During last days I had discussions about devices to read electronic books. You know: e-book readers like Amazon Kindle, Pocketbook. I am unable to count how many of them I bought and which models. But I know which I used.
Very old times
Long, long time ago I had Palm M105 and then Sony Clie SJ30 palmtops. Used both to read some electronic books. But small screen made it not comfortable.
First try
In 2011 I wanted to check how it feels to read e-books on proper e-ink device. Borrowed Amazon Kindle Keyboard from one of my friends and it was good.
Month later I was in USA on Linaro Developer Summit and bought myself Kindle Keyboard. And got Kindle ‘no touch’ one too. First one went on shelf quickly as I used smaller one more often. Still have it — in storage now as battery finally gave up.
Amount of books I bought and read in electronic form quickly passed amount of paper ones.
Upgrading Kindle
Amazon released e-ink device with touchscreen: Kindle Touch. So I bought it on next US visit (another Linaro conference). This time I also got few devices for my friends (no customs == profit) and sold my ‘no touch’ one.
Then Kindle Paperwhite on next visit. Screen backlight was huge step. Reading books in buses, planes, trains became comfortable.
I had one or two newer Kindle Paperwhite devices but for short time.
E-Book subscription
In 2015 I gave Kindle Paperwhite to my mother with some books on it. She enjoyed using device but there was a problem with selection of content…
At around same time Legimi started their e-book subscription service. So I bought Inkbook Obsidian from them and gave my mother as Xmas gift. After some training she became a fan of both service and e-books.
Goodbye Kindle, welcome Pocketbook
At some moment Legimi started tests of ‘one account, two readers’ offer. I decided that it is good time to change device. Sold my Kindle Paperwhite and bought Pocketbook Touch Lux 3 instead.
New device allowed me to use subscription on two e-book readers == less money spent on buying books.
Few months later I had to buy another device as my daughter took Pocketbook from me and started using it. So I bought Pocketbook Touch HD for myself. And another Legimi subscription ;D
This was also first e-book reader where I started experimenting with software. Coolreader is nice alternative to original reading application. My favourite option was “ignore publisher formatting” so each e-book looked the same. Of course if it was properly done which was not granted.
Let go Android with Onyx
Time passed, I cancelled my Legimi subscription in meantime. And PB Touch Lux 3 one day decided to not refresh screen. Like at all. Dead.
So Mira got Pocketbook Touch HD and I started looking for something new for myself.
Asked friends, did some research, watched countless review videos. And decided on Onyx Boox Poke 3. Still 6” 300dpi screen but with all fancy backlight things and Android 10.
Did not even got used to it and replaced it with Onyx Boox Nova 2 from one of friends. 7.8” screen made a difference especially with pre-formatted PDF files.
FBreader works great on it and allows to use OPDS catalogs directly from device. And amount of configuration options beats everything I used before.
I miss one thing (compared to Kindle or Pocketbook) — there is no way to send e-books via e-mail straight to the device.
Summary
During those ten years of using e-book readers I have read countless amount of books. On trip to San Diego I have read above thousand pages on plane (one s-f book series was hard to put away).
Bought hundreds of books in electronic form. And just a few paper ones just because they lacked any other form. I also feel unable to concentrate while reading paper ones — have to hold them in a way to not close etc…