E-Readers - Do you use one and are they still the future of books?

[thefanciestpigeon]

Idk what's wrong with me (lighthearted) but I can't seem to read e-books usually, my reading comprehension plummets the moment I can't read something as a physical book. short form writing (like on the internet) is fine but I struggle a lot even with long-form internet writing such as a long fanfic. I took a class where one of the books was out of print and only available as an ebook and the essay I wrote about it was a lot worse than the essays I wrote for that class with books I could get physically, and I see that as proof of how it affects what I retain from a book.

I love the idea of e-readers, I like having so many books in such a small amount of space, and being able to take them all with me and the accessibility of not needing to physically go to the store/library, but in practice they just take so much more effort for me to use that they aren't worth it unless I have no other way to read a book.

[IndigoGolem]

What ereader do you have, and how do you manage to get books from websites like this.

After looking into a bunch of modern ereaders i decided i just want something simple that works and doesn't have a million extra features (also true of every electronic device i buy (or haven't bought because i can't find a simple one)). So i got a used Sony PRS-505 (discontinued 2009). It's not perfect but it's fine for most books (barring PDFs with tiny text or one really large book that crashes it). Plus it was about the same price as a not-super-old Kobo ereader.

As for putting books on it, it's very simple. I go to Project Gutenberg (https://gutenberg.org), download a book as an .epub file, and then plug my ereader into my laptop with the USB-mini cord it came with. It opens like any storage drive, i make a folder for the author (optional, to keep things organized), and copy the dowloaded .epub over. When i unplug the ereader it scans its internal storage and SD card for new books and adds them to the list.

I've never owned a Kindle so i don't know if it supports just plugging it into a computer and copying a file over.

I don't really like my Kindle and how Amazon runs it but I am against the idea of getting a new one when I have a perfectly good Kindle. I don't like spending unnecessary money. But morally, my soul is crying every time I buy a book from Amazon. :,(

See if there's some way to borrow ebooks from your local public library and download them straight to your Kindle, like Overdrive or Libby.

I also have heard you can use Calibre to convert your ebooks from Amazon's proprietary format to a regular, DRM-free epub in case you ever do get a non-Amazon ereader.

You could try to jailbreak your Kindle if you want to be able to sideload extra apps, mess with fonts and screensevers, etc. But that's not something i know anything about.

[I did first put this in the thread i'm quoting from, but i think it fits here too.]

[rolypolyphonic]

I do not read a lot but I recently acquired an e-reader (one of the ancient Sony ones) and while I still do not read that much, it has really helped a lot in making it more tolerable. Typical phone screens cause too much eye-strain and I honestly hate physical books, as unpopular an opinion that is. I also like the Sony's form factor and physical buttons a lot, and it is a shame they are now discontinued and that new e-readers don't really have the same layout of buttons.

Even if I did like physical books, they are very expensive, and I live in the middle of nowhere where I can't just drop by a library. I think the option to download nearly any book I want is a life-saver because I am a very discriminate reader. I think on top of all the things I need to do, I don't have the time to 'just read' anything and everything so it's really great for me to be able to conveniently load up a curated selection instead of relying on whatever's available/popular/new the way I would have to if I went to a library or bookstore.

[lakes]

i was gonna answer "yes often" on the poll
but then looking through the other answers, i realized you meant a physical e-reader & not just software for e-books 
in which case, no not really
however i do think it brings up an interesting question: do software like calibre and pdf readers count?
i'm curious if other people think they do or not

[norbezjones]

I used to e-read in the Kindle app on my phone, but ever since I started doing book reviews and e-reading more, I've discovered how hard that is on the eyes.  I decided to purchase a Kindle device, specifically this one, and I also picked up a case for it too! #notsponsored
Overall, I like it, mainly for the fact I can read at night without my phone screen screen blinding me and keeping me awake.  It also doesn't have the Kindle app bug that happens when you try to highlight lines at the bottom of the page--on the app, it can move onto the next page and highlight everything there, which is annoying.  Not so much on the device.  As a result, I highlight more and make more notes than I did before, which is very helpful for my book reviews.
I would like to decouple from Amazon though at some point.  Does anyone know if there's an e-reader that tracks your time read per book?  I'm very interested in something like that, and it doesn't really exist on Kindle, especially if you import a lot of epubs like I do.  They have the "Reading Challenges" thing on the app, yes, but it's not very robust or sophisticated (which is quite the understatement).
Also, responding to lakes' question:

however i do think it brings up an interesting question: do software like calibre and pdf readers count?
i'm curious if other people think they do or not

I think they count?  I suppose it brings up the difference between an e-reader, and an e reading device.  What are y'alls thoughts on that?
(Also hi, this is my first post on this forum I think?  I should probably write a proper intro somewhere if I haven't already...

[[static]]

I recently got a MeeBook (used to have a Kindle years ago, then Kobo Clara which has given up on me + I don't like the barely better than Kindle gatekeeping Kobo does and how hard it is for me to jailbreak) and I like that a lot! I've finished some of my favorite fanfic rereads and after I convert pdfs to epubs, I like reading some of them there. When I was in between e-readers, I used KOreader when I switched to Linux and I like Okular (for PDFs) and Readest for on my phone for both pdfs and epubs, and I still use Libby for library ebooks!

I kinda forgot where I was going with this but I really like my e-reader because it forces me to focus on reading instead of getting distracted like when I'm on my phone trying to read and it helps a lot because I can adjust to a font and size that's more accessible for me.

I don't know if they're still the future of books because I got to go to a library in person two weeks ago and I came out with more books than I usually get even online, so I thnk it's just another way to read which is always good!

[Cyber_Cyan]

I've got a Kobo Sage 2 and I use it mainly to read manga scans or big novels when my chronic pains flare up and I can't actually hold a book. For mangas I find it very comfortable. I don't read on it as much as I do read physical books, because I love how paper feels and how it smells.

But it is practical, especially when traveling, and I love my e-reader !