You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
Afternoon all,
Does anyone regularly use an e-reader/ paperwhite type device? I've orderd some dodgy thing from China called a Papyreaq having read a random review, but may have fallen into the trap that it's just more chinese tatt. This being the case (and if it does even turn up), what are others using? It's not for me, it's the missus who has loads of amazon books, Audible and PDF material to read through. Are kindles the go to still, or do they limit what you can do - Kobo's, B&W?? Flexibility with file types would be ideal.
I'm on I think my third paperwhite, literally wore out the last two. They're just really really good. Next time, I might look at getting out of the amazon ecosystem just because screw amazon basically, but even so, the device is fantastic, the phone app is a useful addition and the actual buying experience usually very good too. And you can put other platform books onto it, with just mild faff.
I'm reading some old paperbacks I have just now and it feels barbaric, not to mention inconvenient to carry around. It was a biking holiday that tipped me into it in the first place, taking a bike + clothes + riding kit for a week on a plane was hassly enough without adding "enough books so that if you break your collarbone on day one you can sit in the sun and read, in a town where there are no english language books" pushed me over). I was an "I love paper books" person and tbh I do still appreciate them but f I could rip all my books like I did my cds and just get rid of 99% of them, I would.
cheers Northwind, depending on what happens i may suck up the £130 i spent and get something thats a more known entity!
What Northwind said, except ours just haven't broken, in years and years of use. We used to take a bag of books on summer holidays, guessing what would be a good mix of easy read detective stories and weightier tomes for more serious time, and now we just don't.
What northwind says. Kindle paperwhite. We have 2 of them here and they’re not far off proving indestructible for a tech gadget. They are just brilliant for reading when on holiday, esp in the sun where an oled / lcd screen are a pain to see in sun.
We use kindle unlimited and get the kindle deal emails, so we’re reading a lot of books and it’s not really costing us much at all. It’s super easy to use.
there might be better options available now, but got ours when Amazon have one of their many deal days or whatever they’re called.
The Wife and I both have a Kindle Paperwhite. They’ve been brilliant. The only things I would change would be to speed up the Kindle store interface and it not be tied to Amazon so heavily.
Another vote for Kindle here. Also in my 3rd (started with a MK1 with the keyboard and page buttons) and now on paperwhite.
While I love 'proper' books the Kindle is far more convenient for novels, etc and it also works surprisingly well with PDFs.
Reference/non fiction type books with lots of photos, diagrams, etc. always look and feel better in the flesh though, rather than digital.
And I still can't resist the pull of a secondhand bookshop.....
I've had Kindles in the past, and they were great, but switched to Kobo to avoid Amazon. My Kobo Libra is excellent - while in most respects it does an identical job I much prefer it to my previous Kindle Paperwhite. The page turn buttons work really well, and it's super easy to change the brightness by just sliding my finger along the edge of the screen.
The display is, apparently, colour, but I only ever read normal text so I just use it in black and white. It charges with USB-C, and the battery lasts for ages. Highly recommended if you don't like Bezos...
The only thing I miss from Kindles is the built-in 3G that I had on my old Kindle Voyage. I travel a lot and it was great to be able to download new books wherever I was without needing to get onto wi-fi. I don't think any of them include it any more, but if they did it might just tempt me back.
Watching with interest. I do love a paper book, but I do have an old Kindle that was bought as a present which is great.
I'm kind of torn. I quite like the idea of the book simply being a relationship between me and its author, with no involvement of Amazon or whoever hoovering up tons of data. But, the ereaders are dead convenient and take up little space.
I can't decide whats the more sustainable option either.
E Readers are great. OP I wonder if the chinese one you have ordered can download apps such as Borrow Box that our library uses. Free legal books if so
When they first came out, the Paperwhite's USP was that it was backlit so unlike the regular Kindle you could read in the dark.
That's no longer the case, All Kindles are backlit, the single biggest differences today are that the PW is waterproof and physically larger. Unless your specific use case includes reading on the beach or in the bath I see little reason to pay the premium for the PW.
