I’ve got a large collection of e-books, but I’ve always just read them on my phone. Finally broke down and bought a proper e-reader with the nice e-ink display. Why didn’t I do this forever ago?
It’s got a backlight, but using it under a lamp with reflected light is just so much easier on my eyes and feels more like a paper book. I also haven’t read a book written on dead trees in a good minute, so sitting under a lamp just brings back a missing piece of the experience I didn’t even know was gone.
I also just can’t get over how “fake” the display looks. Fake is usually not used to describe something positively, but in this case, it’s a huge praise. The text and book cover images just look like they’re printed on a sheet of paper and slipped inside to make the device look functional…like a movie prop. Turning the backlight on diminishes this effect somewhat, though (which is another reason I prefer to leave it off).
I also love that I can just set it down and not worry about coming back to a dead battery, lol. The reader app on my phone is set to prevent it from going to sleep or turning off the screen, so sometimes I’ll set it down to go take care of something else, forget, and come back to a nearly dead battery.
To everyone who has recommended these gizmos to me, I finally get it. I know I said reading books on my phone was good enough, but I was wrong.
E-Ink is actually magic.
E-ink is fantastic for reading and i wish the technology was more widely used .
“Just here in my garage…”
*camera pans over to Lamborghini
“with my new Lamborghini!”
*camera zooms back to face close-up
“But you know what I like more than my new Lamborghini?”
*rapid pan to bookshelves
“Knowledge!!!”
I’m sorry I had to get this out of my head like an earworm.
Given that the cost of maintenance on a Lamborghini would be very high, and i drive like 20 minutes a week in a city, I’d genuinely prefer the ereader. Although I’d probably get enough for selling a Lamborghini to buy a few ereaders.
Check out annas-archive.org to get digital backups of books you already own that may be otherwise protected by drm. Definitely don’t use it to pirate books. Piracy is bad.
Edit:
Also you can use calibre to manage your book library outside of various large book providers.
My ethics on piracy are it depends on who’s profiting. If the original writer is dead and the estate is profiting like Tolkien, fuck em. If the book is good but the author sucks like Orson Scott Card, fuck em. A living writer who you want to keep writing books, go out and buy that shit or at least get it from Libby.
Also humble bundle is a great source for building a large legal library. Though sometimes they tie bundles to kobo which sucks. They didn’t used to do that.
I have a Kobo Libre 2 and love it. I used to read physical books at night with a neck light to not bother my wife, but a back-lit e-reader is so much better and easier. I definitely read more just from convenience. Better to travel with too. I’m also dyslexic and the dyslexic font helps me read longer with less mental fatigue
I’m also dyslexic and the dyslexic font helps me read longer with less mental fatigue
Same. I definitely appreciate that it includes the OpenDyslexic font option. Have had decent luck just using the built-in serif font which helps a lot, but the dyslexic font is there when I need it.
Do e-readers work with pdfs? I have various DnD books I’ve bought online and I’d love to be able to store them on one easily carry able device.
Nice! I’ll have to look into this. I love physical books but I’m running out of space 😭
I got a Kobo (which had been recommended to me multiple times over a Kindle), and I’m happy with it so far. A little limited in some areas, but you can copy any supported format over USB easy enough. Looking into alternate firmware that may open more doors, connectivity-wise.
