Requirements:

  • Able to pirate books and load them on
  • Nice if it can integrate with my arr stack (Sonarr, Radarr, etc)
  • reasonably priced
  • not locked down to anything

That’s it really just a simple e-reader that I can add what I want.

Edit: this is the first post where I got a lot of comments where I wasn’t too overwhelmed to reply to them all. Hard when you wake up to so many replies but trying to be better thanking people for their input.

  • kmartburrito@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Box is fantastic for what you’re looking for, OP. It’s probably the least locked down of them all due to running android and being able to put your own apps on it.

    I’m reading One Piece colorized version right now on it and don’t think I’d be able to with any other reader.

  • mittyta@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Except for being locked down, the amazon kindle is great device. Mine is 12 years old (1st gen Paperwhite) and I’m happy with it. And the form factor of their Kindle Oasis with asymmetric center of mass makes me want it more than any other device. Never tried it though. Are there alternatives for Oasis to use reader with one hand?

    • dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.deOP
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      1 month ago

      Thanks. I personally hate Amazon and would never give them by money but appreciate your input and I don’t judge others who do use Amazon as it’s your right to shop where you choose.

    • grysbok@lemmy.sdf.org
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      1 month ago

      I do like my older Amazon Paperwhite, but I’m bookmarking this thread for when/if it no longer functions.

      I’ve got it in airplane mode and don’t intend to reintroduce it to the Internet. I can load books from USB just fine and have no need for the Amazon ebook ecosystem.

      • mittyta@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        I looked at this, but I’m not sure that center of mass is shifted toward handle in kobo. While it’s obvious for Oasis. If true, that will be cool.

  • cfi@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Regardless of what reader you go with, look into KoReader, a custom reader app that you install on top of existing firmware. Offers a lot of features that stock firmware doesn’t, like OPDS catalog connections

  • WandowsVista@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    +1 to Kobo as well, although I’m admittedly unfamiliar with the pirate apps (arr).

    no issues downloading books and adding/editing my library with calibre and you can connect it to your library card to rent ebooks if you’re feeling frisky.

    or you can bypass the login steps and change out the firmware and add games and other utilities. it’s as customizable or not as you want.

    lots of refurbished options through rakuten and ebay

  • jacksilver@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    I saw Boox called out, but not the Boox Palma². I just got it and it’s been pretty nice. The major draw is the form factor though as it’s phone sized making it pretty portable.

    It runs android and I’ve set it up to work with AudioBookshelf and Komga

    AudioBookshelf, while designed for audiobooks, allows you to download books for offline reading and seemed the best all in one for books self hosting. It also has a native android app.

    Komga seems pretty amazing for manga and comic books (haven’t settled on an app, just using the browser now). The e-ink display isn’t the best for reading this medium, but it’s not terrible for black and white comics.

    Since both of those are self-hosted solutions they could integrate with readarr pretty easily (although audiobookshelf’s folder structure can be frustrating).

      • jacksilver@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        It’s really great software, and the android app is great (given it supports offline mode). I just wish the folder structure was simpler/flexible. Makes me tempted to try to make a pull request, but haven’t done something like that in ages.

  • UnfairUtan@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    I bought my first e-reader a month ago, it’s the Boox Go 7 and I’m really pleased so far. The fact that it’s also an android tablet let’s me download apps for Mangas, music, etc.

  • DrownedRats@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Kobo was on my short-list not long ago. They seemed like the most polished non-amazon option to me. I haven’t switched for now because my old kindle 2 is still clinging to life and because of it being long out of support from amazon I just keep it disconnected from the internet and sideload whatever I want.

    With that said though, now that some decent kindle jailbreaking options are available, an old second hand kindle from eBay might actually be a very good option.

  • truxnell@aussie.zone
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    1 month ago

    I recently somehow broke my Boox page, and I replaced it with a PocketBook Era. It’s my favourite device, great battery life, integrated with calibre like a dream and the OS is really nice to use after fighting android on the Boox.

  • MiyamotoKnows@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Without question the Kobo Libre Colour. I have owned multiple e-readers and the Kobo Libra H2O was my previous one. It was so much better than anything I had used before that I have probably told a hundred people and will be passionately buying Kobo from here forward. Good luck and read East of Eden if you haven’t even if it doesn’t sound like your thing. 👍

    • _spiffy@lemmy.ca
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      1 month ago

      I love my Kobo Clara. I’ve read more in the past few years of ownership than I did the 10 years before. Plus I have a calibre-web server that it syncs with so I don’t have to manually move things over.

        • generallynonsensical@sh.itjust.works
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          1 month ago

          I’m currently running Komga and Komf (metadata) docker containers with the Komelia app on my devices.

