I’ve been a book reader for a long time, but never got into eBooks. I want to try it out next, but don’t want to use any privacy vilotating devices or software. So, those “10 best” lists I found while searching are out, all of the Amazon crap is out.
What’s left? What’s a good device to buy so I can self-host my own eBook library and get into eReading. I would prefer suggestions for devices which just read books and comics and such. I don’t need access to the app stores on it, I think.
Thanks for any ideas.
ETA: I have a Linux PC and an Android phone, if those things matter.
ETA2: Thank you all for these replies. You’ve given me a lot to think about and I appreciate the help!
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I’ve had an e-ink device, and read ebooks on a number of devices. Some notes:
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If it’s a casual read and I can get the book in epub or mobi format, I might just have it on my phone and use Librera.
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I did not like e-ink displays at all. The text itself doesn’t appear easier on the eyes to me, and if anything the jarring refreshes on each page turn make the overall experience even more straining. For this reason regular Android tablets have become my preferred way to read books.
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For tablets I suggest one that is at least 10 inches. A lot of ebooks are still only available in pdf format, and I’ve found that anything smaller than a 10 inch display makes for bad pdf reading.
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Following from all that, I would suggest the Pixel Tablet, because from a privacy perspective, you have the option to install GrapheneOS on it. From there you can get F-Droid, install any of those ebook apps, and now you have a reasonably secure and private ebook reader - and the best part is, because it’s a general purpose tablet, you’re not accumulating unnecessary single-purpose devices. You never know if the tablet might have other important uses down the line.
Or for other options you can checkout LineageOS. Filter by tablet to see which ones are supported, and that can help narrow choices of tablets that can be made privacy-respecting. Just make sure to use a version that does not have gapps on it. Once you use LineageOS’s site to find a supported tablet, you can go to the MicroG for LineageOS site to download the MicroG version of the OS. This comes with a set of alternatives to Google spyware so you can use your tablet completely free of Google.
Super helpful, thank you!
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I really like my era. Pocketbook allows me to have the website of a local bookstore as the “shop” button on the home screen, so I can support them. It is comfortable to hold and the front light is pretty good.
In the summer months when I don’t use the backlighting, I need to charge it every 2 weeks with very heavy reading or even 2 months with light reading (~20 mins a day)
im still amazed the e-ink so expensive. you can get an androiud table for 40 quid.
Oof, I get you about eInk, but how crappy is that tablet?
I use a Kobo with Calibre! I use it for fiction and theory alike.
I was on your point 4 years ago. After some research, I’m using Kobo + Calibre-web with Kobo Sync integration:
https://brandonjkessler.com/technology/2021/04/26/setup-kobo-sync-in-calibre-web.html
I have a Kobo sage and its pretty good. Just avoid the color ones.
Yeah, kobo is what I’m planning on upgrading too.
PineNote (Pine 64) or reMarkable (Pro if you have budget, 2 or even 1 otherwise)
Both work on Linux proper, the reMarkable comes with Linux out of the box whereas PineNote comes with Android but one can install Linux on it.
They are mostly to sketch but it is also good to read. You can pretty much use whatever you want on them, including developing your own software. I don’t know if they have Calibre clients because whats I do is… just
scpmy ePubs or PDFs on there.Here are my tinkering notes on both https://fabien.benetou.fr/Tools/Eink but feel free to ask any clarification.
PS: the Bookeen Diva also does not require any software, namely you can plug it on Linux, it gets detected as a filesystem and you can copy DRM-free content on it. It’s a totally different form factor (much smaller so IMHO not great for comics) and I don’t think there is the same open-source community as the other 2.
Also a good moment to clarify that DRM sucks, but as a user, or even a consumer, you don’t have to be worry of them (at least technically) because it’s trivial to remove. For example you can use this super convenient script https://pypi.org/project/DeGourou/ to straight up download content that should in theory be “just” for you. The online public library I use, namely https://www.lirtuel.be/ does offer ePub and PDF so I was overjoy… only to realize they meant with DRM. As I had already registered and was honestly pissed at them for not disclosing it from the start I tried DeGourou and… it just worked and is very convenient (you just give it the .acsm then it downloads and remove the DRM, so you get a proper file after). So… yeah, obviously don’t buy any DRM content if you don’t have to but if somehow you must, it’s not that big a deal technically speaking.
