HACKER Q&A
📣 lemure

Best Open E-Reader?


I have too many books (~200) which I bought but I don’t want to have around. Mostly novels which I’m probably going to donate to local libraries or similar.

However I feel entitled of having a copy of those books in electronic format. Very slowly, I’m looking for .epub files and storing these in a hard drive.

Now, say I want to read one of them on an e-ink device. Which one is going to allow me to load these files without going through proprietary stores (I’m not going to pay twice for something I already own) or jailbreaking the device?

I simply want to spend x$ and have something which will last for a long time.

  👤 stuxnet79 Accepted Answer ✓
Kobos[1] and Pocketbooks[2] are a lot more open than Kindles. AFAIK you can transfer .epub files into both devices and these epubs are perfectly readable via the stock OS. If for some reason you find the stock proprietary OS lacking, you can install an open source one like KOreader[3] or Plato[4]

Of course you want a good way of organizing epubs pdfs mobi, and like has already been mentioned Calibre[5] is a great option.

[1] https://www.kobo.com/

[2] https://pocketbookstore.com/en-ca

[3] https://github.com/koreader/koreader

[4] https://github.com/baskerville/plato

[5] https://calibre-ebook.com/

👤 jjice
You can send epubs and other formats via the Kindle web service to your Kindle directly. It handles the conversion. I understand if you feel uneasy with this though, as I do as well sometimes.

As others have said, Kobos support many formats (including epub) out of the box via a USB cable. Kobo has some color ereaders coming out the end of this month as well, if that's something that appeals to you. My brief experience with color eink displays is very positive, and I'm considering purchasing one as well, despite owning a Kindle already.

👤 throwaway38375
Also voting for Kobo. I have a Clara I just use for reading books.

Really nice device and the price is good too.

I've never connected mine to the internet. I just use it as a giant USB stick with a screen.

Not that I've needed to, but you can take it apart and increase the storage too!

https://yingtongli.me/blog/2018/07/29/kobo-sd.html

👤 lelanthran
I lost my kindle (gen1, I think) recently (Someone in my neighbourhood now has the best curated collection of free fiction ever, so I'm not too sore about it).

I'll probably get a new one, but it occurred to me, with all the current excess electronics I have now on my desk (everything from PIC18Fs, esp32s to SBCs running Linux), the only thing I am missing to make my own e-reader is a large and cheap e-ink display.

Any recommendations for a large-ish e-ink display that doesn't cost an arm and a leg?

👤 RealStickman_
There are various chinese vendors offering android tablets with e-ink screens. The disadvantage being less guarantees of future updates and some vendors (Onyx, probably others) don't release their device kernels as required by the Linux GPL.
👤 vik0
I never understood why, barring lack of money, people would rather read something on a screen (even if it is e-ink) instead of holding an actual book in their hands and reading it that way. The smell alone of any book (used or new) is worth it

Anyway, I've heard calibre is good. I've never used it though

👤 al_borland
You can manage the files with Calibre[1] and sync them onto an e-reader like the Kobo with a click.

[1] https://calibre-ebook.com/

👤 roelj
I only have experience with Kobo e-readers and there you can connect the e-reader over USB and just put the epub files in the root folder.
👤 horsellama
Not really what you’re looking for but close

https://github.com/joeycastillo/The-Open-Book