          I have used kavita in the past but found Komga more robust with its processing/organizing of my comic collection. Komga doesn’t do all that well with epub/PDF.

          Have there been recent changes to Kavita to make it more eBook friendly? It was a while back when I tried. I’m open to switching servers. It’d be nice to have everything written processed in one place.

          • fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com
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            1 month ago

            How long ago? I ran both side by side and felt the same way at first, but eventually dropped Komga.

            I personally dont like rhe folder structure required for Kavita comics, so I have Mylar sort them and then create a symlink structure Kavita uses. Kavita handles Epub great, with the same structure as Calibre.

    • dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.deOP
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      1 month ago

      Thanks.

      I had a feeling it would be the Kobo, I was a little taken aback by the price but I’ll likely take your advice and get one of these, when the time is right.

      I also added the book to my reading list, an LLM said it’s like a modern retelling of Cane and Abel, which sounds interesting. It also said it’s the authors magnum opus, so really had to add it.

      To be honest I wanted to get back into reading to read about the history of the Middle East, but with adhd reading is tough and the only time i remember being gripped was with The Millenium Trilogy by Steig Larsson so might find more thrillers to read to get back into it before hitting the hard history stuff.

      • mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 month ago

        FWIW, the price is largely due to patent issues; The company that owns the patent to produce e-ink screens has started exorbitantly jacking up prices for device makers. Ironically, e-ink used to be much cheaper, before that e-ink company started messing with the supply.

      • Nate Cox@programming.dev
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        1 month ago

        FWIW I have the color and the non-color libra, and if you’re just interested in reading books where color isn’t a huge part of the experience I highly recommend the non-color version. The contrast ratio and legibility are simply far better.

  • drcobaltjedi@programming.dev
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    1 month ago

    I have a Kobo n437, I swaped the internal sd card with a 32gb one and installed InkBox/Quill OS.

    You’ll need a bit of linux skills to use a bigger storage solution to its full potential. The project is currently on hiatus as they port the OS over to the pine64 e-reader.

    Worth noting otherwise, currently pictures in epub formated books don’t load (at least on mine don’t know about other models) so youll want to convert them to pdf.

      • drcobaltjedi@programming.dev
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        1 month ago

        The process isn’t hard or time consuming, but I understand, this sorta stuff isn’t for everyone. I’m just a huge proponent of “this is my device it’ll do as I say”

        • dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.deOP
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          1 month ago

          That’s very true but it becomes another dependency for me to manage, which is fine if that’s your thing but I struggle with motivation sometimes.

          For instance my media server crapped the bed last night and debugging today felt like a chore. Turns out that I didn’t properly manage the docker side of things and where it stores things so I ran out of space on the server disk. My plan is to move the docker stuff to a vault in truenas and automate clearing old images and stuff, but as I say it’s a chore at times so don’t want to be adding another thing I need to manage as when in a bad headspace it’ll not get done.

          Now this also highlighted an issue I must have, not been back to check docker compose, in that Plex doesn’t have access to my libraries now so the config must be wrong as Jellyfin worked perfectly. Means I’ll need to spend the time to resolve this so my users can continue on Plex which they prefer, I also prefer Plex but Jellyfin seems to work better on iOS.

          Hope you see this response as me just expressing my use case and I have no judgement on you for sharing as I like to know what’s out there still.

          • drcobaltjedi@programming.dev
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            1 month ago

            It’s all good man. Different people have different wants and needs. Your hands are a bit full with other stuff so setting up an ereader the way I have with mine is just too much om your already full plate.

            Have a wonderful day and I hope you can find a good solution for yourself.

  • Hello_there@fedia.io
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    1 month ago

    Off topic, but check out Trmnl if you want a passive eink display on the wall that shows a few things at a time. Without a subscription. Repairable and byod friendly. Let me know if you want a discount code for 15 off.

  • Tecovirimat@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 month ago

    Hi!

    Just recently was setting up my whole family with ebooks. Ended up with Kobo Libra Colour for myself and Kindle Oasis (jailbreaked) for family.

    I am quite happy with both readers. Kindle would be a bit better in quality, but Kobo is color and non-amazon. Both of them have physical side buttons, which were my main requirement.

    I store all my books in calibre and uploading it via USB on my kobo reader. It makes it much easier to manage and confirm metadata. I didn’t bother with readarr, as I already has a decent collection that still need to finish.

    For family - they were already familiar with Kindle, so I got them Oasises from ebay, jailbroke them to prevent Amazon from messing up with them and just send all necessary book to their readers wirelessly via Send to Kindle.

    • dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.deOP
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      1 month ago

      Hi,

      Thanks this is very useful. I hate Amazon so kindle is off but Kobo is getting a lot of shouts so I’ll look at the non colour one as I’m not interested in colour.