Recommend an ereader?

Caporegime
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I've never had an ereader but as I'm doing more camping and the nights are long and taking a book is quite bulky risks getting wet Im considering moving to an ereader.

I haven't a clue about them.

Is it true that kindles mean you are restricted to amazon's eco system? As I absolutely do not want that.

Did search for threads but they were ancient.
 
Seems like everyone likes theirs irrespective of what brand.

I was surprised they were as expensive as they are. I will have a look on black friday and get either the kobo or kindle (I don't have prime) as seems like doesn't matter and you aren't locked into amazon.

Just needs to be waterproof.
 
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I have also considered going from physical books to e-reader but I kind of like reading a physical book.... I may try the free app on my phone first to see if I get on with the digital versions of books first. I appreciate it's not quite the same as a dedicated e-reader but £100+ for a decent reader is just a waste if I hate it.

To physical book converts - how did you find the transition? Was it instant love or was there a period of uncertainty for a period of time before it just clicked?
I prefer a physical book too. But they take up a chunk of space camping and especially if they get wet
 
If I don't have prime will the kindle hold me back?

Would the kobo model be the Clara?

There's a hell of a lot of models. And they are more expensive than I hoped (I'm not a big reader)

Also. I don't want anything massive as this is mainly to be used out and about
 
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Great. I'll wait and see if the kindle./kobo comes on sale around black friday and get whicher is cheapest.

Pros and cons seem fairly personal or minor.
 
I'm so-so on modern Kindles, I like having physical rocker/side buttons for page turning so that rules the standard version out.

I actually prefer using my phone for reading ebooks now with the Cool Reader app, easy to hold in the hand and you can use the volume buttons on the side as page turners. You can also customise things such as the page background and colours etc, and it means you're not carrying yet another device around with you while out.

The only thing that takes a little adjustment is the screen size, but it's honestly not that much smaller than the (standard) kindle imo.


I don't think phone screens are great with the technology for reading?

Also, it would drain the battery too quickly. For my purpose and for reading I feel an ereader would be better for me.
 
What do you mean by technology for reading exactly?

I've been using my phone as my primarily e-reader (for novels, at least) for over 3 years now, I find it a superior experience to using a kindle for my uses.

For context, I get through roughly two books a week on average. Battery has never been a problem either, although that'll depend on your overall use case for the device and which phone you own.
The screen is completely different technology right? It's supposed to look like paper?

A phone screen is quite bright, not great on battery life etc. Otherwise everyone would just use their phone?
 
To an extent yes, but that's not necessarily the case depending on the phone and the reader, and at least some of that I'd put down to marketing.

Some of the apps are really good at giving you background/page colour and texture options, plus the quality of phone screens has improved immensely and you can of course adjust brightness to whatever you want. I think many have a separate device partially out of habit but also because they already use their phones for so much they might not want another battery drain. It may be a bit of a niche use case, but given the apps are free and almost everyone has a smart phone and/or tablet anyway, it's worth giving them a shot before making an investment to see how you get on. The battery life thing can be solved quite easily by getting a slim battery pack for your phone, it'll still be a smaller footprint than an e-reader + phone and I think some decent sized battery banks even support fast charge if you don't want to deal with having the thing physically strapped to your device.

Example:
Screenshot_2024-11-12-18-58-20-969_org.coolreader.jpg

This is how I have Cool Reader set up, so personal preference on my end rather than anything enforced. I can choose the background colour and texture, the font size and type, and a whole bunch of other things to get it looking however I want. It also has a better PPI than a Kindle would offer me, and as mentioned earlier brightness adjustment is simple too and I often have it quite low while reading in bed.

Being able to easily read while holding the device with one hand is important to me also, which was the case with older Kindles that had physical side buttons, the newer iterations I do not like at all.
I will have a look.
Mainly as ereaders are so expensive vs what I thought.
If a phone can get me 90 percent of the way there I'll use that.
 
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