Recommend an ereader?

[Werewolf]

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

Nope not having prime won't affect you at all AFAIK, IIRC all you'd be missing would be something like a free book (from a selection of about 8) a month.
AFAIK none of the normal prices/offers for kindle ebooks are affected by prime.

 

[Raymond Lin]

I have had a Kindle for 3 years, and Prime and never claimed a free book.....where do I do that? lol

nvm, found it! It's call First Reads.

 

[Feek]

I have had a Kindle for 3 years, and Prime and never claimed a free book.....where do I do that? lol

You should get an email once a month with your Amazon First Reads selection.

 

[Raymond Lin]

You should get an email once a month with your Amazon First Reads selection.

I never ticked that subscription I guess.

 

[413x]

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.

 

[Gray2233]

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.

Cool Reader – Apps on Google Play

Reading books in epub, fb2, txt, doc, rtf, html, chm, tcr, pdb, pml formats.

play.google.com

 

[loftie]

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.

Cool Reader – Apps on Google Play

Reading books in epub, fb2, txt, doc, rtf, html, chm, tcr, pdb, pml formats.

play.google.com

I'm going to have a look at that app, I'm currently using Librera FD (F-droid version) on my tablet. I've been tempted to set up a Calibre server and/or add books to Jellyfin, I think Librera can pull from the Calibre library, not sure about Jellyfin though.

Librera Reader | F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App Repository

Book and PDF reader

f-droid.org

 

[pepp77]

Did you know Kindle can't take books back taken on Unlimited if the Kindle is in Airplane mode, found out when I was on Hols last and it ran out but I still had the books to read for the remainder of my holiday.

 

[Gray2233]

I'm going to have a look at that app, I'm currently using Librera FD (F-droid version) on my tablet. I've been tempted to set up a Calibre server and/or add books to Jellyfin, I think Librera can pull from the Calibre library, not sure about Jellyfin though.

Librera Reader | F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App Repository

Book and PDF reader

f-droid.org

It's my favourite of the ereading apps I've tried, no issues with compatibility and a ton of background/text/front customisation options.

Calibre is pretty good for automatically loading books to your device from what I've experienced.

 

[Werewolf]

re calibre.

Always make sure you back up your library in it...(you can just copy it over to a memory stick from it's normal location on your computer), as it's a major pain to rebuild it in one go after you've spent years adding to it

 

[Illusion]

It’s all about Kindles. I’m on my third now, an Oasis and it's the best one I've had, I absolutely love the buttons to turn pages rather than having to touch the screen. Yes, of course Kindle is very tightly integrated with Amazon but you can upload books manually to it using Calibre.

The lack of physical buttons really grated on me when I moved from a years old kindle to the paperwhite

It’s frustratingly difficult to change pages via touch screen if using one handed

 

[punky_munky]

Another vote for Kindle + Calibre. My first was Kindle Keyboard, lasted forever until one day it just stopped. Now on a Kindle Voyage, had it about 8-9 years, use it daily 1hour+ and it's still going strong. The Voyage isn't slow at page turns, screen refresh etc. so can only imagine how good the newer ones are.

Storage wise, each book will be something like 0-5 to 2MB, depending on if it will have embedded covers etc. Even the lowest storage device will hold more than enough books for a multi-year campling trip.
Calibre is pretty extensive, handles book metadata, conversion if needed for sending to the device, and has a ton of plugins for collection management, editing, anything you can think of.

And the UI which on Kindle is fine enough. Pretty easy to sort books into collections on the device itself, search, bookmark, font resize, etc as you need.

I absolutely love my Kindle Voyage. Also still going strong after 9 years and the battery still gets me through a whole book.

I've seen the reviews of the newest Paperwhites and people saying about the "fast page turns" but I've never felt that I've needed a speed up in that area. There don't really seem to be many benefits of "upgrading" - it has the same feature set as the Voyage, same PPI etc - very little to justify the expense which is quite astonishing for such a relatively old piece of tech.

 

[413x]

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.

Cool Reader – Apps on Google Play

Reading books in epub, fb2, txt, doc, rtf, html, chm, tcr, pdb, pml formats.

play.google.com

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.

 

[jms198]

Calibre does some pretty janky conversions.

I have an old one, battery is okay. I think they all have backlights now so that isn't a deal breaker. Very good purchase, I use mine to read pdfs too.

 

[Bubo]

I use the Kindle app on my phone for reading at work. Depends on the quality of your phone screen but I found it perfectly OK when set to white text on black background. I have the Paperwhite set to black text on white with the light on. But yeah, I wouldn't want my phone to be my only device.

 

[Gray2233]

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.

 

[Gray2233]

The lack of physical buttons really grated on me when I moved from a years old kindle to the paperwhite

It’s frustratingly difficult to change pages via touch screen if using one handed

This is a big thing for me and it's what puts me off newer kindles more than anything.

I like to read in bed, and I generally lay on my side while doing it so I'm holding the device one handed. Even that aside, I much prefer having physical (side) buttons for page turning, it feels much better imo.

 

[loftie]

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.

I'll be honest - I don't use my phone to read books, but have used it to read manga/comics. My phone has an OLED screen.

My tablet (10 inch) is a £100 lenovo with a normal screen (i assume IPS), and while I thought it'd be horrible to read on (i got it for comics) much to my surprise I've been fine with it - though I don't read on it in brightly lit areas (he says with a light directly above his head when he's in bed reading).

I honestly never thought I'd use it for reading in place of my e-reader, but i'm more than happy to now. I'll read in bed with the light on or off and i'm more than happy to do so. That said, I feel it's very much down to personal taste, so if you have a tablet I'd try it and see what you think. And as for battery drain, well yes it will drain your battery, it's one of the reasons I got my tablet, so as to not drain my phone. And the tablet actually lasts a surprisingly long time reading - comics or books - though obviously not as long as an ereader.

I had a quick look on amazon - it seems they've not long released a new kindle line up, so potential to snag some cheaper last gen models if you look around maybe?

I like to read in bed, and I generally lay on my side while doing it so I'm holding the device one handed. Even that aside, I much prefer having physical (side) buttons for page turning, it feels much better imo.

Tap to turn no good? I used to use the physical buttons on my nook, but then just got used to tap to turn. I think my tablet I've set up left/right sides for next page and top middle for back since i rarely ever turn back a page.

 

[Gray2233]

Tap to turn no good? I used to use the physical buttons on my nook, but then just got used to tap to turn. I think my tablet I've set up left/right sides for next page and top middle for back since i rarely ever turn back a page.

I've tried but it feels really awkward, and sort of impersonal as an analogue to turning physical book pages as silly as that might sound.

I did consider trying other e-readers but honestly I've become pretty comfortable with the phone.

 

[loftie]

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.

Cool Reader – Apps on Google Play

Reading books in epub, fb2, txt, doc, rtf, html, chm, tcr, pdb, pml formats.

play.google.com

Not compatible with my tablet for some reason I did wonder why it was a name i didn't recognise.

I've tried but it feels really awkward, and sort of impersonal as an analogue to turning physical book pages as silly as that might sound.

I did consider trying other e-readers but honestly I've become pretty comfortable with the phone.

Not at all! I'm pretty interchangable with them all tbh, I used to use swipe but moved to tap because I could do it one handed more easily on my tablet (with the exception of web comics), but if one felt odd to me I'd not be doing it.