Requirements:
- Able to pirate books and load them on
- Nice if it can integrate with my arr stack (Sonarr, Radarr, etc)
- reasonably priced
- not locked down to anything
That’s it really just a simple e-reader that I can add what I want.
Kobo. Fuck Amazon.
What's the e-reader you would buy if you were in the market?
Submitted 1 day ago by dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de to nostupidquestions@lemmy.world
Comments
Bieren@lemmy.world 1 day ago
dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 12 hours ago
Seems Kobo is getting a lot of shout outs here and I agree with your sentiment of fuck Amazon.
jacksilver@lemmy.world 11 hours ago
I saw Boox called out, but not the Boox Palma². I just got it and it’s been pretty nice. The major draw is the form factor though as it’s phone sized making it pretty portable.
It runs android and I’ve set it up to work with AudioBookshelf and Komga
AudioBookshelf, while designed for audiobooks, allows you to download books for offline reading and seemed the best all in one for books self hosting. It also has a native android app.
Komga seems pretty amazing for manga and comic books (haven’t settled on an app, just using the browser now). The e-ink display isn’t the best for reading this medium, but it’s not terrible for black and white comics.
Since both of those are self-hosted solutions they could integrate with readarr pretty easily (although audiobookshelf’s folder structure can be frustrating).
cfi@lemmy.world 11 hours ago
Regardless of what reader you go with, look into KoReader, a custom reader app that you install on top of existing firmware. Offers a lot of features that stock firmware doesn’t, like OPDS catalog connections
dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 11 hours ago
Thanks for the tip.
steal_your_face@lemmy.ml 19 hours ago
I have a kobo Libra 2. Its the first ereader I’ve bought and it’s super nice. I use calibre to load my books. Looks like kobo only has refurbished units of it now, though.
dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 11 hours ago
Kobo is coming out a clear winner here with Boox in second place. Thanks.
drasglaf@sh.itjust.works 19 hours ago
Another Libra 2 owner here, it works great and it looks great too.
WandowsVista@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
+1 to Kobo as well, although I’m admittedly unfamiliar with the pirate apps (arr).
no issues downloading books and adding/editing my library with calibre and you can connect it to your library card to rent ebooks if you’re feeling frisky.
or you can bypass the login steps and change out the firmware and add games and other utilities. it’s as customizable or not as you want.
lots of refurbished options through rakuten and ebay
dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 11 hours ago
Thanks.
Seems Kobo is a winner here so it’ll be that or Boox that comes in second.
nimble@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 day ago
I have a Kobo. My wife has kindle. Kindle is better if you want kindle unlimited. Kobo is better for everything else as far as I’m concerned. Especially if you want to sideload your own books via calibre or just dropping them onto the device when plugged into your computer. My kobo hooks up directly with overdrive/libby for borrowing books from the library and does everything i need it to.
I don’t have a specific model to recommend though. Mine is nearing 8-10 years old and still working
dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 12 hours ago
Thanks. Looks like Kobo is winning so far. I hate Amazon so would never get a kindle.
ramble81@lemmy.zip 23 hours ago
That’s the biggest reason I haven’t suggested anything but a Kindle to my wife. She goes through books like candy and the amount of time to find them and load them are far outweighed by an Unlimited subscription.
MrsDoyle@sh.itjust.works 20 hours ago
I’ve discovered I can still load books on my aged Kindle Keyboard via email. When you register a Kindle you get an email address for that purpose. More fiddly that just dropping files in its Document folder, but it does work. (I’m so bloody annoyed at Amazon for that change to Kindles.)
grillgamesh@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
boox makes good e-ink stuff, from what I’ve heard.
I personally have an actual tablet that I use for reading, the oukitel titan rt7. Don’t remember what I paid for it, but I think it was about 300usd. its a bit heavy, but I only have to charge it like one or twice a month, and has a big enough screen that I dont have any issues reading stuff on it.
kmartburrito@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I absolutely love my go color 7. Wish I could get the second version of it for stylus support, but it’s absolutely fantastic. Reading through One Piece manga at the moment in color and it’s awesome.
Battery life for an actual android device is incredible. I’ll buy another one the next time I am in the market for one.
grillgamesh@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
in this things defense, of its ~1.2kg weight, 90% of it is battery. its got… iirc, a 3600mAh battery. stupid big.
it also doesn’t have a very bright screen, or a good antiglare coating so you won’t be able to read stuff outdoors, period.
shittydwarf@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
Big fan of my boox for reading comics and manga
growsomethinggood@reddthat.com 1 day ago
I have the boox palma 2, if you (OP) want a very portable device I’d definitely recommend! The fingerprint reader is pretty bad though, ha. But worth it to have something phone sized and easy to pocket.
dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 1 day ago
Thanks. I’ll take a look at this one. The other person said Kobo so you might need to fight them to find me a winner 😉
EvilBit@lemmy.world 1 day ago
As I understand it, Onyx Boox/Palma devices are great, but Onyx is a flagrant violator of GPL FWIW. For a full size reader I always recommend/second the Kobo Libra Colour and for a Palma replacement, the Bigme Hibreak is fantastic and also comes in color for a great price.
