This is a device category I have very little knowledge about, but I have a growing collection of PDFs and ebooks and I'd love to have a light weight device to read them on.

Any recommendations? Are they all walled gardens?

  • Tom742 [they/them, any]
    ·
    3 days ago

    I would suggest a Kobo e-reader, their cheap model is perfect imo.

    If you would like to add more options to the software, there’s open source software you can easily side load called “Ko-Reader”, navigating pdf files is much easier than stock for example.

    As far as walled gardens go, you can easily sync ebooks with your computer using Calibre to manage your library. You can also add books when out and about using your phone as a mobile hotspot if you enable the beta web browser on the kobo and use https://send.djazz.se/

    Editing to add: I always either convert my pdf’s into epub’s using calibre or pirate the epubs directly, there aren’t many e-readers that do PDF’s well, and those are all pretty expensive. Things like the Onyx Boox or Sony’s Digital Paper Series

    • RedWizard [he/him, comrade/them]
      ·
      3 days ago

      I always either convert my pdf’s into epub’s using calibre or pirate the epubs directly

      Yeah that's my plan now. I also know there is a Calibre-Web project that turns it into a self hosted website where you can do most of what Calibre desktop dose, but in your browser.

      https://github.com/janeczku/calibre-web

      • Tom742 [they/them, any]
        ·
        3 days ago

        That’s very interesting, I wasn’t aware of that! I prefer adding books without having to boot up my desktop, definitely looking into this