlund at Sweden’s Karlstad University, who studies this stuff, told Wired a few years ago. Wästlund explained that scrolling takes “a lot of mental resources that could have been spent comprehending the text instead.”
And over on Real Simple, Abigail Wise rounded up a bunch of analog reading benefits, pointing to research that suggests reading on paper can help sustain your brain power into old age, something that binge watching can’t quite achieve.
Science aside (although hopefully it’s convincing, because why wouldn’t you want to remember what you read), there are other benefits to having physical books around: they’re signals and conversation starters: commuting with a book is a fantastic way to meet people and get talking about buzzy books.
Book of the Month has a $14.99 monthly option and a $149.99 annual option (which saves you $29.89 per year). Per their site, you have “the flexibility to skip any month, no questions asked,” and shipping is free. We’re inundated in push notifications, news alerts, emails, texts. Give yourself the gift of engaging with content that doesn’t flash, glitch or seemingly overhear your real-life convos and then tailor advertisements accordingly. With code YESPLZ you can get the first month free, and if you sign up now you can enjoy their great March picks.
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