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I like e-readers now

devinlogan.org

11–20 of 312 posts

Re: I like e-readers now

#11
I definitely understand where the author is coming from, with his stance on not liking ereaders until now. I got my first Kindle back in 2009 or so, and it took me a couple of years to truly convince myself to use it instead of paper books the majority of the time. It really took going to college a couple of years later to push me all the way into ereading, where I discovered that lugging books around for all of my classes was a huge pain and I didn't want to deal with moving pleasure reading books in and out of dorms every few months. Well, that and public domain/pirated books -- it's a very cheap way to entertain yourself when you don't have much money.

I got a Boox e-reader with a 7.8" hiDPI screen earlier this year (my old Kindle was 6"), and let me tell you, it's been transformative. My biggest nitpick with the old kindle was the screen: it was a little smaller than the average paperback book page, which meant that I was constantly turning pages to read anything of significant length. With a 7.8" screen, ebook pages are almost precisely the same size as pages in a traditional hardcover book. So if you're used to that kind of reading experience, it's an easy transition. Oh, and the screen is also big enough and high-res enough to display tables and images at full size, without awkward multi-line clipping. So you can actually experience books as they were meant, instead of dealing with issues in anything that isn't just a stream of text.

I've also really enjoyed using Android (albeit in a modified form) so I can use torrent clients, FireFox, an email client, an Airdrop knockoff, and an RSS feed reader to get content onto my device. You'd think it would be distracting to have all of that at your fingertips, but the limitations of e-ink really rein in the desire to mindlessly browse HN and reddit.

And the WACOM layer that's integrated into the display is truly awesome to use for notetaking, drawing, and even keeping score when I play card games. I've basically moved all of my notetaking over to my ereader. And I don't even have to charge the pen.

One big issue, though? There are a million cases out there for Kobo and Kindle devices, but nobody makes them for Boox devices besides... Boox. But if you're willing to DIY a bit, it turns out that the Nova 3 is almost the same dimensions as the iPad Mini 4/5... so just buy a case for that, and if it's a snug-fitting case, make a couple of cuts in the case to let it stretch over the ereader, cut out a hole for the power button, and you're golden.

Disclaimer, though: Onyx/Boox, the Chinese company that makes my Nova 3 device, is in flagrant violation of GPL with their Android modifications for their ereaders. So you should be aware of that before you decide to buy one -- if you're cognizant of that kind of thing, I assume you don't want to give them money. I figured that it's at least better than giving money to Jeff Bezos and locking myself into another walled garden (that can't even read epub files!). YMMV.

Re: I like e-readers now

#12

i listen to audiobooks. come to think of it, i have been doing that for the last decade and i recently found out that i do not sleep well if i do not have some book speak to me while i fall asleep.

what kind of audiobooks you enjoy for that purpose?

Re: I like e-readers now

#13

I fell into a phase of reading free e-books (I love amateur authors and fan-fiction generally) on my phone and that lasted about a year but the constant charging and eye strain was a pain. So I finally got an e-reader (the cheapest simplest Kobo) and I've had it nine months now. Oh what a difference the screen makes! Completely transformed how much I read and for how long I read. The software on the Kobo sucks, and e…

Definitely install Koreader!

http://koreader.rocks/

I can't even begin enumerating the features. It really rocks!

Re: I like e-readers now

#14
post #9

Personally would love to use an e-reader to read lengthy blog posts, but last time I tried it was very tedious. I converted the post to PDF using firefox's reader mode and uploaded these to the device. Are there any e-readers with something like firefox's reader mode integrated?

Kobo has Pocket integration.

Re: I like e-readers now

#15
post #9

Personally would love to use an e-reader to read lengthy blog posts, but last time I tried it was very tedious. I converted the post to PDF using firefox's reader mode and uploaded these to the device. Are there any e-readers with something like firefox's reader mode integrated?

I use a Boox device (see my top-level comment in this same thread for a breakdown of my experience), it runs Android with some light customization on top. So you can just install FireFox right on the device. Or you can use EinkBro, an e-ink optimized fork (of FF, I think?) that has paging built right in to better work with e-ink.

Re: I like e-readers now

#16
As someone who's reading a lot of technical material, I'm on the fence about e-readers.

On the one hand, many technical books are thick and heavy, and can benefit from having a search function. But on the other, e-reader screens tend to be small and require a lot of scrolling back and forth (like between a code sample and an accompanying explanation).

Does anyone have experience with reading technical books on an e-reader? Any suggestions?

Re: I like e-readers now

#17
post #9

Personally would love to use an e-reader to read lengthy blog posts, but last time I tried it was very tedious. I converted the post to PDF using firefox's reader mode and uploaded these to the device. Are there any e-readers with something like firefox's reader mode integrated?

Pocket or Instapaper work well for this.

Re: I like e-readers now

#18
The trick for me to like e-readers was threefold:

a) the new ~300 dpi eink screens

b) never, ever connecting it to any network for any reason ever

c) a microSD card slot that i can put a huge library of pirated books onto.

No distractions, no notifications, no web, no apps, no phone home, no update treadmill. Just books.

Re: I like e-readers now

#19
I read technical books on the e-reader. It's annoying as the diagrams are not as good, but so much nicer for that sort of thing. I still buy a lot of general reading books from bookshops though. Partially because I like paper books, but also because I like bookshops and find they improve the areas where they are found.

Re: I like e-readers now

#20
post #14
post #9

Personally would love to use an e-reader to read lengthy blog posts, but last time I tried it was very tedious. I converted the post to PDF using firefox's reader mode and uploaded these to the device. Are there any e-readers with something like firefox's reader mode integrated?

Kobo has Pocket integration.

Yep, it's super convenient for storing up long-form articles.
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