E-readers, e-books, and e-lucidation

[Blackhawk]

We don't have a general topic for these, so... why not?

I've got a Kindle Paperwhite that I've been using for four or five years. I'm planning on replacing it with a Kobo (or similar) when it's practical to do so - it ties my PC for my most used electronics device.

With that in mind, and as I buy ebooks going forward, I'd prefer not to lock myself into Amazon's content. Slowly but surely, I'm trying to divorce myself from Amazon. And while it's easy to convert .epub format to .mobi to read books from other sources on the Kindle, it's a pain to get Amazon's proprietary .azw format stripped of DRM and converted to work on other devices.

So, where do people buy ebooks that's safe, reliable, and allows direct download of the files rather than strong-arming you into their app/hardware?

[hitbyambulance]

i have been keeping up to date on modern e-ink devices - mostly readers, but some other things as well.

DRM-free books:


also libro.fm has DRM-free audio books


exclusively, i get my material from the library and classics (public domain) ebook websites like Project Gutenberg, standardebooks and Global Grey. (i paid a £50 donation to https://www.globalgreyebooks.com/index.html to be able to download ALL the site's ebooks in one shot. the owner occasionally has a sale where you only have to donate £10, but you can still just download whatever you want anytime for free, it's just onesie-twosie).

if your library doesn't have a good selection, check for reciprocal borrowing from the library for nearby library systems. if that's still not good enough, you can purchase an online library card from some libraries for full access to their catalog: https://everyday-reading.com/where-you- ... rary-card/

e.g.:

INDIANA

Public Library Access Card (aka PLAC card) – is the name for the statewide library card allowing any individual to purchase a card for $65 a year, allowing them to borrow materials directly from any public library in Indiana. These cards can be purchased at any Indiana library!

finally, this might interesting for your kids - blue state 'refugee' library cards for people 26 and under from intellectually, emotionally and financially oppressed red states. here is Seattle Public Library's:
https://www.spl.org/programs-and-servic ... s-unbanned

[LawBeefaroni]

Public library. CPL uses Overdrive and is switching to Libby for audiobooks.

Crap, this reminds me, I need to renew my library card.

[Pyperkub]

Just a heads-up, but you may have to jump through a few more hoops to upgrade out of the Amazon ecosystem:

Amazon’s removal of support for My Content & Devices USB transfers and its simultaneous move to using the MTP protocol. These two events combined likely led some to believe that USB support would not work at all on the 2024 Kindles. This is not true, though.

Let’s start with the change in My Content & Devices. You can access this via Amazon.com by signing in and heading to Account > Content Library > Books. Here, you’ll find a list of books you’ve purchased from Amazon. If you have a Kindle launched earlier than 2024, you should see an option under the drop-down menu next to a book that says Download & transfer via USB. As one would expect, this downloads the book and then allows you to transfer it to your Kindle by hooking it up to your computer with a USB cable. However, if you have a 2024 Kindle registered to your account, this process will not be available. Instead, you’ll need to connect your Kindle to the internet wirelessly. Doing so will automatically move all the content you see here to your Kindle — no USB cable is needed.

[Blackhawk]

If I'm in the mood to read a specific series, say, something from the 80s with a dozen volumes, what are the chances of any particular library having the whole thing available?

[Blackhawk]

Just a heads-up, but you may have to jump through a few more hoops to upgrade out of the Amazon ecosystem:

Amazon’s removal of support for My Content & Devices USB transfers and its simultaneous move to using the MTP protocol. These two events combined likely led some to believe that USB support would not work at all on the 2024 Kindles. This is not true, though.

Let’s start with the change in My Content & Devices. You can access this via Amazon.com by signing in and heading to Account > Content Library > Books. Here, you’ll find a list of books you’ve purchased from Amazon. If you have a Kindle launched earlier than 2024, you should see an option under the drop-down menu next to a book that says Download & transfer via USB. As one would expect, this downloads the book and then allows you to transfer it to your Kindle by hooking it up to your computer with a USB cable. However, if you have a 2024 Kindle registered to your account, this process will not be available. Instead, you’ll need to connect your Kindle to the internet wirelessly. Doing so will automatically move all the content you see here to your Kindle — no USB cable is needed.