They also claim longer battery life and and faster performance but come on, the Kindle doesn't use the battery at all other than for page turns unless the backlight is on or you're using Wi-Fi / mobile data. Under normal usage the boggo Kindle lasts for weeks between charges.
As for compatibility, You are kinda locked into Amazon's infrastructure to a degree, but you can side-load books via email / cable connection, perhaps first using desktop apps like Calibre to 'launder' them into a format Kindle recognises.
Way back when I got my first Kindle (the original Hitch-Hiker's Guide version someone else mentioned earlier), things like being able to borrow e-books from the library was an issue not present on other manufacturers' devices. I've no idea whether that's still a concern today but I honestly don't care, if I went to the library to loan a book, I'd come away with one made out of paper.
TL;DR: get a regular ad-free Kindle. Seems they're currently doing an offer with a 3 months free Kindle Unlimited offer. Is the PW better? Probably. Is it a 50% price hike better? Not unless you're going swimming with it.
Just read the same book over and over again.
Have a Kobo and love it for many things, long battery life, huge storage, clear screen, but... It's an older model that is the grey colour and has no backlight. The screen is also pretty small, but it still works though and is still my goto for when I want to read something at night or on a trip.
It's also easy enough to load books onto a memory card, Kindle app is not needed (I get a lot of eBooks from other, smaller publishing houses).
When/if it breaks, I'd be tempted by another one with a bigger screen. Or I might just get another iPad and use that instead.
Slight thread hijack, but if I was to get a Kobo, can I still read my hundreds of Kindle books on it or would I need to buy them in a different format? I don't know whether the embedded security to stop me sharing them will also stop me from reading them on a non-kindle e-book or app.
I have them backed up to Calibre if that is any help.
Cheers
<Edit> There is also a series of books that I'm reading that only seems to be published as proper books or on Kindle that I don't want to lose. Kobo have the audiobooks in the series, but not the actual stories.
When/if it breaks, I'd be tempted by another one with a bigger screen. Or I might just get another iPad and use that instead.
I recently got a kindle scribe, that has a 10.3 inch screen, while I like the screen real estate, it actually makes it a little uncomfortable to hold one handed while reading, its more of a sit down at a desk device than a reader like a standard sized kindle, I really thought bigger would be better, but actually the downside of the extra weight outweighs the advantage of the bigger screen.
The killer feature for me is the "whisper sync" between kindle and audible, I don't know if kobo or anyone else does that syncing between ereaders and audiobooks yet.
I've got a Kobo (similar to the Kindle but more open ecosystem). It's probably the single most-used and most-treasured gadget I own. It's at least 6 years old and the battery's a bit knackered now, but I love it and will buy another the moment it dies.
Read a paper book in the bath the other day and it felt terribly old-fashioned. More so when I dropped it in the water, which isn't an issue with modern eReaders.
Another happy Kobo user here. Not entirely converted from paper books, but for reading through Sandman Slim on the train, it's ideal. I'm not sure if the selection in the Amazon ecosystem is actually wider, but I've never struggeld to find something to read.
Thought i'd give a little update.
So the chinese tatt turned up, good start. However whilst trying to look for some answers on use, i discovered that it was a re-brand of another generic model which was less than half of what i paid - grrr. Anyway, that aside and knowing i've been a pleb, it's going back through some long winded return - im not 100% ill ever see my money again but hey ho. The screen, depsite claims was shocking and it was certainly not touchscreen.
So, what did it i do...? I bought a 2022 version of the Kindle Scribe in the sale (apparanly the 2024 doesnt add much in improvements). They do work nice, though a little glitchy when scrolling, but the screen qualtiy for text is clearly very good. The only gripe is that the missus has decided that having a device to read aloud pdf's and other books is a must, so im now stuck with what to do.. I've looked at apps like speechify for conversion, but then i may as well ditch the kindle and just install that on her phone.
If it wasnt for gloss screans and crap battery life i woul dhave got a tablet for similar money, that way you can install various apps. Maybe im yet to realise what you can do with the kindle..