Macaroni_ninja@lemmy.world 17 hours ago
On more vote for Kobo. I have currently a Clara Colour, works 100% offline with Calibre
dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 11 hours ago
Kobo is a clear winner thus far. Thanks.
nimpnin@sopuli.xyz 6 hours ago
I just bought a used kindle and jailbroke it a few weeks ago for a similar use case
BioMyth@lemmy.ml 22 hours ago
I like the Kobo options a lot, I have a device from them that was the Kobo Aura HD from Ebay that was $50 dollars in great condition. Kobo has better support for loading whatever you want on it without any annoying issues and it is running linux under the hood and has a lot of expand-ability because of it. These days I use a kindle paperwhite 4 and honestly, it just isn’t as well thought out. It is waterproof & has a higher resolution display but I found the Kobo OS was faster & the device with buttons had a much better design overall. So, I wish I had gone for an up to date Kobo alternative when I upgraded. So, go Kobo, don’t look back, & get second hand if you want to save some $$$.
dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 11 hours ago
Thanks.
Kobo is winning so far as it’s getting a lot of recommendations.
DrownedRats@lemmy.world 20 hours ago
Kobo was on my short-list not long ago. They seemed like the most polished non-amazon option to me. I haven’t switched for now because my old kindle 2 is still clinging to life and because of it being long out of support from amazon I just keep it disconnected from the internet and sideload whatever I want.
With that said though, now that some decent kindle jailbreaking options are available, an old second hand kindle from eBay might actually be a very good option.
dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 11 hours ago
Kobo does seem to be winning right now but good shout on a used kindle and jailbreaking. Something for me to keep as an option.
Tecovirimat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
Hi!
Just recently was setting up my whole family with ebooks. Ended up with Kobo Libra Colour for myself and Kindle Oasis (jailbreaked) for family.
I am quite happy with both readers. Kindle would be a bit better in quality, but Kobo is color and non-amazon. Both of them have physical side buttons, which were my main requirement.
I store all my books in calibre and uploading it via USB on my kobo reader. It makes it much easier to manage and confirm metadata. I didn’t bother with readarr, as I already has a decent collection that still need to finish.
For family - they were already familiar with Kindle, so I got them Oasises from ebay, jailbroke them to prevent Amazon from messing up with them and just send all necessary book to their readers wirelessly via Send to Kindle.
dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 12 hours ago
Hi,
Thanks this is very useful. I hate Amazon so kindle is off but Kobo is getting a lot of shouts so I’ll look at the non colour one as I’m not interested in colour.
Skydancer@pawb.social 20 hours ago
Portability is key for me. Others here have recommended the Boox Palma, but for the price difference I’d have to go with Moann’s Inkpalm Plus.
Arr stack integration for e-readers is going to be Readarr linked to a Calibre instance, as described here.
dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 11 hours ago
Ahh another one added to the mix. Who knew there were so many options.
Thanks for the Readarr link though. Very helpful!
mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 hours ago
Yeah, Readarr is unfortunately the black sheep of the Arr stack. Ebook torrents are notorious for failing/stalling, and the Readarr team has had some major issues with their metadata server in the past year or so, meaning adding new authors/books is often impossible.
It can be nice for tracking what you’re missing, but I end up using manual searches for most of my ebooks. Ebooks tend to work best with direct downloads, (Z-Library, Anna’s Archive, etc) so an Arr service reliant on torrents is spotty, at best. It isn’t even actively being developed, and the devs still attached to the project have even said that it will likely stagnate and fall into disrepair unless a serious dev is willing to take over the project.
dbx12@programming.dev 19 hours ago
I see you’re coming from a .de domain so chances are you might have a Thalia (store) in your area. I’ve bought a Tolino Shine about 6 years back and I really like it. Sure, you can buy them online too, but I liked the option to try it out before I buy.
dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 11 hours ago
Thanks for the reply.
I am not German, just happened to join this instance and never had an issue. I do see some German subs but not an issue.
phlaym@discuss.tchncs.de 16 hours ago
The new Tolinos are … not very good though
dbx12@programming.dev 14 hours ago
Might be the case, my experience is with the Shine 3. Giving them an hands on in the store is imho always better than reviews on the net.
Ludrol@szmer.info 9 hours ago
Kobo, Pocketbook or used Kindle as there is working jailbreak.
GreatBlue@infosec.pub 1 day ago
PocketBook also has nice readers and as far as I know they run an embedded Linux as OS.
dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 12 hours ago
Ahhh so many different ones for me to look into.