I'm happy to leave the Amazon ecosystem behind without looking back. I may lose a few books (although I can still read them on the Kindle), but I'm fine with that. I tend to go a long, long time between re-reads of novels. Decades.

[hitbyambulance]

Public library. CPL uses Overdrive and is switching to Libby for audiobooks.

technically... Libby IS Overdrive, it's just the customer-friendly re-branding.

[hitbyambulance]

If I'm in the mood to read a specific series, say, something from the 80s with a dozen volumes, what are the chances of any particular library having the whole thing available?

can you give me an example or three?

here, for example is SPL's collection of Robert Jordan ebooks: https://seattle.bibliocommons.com/v2/se ... RMAT=EBOOK

[Blackhawk]

If I'm in the mood to read a specific series, say, something from the 80s with a dozen volumes, what are the chances of any particular library having the whole thing available?

can you give me an example or three?

Well, I just looked up Alan Dean Foster on three huge public libraries, and one had two of the 15-book series I just got done reading on ebook. The others had zero.

[hitbyambulance]

If I'm in the mood to read a specific series, say, something from the 80s with a dozen volumes, what are the chances of any particular library having the whole thing available?

can you give me an example or three?

Well, I just looked up Alan Dean Foster on three huge public libraries, and one had two of the 15-book series I just got done reading on ebook. The others had zero.

yeah i'm gonna say a lot of pulpy older genre series are not going to be high priority acquisition items for the library. you can always try to request them, however.

[Blackhawk]

Since all of my ebook shopping to date was via Amazon, I just didn't realize how pervasive DRM was.

I'm amending my question: What are the good non-Amazon sources for standard .epub format ebooks?

[gilraen]

Public library. CPL uses Overdrive and is switching to Libby for audiobooks.

technically... Libby IS Overdrive, it's just the customer-friendly re-branding.

I wouldn't call it "customer-friendly". The reason publishers pushed libraries to get rid of Overdrive is because Libby doesn't let you transfer mp3 files out of the app and keep them for free.

[gilraen]

I'm amending my question: What are the good non-Amazon sources for standard .epub format ebooks?

Kobo has their own ebook store.

[Smoove_B]

Kobo has their own ebook store.

Yes. And they seem to have lots and lots of older, harder to find print books that have been translated to eBook format - especially science fiction and fantasy.

[Punisher]

I had never heard of kobo before but recently got a humble bundle for a complete discworld book set and had to redeem through kobo.
I'll eventually need to figure out how to get them onto my kindles.

[Blackhawk]

I had never heard of kobo before but recently got a humble bundle for a complete discworld book set and had to redeem through kobo.
I'll eventually need to figure out how to get them onto my kindles.

You'll need to download Calibre, install a third-party DRM remover plugin, import them into Calibre, then strip the DRM and convert them to .mobi, then upload them to your Kindle.

[hitbyambulance]

I'm amending my question: What are the good non-Amazon sources for standard .epub format ebooks?

did you see the Reddit link i posted earlier? lots of sources mentioned in there

[hitbyambulance]

good sources of info:

https://goodereader.com/blog/

https://www.mobileread.com/

https://www.reddit.com/r/ereader/

[Blackhawk]

I'm amending my question: What are the good non-Amazon sources for standard .epub format ebooks?

did you see the Reddit link i posted earlier? lots of sources mentioned in there

I did, and I appreciated it. I had changed the question, though, to eliminate my misconceptions about DRM in ebooks (I thought that most didn't have it, while it seems that most do - at least those carrying the mainstream publishers.)

[hitbyambulance]

Amazon killing the 'transfer to USB' option. this was literally the only reason i'm still in the Kindle ecosystem; will not be buying any more in the future.

[gilraen]

Just to clarify: it doesn't appear to be preventing you from transferring books from your PC to the Kindle via USB. Only transferring purchased books from the Kindle to the PC (presumably because Amazon doesn't want you to be able to use them with any other reader).

Edit: maybe I'm wrong and it's for either direction. It's really not very clear. My Kindles are ancient so I don't think I'd be affected but I certainly won't ever consider buying another one.

I give the high seas community about 2472 hours to get around this new fun feature either way.

[Blackhawk]

I jumped ahead of my savings and bought my Kobo before the tariffs started kicking in. I'm even more glad now.

