Calibre is great for managing an ebook library, and okay for reading ebooks but the reader is clearly not its primary focus, so I’m wondering what readers folks here use across platforms.
I know of a few, but I’m always on the lookout for different options that may have features I didn’t realize I’d love to use.
I wish I could get this site to let me rotate by 90 degrees. I only have a single monitor and it displays it horizontally instead of vertically. Which would make sense for a tablet or phone that you could physically rotate.
Sorry if this is going off on a tangent, but I don’t understand how people can read on non-eInk devices. For me, the original Kindle (almost, I think I started with the gen 2) was a revolution. Finally I could read digitally as well as on dead trees.
I can read a few paragraphs on my phone, and maybe 2 pages on my computer, but more? No thanks.
I’d like to hear from people who read more on those devices.
Speaking personally, it’s just that non-eInk displays are simply what I have to work with and they don’t bother me to read on. I’m kind of confused, given that most displays don’t use e-Ink…Do you minimize your web browsing as a result, or is it different compared to reading ebooks for you?
Disregard the question, rereading your post you address it, it just hadn’t fully clicked as I’ve not talked to many people with your experience.
FWIW, I do not read very long content on my PC. The webserial worm, which is in my top 5 of best all time series, I’d not have read if there weren’t ebook versions of it that you could load on an eReader.
You say you haven’t talked to many people like me, can you just concentrate on novels reading them on a screen exhausting to your eyes? Or does reading for hours on normal screens not exhaust them for you?
I think AMOLED screens might make a huge difference. I’ve read countless novels on my phone with zero eye strain because the black pixels are actually entirely unlit and literally black. This means the brightness for the letters can be extremely low while remaining legible and comfortably readable for hours.
Interesting, AMOLED were rare or nonexistent back then, so I don’t think I ever tried that. Now I’m curious, and I shall try reading on my AMOLED phone for a bit tomorrow ;)
If you prefer eink but want the size of a phone, there are some good, cheap phone sized android eink readers now. You have to hack them a bit to get English instead of Chinese, or buy from a seller on aliexpress who already did it for you, but it’s not a problem. I use a moaan inkpalm and I couldn’t be happier. I find myself reading in the odd moments I have here and there, which is not something I managed to do with my kindle.
You say you haven’t talked to many people like me, can you just concentrate on novels reading them on a screen exhausting to your eyes? Or does reading for hours on normal screens not exhaust them for you?
The second one. Reading for hours on normal screens doesn’t exhaust my eyes, just a little mental fatigue depending on the type of book or how long I’m reading.
I’d like to hear from people who read more on those devices.
I started reading books electronically on my Palm Pilot III, later a Palm V, then a SONY Clie. I loved the convenience of it, especially because I didn't have the shelf space for all my books at home and I'm into 800+page fantasy books that are a hassle to carry around. After reading on PDAs anything is a luxury. These days I read on my smartphone when out and 11inch iPad at home. It's important to manage display brightness though to not tire the eyes, unlike eInk which depends on ambient light.
I generally use Google play books, it syncs across devices and have translation which is good as I started reading French books. But these features are also available on other readers like Kindle.
Interestingly I once worked on an eInk reader for a book chain competing with Amazon. I didn't get any freebie though.
I had a similar experience. Back before epub took off, I started reading Gutenberg books on my wince phone. I think I was using an app called jbookshelf. Even then I loved the convenience of it.
Once android happened, I switched to epubs and it was so much better.
Now I’m mostly using koreader, along with kindle and Google play books. I prefer reading anything in a foreign language on Kindle, because it’s so easy to look up words.
I use Koreader. It’s a bit heavy because it has basically any option you can think of, it works on a wide multitude of platforms, and can have weird bugs sometimes but hardly ever. But the way I read, I need some settings that aren’t in very many readers and it has them. Try it out.
Depends on device for me. For android I use Librera for books, Tachiyomi/Kotatsu for manga/comics, on the old Kindle I was gifted (Kindle Touch 2) I use KOReader so I can read epubs. For desktop I do use Calibre for reading, though I’m not a big fan of their reader. I mainly read textbooks on desktop and find the search features useful, which is the main reason for using it, it all works well enough. I had issues getting Okular to work well on my computer, but I’ve heard it’s good? Here’s hoping I can unify things a bit in the future.
Eta: I forgot I actually started using Seeneva for comics, since I like the speech-bubble zoom feature
I had issues getting Okular to work well on my computer, but I’ve heard it’s good?
Which OS were you trying it with? I was pleasantly surprised when I found it was available on Windows, and a simple install had it working for me. Another option to consider if it still gives issues (and you’re on Windows) may be SumatraPDF, which despite the name supports a wide range of formats.
I’m running Debian. Okular worked for smaller epubs just fine iirc, but was struggling with large textbooks which is what I was using it for (Deitel Java specifically). Took forever to load, and was sluggish to search.
Unfortunately it looks like sumatra is windows only, but I’ll keep searching!
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