I've looked at apps like speechify for conversion,
No need. Kindles can read to you.
re "leaving the amazon ecosystem" - is there any way to do that without losing all the books you've bought over the years?
Had a 2012 basic kindle. Replaced it last year with a Paperwhite signature edition (which is a lot more money for an auto adjusting backlight, but that's a really nice to have feature and if it's lasting me over a decade extra cost will be long forgotten). K got the very latest Paperwhite which is a very very marginal improvement.
Paperwhite vs basic - the paper white is still completely pocket sized, comfortable to hold/read but has more screen than the basic. I'd pay for that again.
Not a lot of people realise that amazon have a trade in - trade in pretty much any age of kindle and you get some cash (in my case only a £5 voucher) but also 20% off a new device *and the discount stacks on top of other price drops*. So if you do it just ahead of prime day/Black Friday
https://www.amazon.co.uk/b/ref=ti_uk_surl_tradein?ie=UTF8&node=21261993031
Paperwhite is 118 down from 160 right now on prime day discount.
I've looked at apps like speechify for conversion,
No need. Kindles can read to you.
that's what i thought, but the new ones at least only have the accesability feature (voiceView) which just helps visually impared move around the controls, it wont actually read anything.
I've looked at apps like speechify for conversion,
No need. Kindles can read to you.
that's what i thought, but the new ones at least only have the accesability feature (voiceView) which just helps visually impared move around the controls, it wont actually read anything.
are you sure? My one-before-last paper white has assistive reading and this suggests it's not been removed
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=TdHCSXXqsdhaVKt3Tc
It does say it only works for 'books with enhanced typesetting' - so probably not with pdfs. But as you say, a phone will do that. (whisper sync on kindle should mean you can use the Kindle app on both, keep your reading position in synd, and switch to your phone if you want pdf's read out. K reads on her phone sometimes/kindle others)
Just upgraded my 5th gen paperwhite to the current one - arrives today. Got the 20% off and £5 voucher with the trade in. Hope it's worth it.
My only disappointment is that whilst kindle support libby, what I should have checked is what my county libraries use Libby for - and sadly it's just magazines. They use something else for ebooks and audiobooks and that's not supported.
I'm a fan of whispersync, but I'm lazy and tend to consume at least 90-95% of a book with the audible version if I do it that way making the ebook purchase (even when heavily discounted as you have already got the audible book) poor value.
My 2012 paperwhite refuses to die.
Others in my family are all broken over the years (clumsy children), but mine soldiers on.
I was an early adopter so a kindle and locked into amazon . However I only buy cheapo stuff that costs pennies from them. When my current kindle fails then I will be going to a generic ereader so I am no longer locked into amazon.
I do not want a back light. I want the long battery life of the original kindles
re "leaving the amazon ecosystem" - is there any way to do that without losing all the books you've bought over the years?
I believe there is a way to do it using some bit of software that downloads onto your computer and converts to open access
There used to be, but I saw some videos on youtube a few months ago that stated it was no longer possible.
If you get an android device like a boox, I think you can install the kindle app and others (I forget the name of app that lets you lend ebooks from UK libaries, but it does exist).
Remember its double discount just now if you have an old reader to trade in, 20% off on Prime Day deal plus 20% and a gift card top up for trade-in. I got a Paperwhite yesterday, cost me £97.99 rather than the usual £169
Here's how to enable text-to-speech on the Kindle Scribe:
Open the ebook: Access the ebook you want to listen to on your Kindle Scribe.
Open the menu: Tap the screen and click the menu icon (Aa) in the upper right corner.
Enable Text-to-Speech: Tap "More" and then toggle the switch next to "Text-to-Speech" to enable it.
Start reading: Tap on the screen within the book and select the play icon to start the narration.
When my current kindle fails then I will be going to a generic ereader so I am no longer locked into amazon.
you aren't locked in; I use Calibre to manage ebooks from various sources and load them onto Kindle.
Kindles are great devices and at Prime week (like right now!) or BF prices they're pretty hard to beat IMO.