EReaders and Ebooks

[Amarok]

A couple recent discussions have me thinking again about ereaders.

Years ago I sold or gave away all but a couple shelves worth of my paper books. I had a Kobo for a while and loaded it up with books using Calibre but I never used it much. Not sure how much was the format and how much was just life events, but I ended up giving it away to a friend.

I want to read more books, but I don't want a bunch of full bookshelves taking up space again, there is no nearby library, and I don't want to get into the cycle of buy/read/donate.

I also hate Amazon and from what I understand, the other big player, Kobo, is just as much of a filthy, spying, data-collecting device as the Kindles are. Yes, I know wifi can be disabled but the concept pisses me off and I don't like supporting such companies.

Any thoughts? Anyone ever installed 3rd party software in an ereader? Any less known products to recommend?

 

[Deebs]

Would something like Thorium or Caliber fit your use case?

 

[Amarok]

Would something like Thorium or Caliber fit your use case?

Thanks, Deebs.
Those are both 3rd party apps(I linked calibre in the op ) and Calibre is a great one, but I see I was unclear in my post. It's more the hardware I'm hoping to be educated on, and especially any hacks/3rd party OS's, similar to how Lineage is an alternative to google-fied Android.

Calibre is FOSS, and had great features even a few years ago, like converting formats. I can recommend it for organizing and transferring a book collection.


I see kobo has a waterproof reader for a not too scary price. Battery life is incredible now, memory has been expanded.
The hardware is there, but I always try to tweak the experience to suit my personal requirements. One size does NOT fit all in my world.

 

[Psychobilly]

Thanks, Deebs.
Those are both 3rd party apps(I linked calibre in the op ) and Calibre is a great one, but I see I was unclear in my post. It's more the hardware I'm hoping to be educated on, and especially any hacks/3rd party OS's, similar to how Lineage is an alternative to google-fied Android.

Calibre is FOSS, and had great features even a few years ago, like converting formats. I can recommend it for organizing and transferring a book collection.


I see kobo has a waterproof reader for a not too scary price. Battery life is incredible now, memory has been expanded.
The hardware is there, but I always try to tweak the experience to suit my personal requirements. One size does NOT fit all in my world.

I think those use a type of Android, which is basically the google custom version of Ubuntu Linux, but theoretically if you had enough Coffee you could possibly install any version you like.

Essentially what you're after seems to be the ability to read things without a book shelf, so you might be able to track down a tablet without all the extra stuff added in. I mean, you could kick it oldschool and use a PDF viewer on a tablet running whatever you like really.

 

[Amarok]

I use a tablet sometimes for stuff like that. The bigger screen helps.

I want as close to the 'book' experience as possible and tablets don't cut it for one main reason(and some lesser ones). With a tablet, I have to open a reader app and then open a book. With an ereader I can set it down and then pick it up and just start reading at the page I was on, like picking up a book.. It may seem minor, but it isn't for me.

Battery life, screen brightness and fragility are some of my other issues with tablets as readers. I've had a bunch of tablets starting with a Blackberry, a Pixel 7, a couple nvidia Shields(still use one in the kitchen), and a few others, and they are great for consuming media, but not for books, IMO.

 

[Psychobilly]

I want as close to the 'book' experience as possible and tablets don't cut it for one main reason(and some lesser ones). With a tablet, I have to open a reader app and then open a book. With an ereader I can set it down and then pick it up and just start reading at the page I was on, like picking up a book.. It may seem minor, but it isn't for me.

Battery life, screen brightness and fragility are some of my other issues with tablets as readers. I've had a bunch of tablets starting with a Blackberry, a Pixel 7, a couple nvidia Shields(still use one in the kitchen), and a few others, and they are great for consuming media, but not for books, IMO.

OK gotcha. Hmm, yeah, a reader might be the better option here just because the "extra" steps aren't required. Have you ever thought about Audible ? The Wife loves it and listens to books all the time. You can use a phone for this without issue though, this is NOT really like a book in the way you seem to be aiming for.

Have you checked out Ebay or any online yech sites for ideas at all?

 

[Smoke_A_Lot]

If you didn't hate Amazon I'd recommend the Kindle Paperwhite, it's just like reading pages from a book.