Thanks.
tankplanker@lemmy.world 17 hours ago
I love my pocketbook colour three. The extra screensize is very much appreciated for comics
UnfairUtan@lemmy.world 19 hours ago
I bought my first e-reader a month ago, it’s the Boox Go 7 and I’m really pleased so far. The fact that it’s also an android tablet let’s me download apps for Mangas, music, etc.
dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 11 hours ago
Boox is coming in a close second here. Interesting that it’s Android, does it still have e-ink display so it’s not viable for Plex or Jellyfin?
phlaym@discuss.tchncs.de 16 hours ago
I‘m very happy with my Pocketbook Era. Nice device, works with the onleihe system my library uses. Would buy the exact same one again
dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 11 hours ago
Thanks for the response.
This has had a few people mention it but seems Kobo and Boox are clear favourites, but will keep in mind.
solrize@lemmy.ml 1 day ago
No idea about internet integration or “arr”, but the Inkplate series are completely open. I got an Inkplate 10 because of an app that I wanted to write for it at the time. The hardware is nice, software is lacking, but I’d buy it again if I wanted a basic e-reader. It has an epub reading app and I’d just download epubs to it from my PC by wifi or USB.
dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 1 day ago
Thanks.
I’ve had three replies now with three different suggestions.
Guess I’ll research each and see what best fits my needs, as it’ll be a few months before I can justify the purchase I like to plan ahead though.
drcobaltjedi@programming.dev 22 hours ago
I have a Kobo n437, I swaped the internal sd card with a 32gb one and installed InkBox/Quill OS.
You’ll need a bit of linux skills to use a bigger storage solution to its full potential. The project is currently on hiatus as they port the OS over to the pine64 e-reader.
Worth noting otherwise, currently pictures in epub formated books don’t load (at least on mine don’t know about other models) so youll want to convert them to pdf.
dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 11 hours ago
Thanks. I’ll bear this in mind but don’t want another project right now as my media server takes up some time. But I’ll keep it in mind for the future.
drcobaltjedi@programming.dev 10 hours ago
The process isn’t hard or time consuming, but I understand, this sorta stuff isn’t for everyone. I’m just a huge proponent of “this is my device it’ll do as I say”
mittyta@lemmy.world 23 hours ago
Except for being locked down, the amazon kindle is great device. Mine is 12 years old (1st gen Paperwhite) and I’m happy with it. And the form factor of their Kindle Oasis with asymmetric center of mass makes me want it more than any other device. Never tried it though. Are there alternatives for Oasis to use reader with one hand?
dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 12 hours ago
Thanks. I personally hate Amazon and would never give them by money but appreciate your input and I don’t judge others who do use Amazon as it’s your right to shop where you choose.
truxnell@aussie.zone 21 hours ago
I recently somehow broke my Boox page, and I replaced it with a PocketBook Era. It’s my favourite device, great battery life, integrated with calibre like a dream and the OS is really nice to use after fighting android on the Boox.
kmartburrito@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Box is fantastic for what you’re looking for, OP. It’s probably the least locked down of them all due to running android and being able to put your own apps on it.
I’m reading One Piece colorized version right now on it and don’t think I’d be able to with any other reader.
ikidd@lemmy.world 23 hours ago
Nexus 7 with FBReader connected via OPDS to Caliber, and I get books via Usenet, most of which I’ve physically bought but hate reading physical books now.
MiyamotoKnows@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Without question the Kobo Libre Colour. I have owned multiple e-readers and the Kobo Libra H2O was my previous one. It was so much better than anything I had used before that I have probably told a hundred people and will be passionately buying Kobo from here forward. Good luck and read East of Eden if you haven’t even if it doesn’t sound like your thing. 👍
_spiffy@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
I love my Kobo Clara. I’ve read more in the past few years of ownership than I did the 10 years before. Plus I have a calibre-web server that it syncs with so I don’t have to manually move things over.
fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com 22 hours ago
I switched to Kavita. More modern and supports OPDS, so it connects to readers just like Caliber does. It was originally designed for comics, which is why it probably looks so good.
Albbi@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
Calibre web server sounds amazing!
N0t_5ure@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I have a Kobo Clara I’m super happy with. Way better than the buggy Kindle I had.
dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 1 day ago
Thanks.
I had a feeling it would be the Kobo, I was a little taken aback by the price but I’ll likely take your advice and get one of these, when the time is right.
I also added the book to my reading list, an LLM said it’s like a modern retelling of Cane and Abel, which sounds interesting. It also said it’s the authors magnum opus, so really had to add it.
To be honest I wanted to get back into reading to read about the history of the Middle East, but with adhd reading is tough and the only time i remember being gripped was with The Millenium Trilogy by Steig Larsson so might find more thrillers to read to get back into it before hitting the hard history stuff.
natecox@programming.dev 1 day ago
FWIW I have the color and the non-color libra, and if you’re just interested in reading books where color isn’t a huge part of the experience I highly recommend the non-color version. The contrast ratio and legibility are simply far better.
mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 hours ago
FWIW, the price is largely due to patent issues; The company that owns the patent to produce e-ink screens has started exorbitantly jacking up prices for device makers. Ironically, e-ink used to be much cheaper, before that e-ink company started messing with the supply.
barryamelton@lemmy.world 17 hours ago
If you are in Germany, the Thalia Tolinos are rebranded Kobos.
apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Seconded.