[Sudy]

Yeah, I pulled the trigger on a Kobo Clara BW just before the potential start of the Canadian tariffs, but it still seemed to be within hours/days of Kobo bumping the price by $10 lol.

I love it though! It's my first e-reader. So much more comfortable to read on than my phone.

Now I just need a reading nook.

[Sudy]

Any of you guys on Storygraph?

I'm on Goodreads too but honestly I think I'll just stay out of that ecosystem.

[gbasden]

Do any of the ereaders support anything other than one giant list of books? I'd love to organize my books into different folders for author or series, or sorting pleasure reading from business reading.

[stessier]

Kindles allow collections which are basically just folders.

[hitbyambulance]

Just to clarify: it doesn't appear to be preventing you from transferring books from your PC to the Kindle via USB. Only transferring purchased books from the Kindle to the PC (presumably because Amazon doesn't want you to be able to use them with any other reader).

Edit: maybe I'm wrong and it's for either direction. It's really not very clear. My Kindles are ancient so I don't think I'd be affected but I certainly won't ever consider buying another one.

it's for library checkouts as well.

[gilraen]

I don't remember the last time that my library checkouts went to Kindle format. Our public library uses Overdrive, and the checked out books were ACSM (Adobe).

[Blackhawk]

Kindles allow collections which are basically just folders.

They do, but it's extremely clunky, and browsing them feels like trying to browse the web in a 14k modem in the 90s.

[stessier]

Kindles allow collections which are basically just folders.

They do, but it's extremely clunky, and browsing them feels like trying to browse the web in a 14k modem in the 90s.

Very true. But still better than one continuous list (imo).

[Blackhawk]

Absolutely.

Kobo has similar functionality, but I only loaded a couple of books on it (I wanted to get back to reading the one I was in the middle of!), so I haven't fiddled with it yet.

[hitbyambulance]

I don't remember the last time that my library checkouts went to Kindle format. Our public library uses Overdrive, and the checked out books were ACSM (Adobe).

all the libraries here go through Amazon for Kindle checkouts. Overdrive is used for everything else.

[hitbyambulance]

Kindles allow collections which are basically just folders.

They do, but it's extremely clunky, and browsing them feels like trying to browse the web in a 14k modem in the 90s.

Very true. But still better than one continuous list (imo).

Kindle collections are legendarily bad, and there have been _no_ efforts to improve this over the years

[Blackhawk]

That's part of the reason I ditched the Kindle for a Kobo. The rest was just to continue my efforts to distance myself from Amazon (including Goodreads.)

[hitbyambulance]

I jumped ahead of my savings and bought my Kobo before the tariffs started kicking in. I'm even more glad now.

which model did you get

[Blackhawk]

Libra Color. I preferred the Libra 2, but it was out of stock everywhere, with no indication of whether there would be more.

[Isgrimnur]

Unfortunately, the Kobo Libra 2 has been discontinued, having been replaced by the Libra Color.

[Blackhawk]

Well, there ya go.

It makes me feel better about not taking a chance and waiting for the other model to come back in stock.

[Sudy]

That's bizarre. I researched colour Kobos before deciding on the Clara BW. $20 more for a colour model seems like a no-brainer, right? Well, it turns out the physical filter layer required to achieve colour significantly decreases the contrast and affects other qualities of the display. The colour units are still wonderful, but as I specifically wanted the smaller, lighter 6" form factor it didn't make sense for me. While being able to read comics in colour would have been a nice bonus, it wasn't my primary desire, and doing so on the 6" screen isn't ideal anyway.

Given its age, I guess it kind of makes sense the Libra 2 is being retired. Released in 2021, it's last-gen. But I'm surprised there hasn't been a new non-colour 7" model announced. Otherwise your choices are limited to the Libra Colour or the smaller, 6" Claras. Or a 10", $400 Elipsa 2 which is obviously overkill for most seeking a simple e-reader. Meanwhile Amazon has the 12-gen 7" Paperwhite.

[Blackhawk]

From what I've read (and in my experience) that color layer isn't active when there isn't a color element on-screen. The black-and-white pages look as sharp as they do on my (retired) Kindle Paperwhite.

Luckily, I always chose 'download and transfer with USB' for my Kindle files, so now I just need to strip off the copy protection to use them on my Kobo. Oops, did I say that out loud?