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I like e-readers now

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Re: I like e-readers now

#21

Post by nindalf »

I prefer reading on my e-reader for a number of reasons you’ve probably come across elsewhere. But the most underrated thing for me is that I can read large books. I feel they’re too unwieldly to carry around and also heavy enough that I feel too much friction actually starting to read. I had The Gene on my shelf for 3 years before I realised this was why I hadn’t even read 10 pages of it. I bought the ebook and finished it within 4 days.

This opened up a side benefit. I find that my enjoyment of things is enhanced when I can share it with someone. Since I have the ebook, I can gift the physical book to a friend who I think will like the book. That’s what happens to most of the physical books I receive as gifts - I buy the ebook, read it, then gift the physical book so I can share the joy with someone else.

Re: I like e-readers now

#22

Post by AdmiralAsshat »

> I had a rather frustrating time setting up the damn device – it’s annoying to have to connect to wifi, make a Kobo account, make an Overdrive account, and search for books with a terrible response time to text input, and it’s especially annoying when you enter the wrong wifi password multiple times and end up restarting the device because you’re so convinced you have the right password before finally realizing your mistake.

The best advice I can give for the Kobo is to use all of the functions not directly related to reading as little as possible. By that I mean, don't try to search the Kobo store on the Kobo: search on the website or on the smartphone app, and just send the books to the Kobo automatically when you buy them. Don't try to search the library on the Kobo: search with the smartphone Libby app and let the Kobo sync them over when you check one out. Don't try to read Wikipedia articles directly in the Kobo's experimental browser: add the wiki articles you want to read to Pocket and sync them over.

The Kobo is an excellent reading device, but it is a very poor internet browsing device. I minimize the time I spend "browsing" on it via the methods described above, and I have a much more enjoyable experience.

Re: I like e-readers now

#23

Post by inwit »

E-readers and books both have their strengths, but these days I read 95% on my Kindle. Things I like: - instant look up of words and vocabulary builder - highlights and notes - I would find it very onerous to keep a paper notebook to the same level of detail (I know some do - kudos) - search across books. For history books this is brilliant: 'Hmm La Mettrie, rings a bell ... oh yeah him'. Like having your own mini, super high quality wikipedia (or indeed www)

As well as usual gubbins about convenience etc.

Re: I like e-readers now

#24

Post by magpie09 »

clktmr wrote: 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 Kobo with Pocket integration for exactly this! Just install the extension, click the button, refresh on your e-reader and get reading :) It doesn't work for every page but it has been really useful for me.

Re: I like e-readers now

#25

Post by silon42 »

sneak wrote: post #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.

+1 Although I would like SFTP support to avoid moving the SD card.

Re: I like e-readers now

#26

Post by JetSetWilly »

willvarfar wrote: post #5

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…

> The software on the Kobo sucks

The best thing to do with a kobo (if you have a modicum of technical interest) is to install koreader and use it instead of the default.

koreader is pretty great specifically for reading epubs. It lets you specify almost anything about how they are rendered even letting you easily create your own css modifications, and lets you fairly easily get books on and off whether by opds or even ssh or whatnot.

If you are a bit anal and like your margins just so and paragraph indent just so and line spacing just so and you want it to left justify and do word breaks just so then koreader is pretty hard to beat.

Re: I like e-readers now

#27

Post by kevinmgranger »

maltalex wrote: post #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-r…

The reMarkable is pretty big, maybe that's the key?

Re: I like e-readers now

#28

Post by mrkickling »

I bought a Kobo Aura in 2013 or 2014. It handles epubs/mobis perfectly while PDFs are a terrible experience, but what impresses me is that the device works just as well as it did 8 years ago. The battery life is weeks or a month, the (modest) performance feels as good as when I bought it and no updates has screwed it up. I guess it is because it specializes in one specific task and tries to be nothing else than just that.

Re: I like e-readers now

#29

Post by ConfusedDog »

I find my iPad bigger screen works better with PDFs for technical books. And if I want the Kindle /e-reader feel, I can just map accessibility greyscale shortcut. Reduction of colors actually makes a huge difference for eyestrain problem for me.
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