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.
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.
Thanks. I see Box and Kobo are getting shouted out a lot so I’ll looks into both and see which fits me better.
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?
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.
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.
Kobo Libra is the same form factor as a Kindle Oasis.
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.
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
Thanks for the tip.
+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
Thanks.
Seems Kobo is a winner here so it’ll be that or Boox that comes in second.
I just bought a used kindle and jailbroke it a few weeks ago for a similar use case
Which one did you buy?
Kindle Paperwhite 2
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).
Seconded! I using the Boox tab mini c with audiobookshelf, Covers all my needs
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.
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.
Boox is coming in a close second here. Interesting that it’s Android, does it still have e-ink display so it’s not viable for Plex or Jellyfin?
Yep it’s e-ink. There’s a color version as well, but also e-ink.
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.
Kobo does seem to be winning right now but good shout on a used kindle and jailbreaking. Something for me to keep as an option.
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.
Boox is coming in second it seems after Kobo still be researching both for my needs.
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. 👍
Seconded.
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.
Calibre web server sounds amazing!
I switched to Kavita. More modern and supports OPDS, so it connects to readers just like Caliber does. It was originally designed for comics, which is why it probably looks so good.
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.
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.
I have a Kobo Clara I’m super happy with. Way better than the buggy Kindle I had.
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.
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.
Interstate good to know. Thanks dude.
If you are in Germany, the Thalia Tolinos are rebranded Kobos.
I am not in Germany. I just joined this instance not knowing any better but never had an issue even when I see subs in German that I don’t understand.
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.
Yeah, I read a lot of comics, so the Kobo Libra Color has been amazing. But there’s no doubting that the color screen compromises on clarity and contrast.
Thanks this helps as I have no interest in colour as I never got into comics or anything so it’s a no brainier.
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Seems Kobo is getting a lot of shout outs here and I agree with your sentiment of fuck Amazon.
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.
Thanks. I’ll bear this in mind but don’t want another project right now as my media server takes up some time. But I’ll keep it in mind for the future.
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”
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.
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.
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.
Hey, I appreciate the off topic and it does look cool. I don’t think I’m in the market right not but thanks for offering a code.
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.
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.
On more vote for Kobo. I have currently a Clara Colour, works 100% offline with Calibre
Kobo is a clear winner thus far. Thanks.