I’m very surprised the top answer isn’t pocketbook. Their entire business model is reworking Chinese e ink tablets to make them GDPR compliant and privacy respecting. I’d recommend the pocketbook verse pro if you want a lit screen and USB C, but they have a cheaper model without those features.
Here is a good spec comparison table for ereaders in general. I’d point out basically all e-readers have great battery life.
The Miyoo Mini Plus. It’s a Gameboy Linux Emulator device. Besides being able to run most games up to ps1, you can also put ebooks as pdf or epub on it.
That’s not really an adequate recommendation imo. The Miyoo Mini Plus has subpar battery runtime due to it’s size limitations and it’s LCD screen, compared to actual eInk devices. The screen size and ratio is also not suitable for effective reading, even though it is possible to read eBooks with it.
Just… Another kobo. I don’t actually use calibre though, i just get the books in epub format. Then when you hook the kobo to the PC, it shows as mass storage anyway. Just dump your files, and after ejected it does its cursory file scan, and it shows them properly listed in the device.
Of course Calibre offers a lot more functionality, so if you want to have a proper library it might make sense to manage your books from there. I’m basically saying no conversion is needed a it natively reads epub.
Haven’t tried any other similar product (except the pro version), but I have the Remarkable 2 and in my experience it’s pretty good as an e reader as well. Maybe expensive for just using it as an e-reader but you can also use it as a note taking device. It’s pretty big but still really thin and light, so it’s a pretty good reading experience especially if you have bigger hands, some people may find it too big as an e-reader tho, but I really like the size.
One recommendation I can make is that if you are interested in it, if you have the money consider the pro version. If notetaking matters to you, the little I experienced writing on the pro version was so much better. The pen is much better as well as the tracking. My version tends to be off by about a millimeter at some places and the edges. This becomes extremely frustrating when you’re trying to e.g. dot the i-s and you keep missing where you want to write. From what I saw, the pro version is much better at this and is in colour.
I have had quite a battle with/trying to avoid Remarkable’s cloud service with both my RM1 and RM2. It is very deeply linked, and their privacy policy isn’t the best.
This might not be applicable if you’re only going to use it as an ereader, but I want to keep sensitive documents on mine and it has not been easy. I currently use this script, but it’s a clunky experience.
Unbelievably good piece of hardware though!
I’d argue it’s a simple toggle, namely if you do not register to their cloud, you don’t have access to their features and that’s it. If you somehow “mess” registration up and still went through the steps, hard reset and voila, clean reMarkable.
Source : I had the one and now have the reMarkable 2 and Pro and I do not use their cloud.
Also note that you can how your own self hosted alternative https://github.com/ddvk/rmfakecloud
Oooh, amazing! Do you use it? How mature is it?
Ah, didn’t realise this was the Privacy community, yeah not main the goto if that’s your focus.
I can’t speak to the privacy of it, but I love my Kobo Elipsa 2E setup. I’ve got NickelMenu, Synching and Autoshelf installed, so I can sort books by directory and have them sync. I also have KOReader installed with some other goodies, but rarely use it. The reading experience in the stock firmware is way nicer. And the screen is big enough to read full size PDFs comfortably. Kobo runs Linux under the hood, and there are extensions to give you Telnet/SSH access so you can mod what you need.
Also, being able to borrow books from Overdrive/Libby on it and support my local library is rad.
I did the whole Calibre with Kobo extensions thing for a few weeks, but it just didn’t work out very well for me. I like to have my books synced to multiple devices and Calibre just isn’t built for that.
Yeah I like my Kobo too. It’s never done anything sketchy as far as I can tell, plus you can sideload things, and if you plug it in via USB it just shows up like regular drive so you can do what you want with it. And also Libby is awesome lol.
I read on my phone amoled display in dark mode with the app Cool Reader.
Same here with librera
I was on the same journey as you a month or so back and luckily the PineNote just got a second batch produced.
I wrote down some of my thoughts here, maybe that helps: https://domistyle.gitlab.io/pinenote-2024/
You page loads up then it goes away. Not sure what’s up. Maybe it’s my ad blockers. Who knows.
I read your blog post. I was interested until I saw the price on the EU store :(
I ordered from the global store and paid 530€. Still expensive of course and it comes without warranty but it is cheaper and in stock.
Instead of self-hosting, I have a device that can hold a large amount of sideloaded material and sync between my PC and device with syncthing. Boox devices work well for this.
