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E-book reader
E-book readers can be a great alternative to physical books. They usually have the same weight, height and width of your average book from a bookstore but are not only thinner but can carry the content of your library. Many even support playback of audiobooks but they are usually reserved for the more premium models. Modern e-readers have great battery life that BTFO other mobile devices and use sexy paper-like e-ink screens which while they are less responsive than LED screens are sharer as well as easy on the eyes in any setting. If you're looking for information about "e-readers" which use LCD/OLED screens, go to the article about tablets.
Recommendations
Buying Guide
These are the things to consider when buying an ebook reader. First is the ethical aspect. If you have suspicions of certain companies and if your a privacy/security or FOSS schizo. If you happen to be a freetard, you are going to be disappointed as your only options would be Open Book which is a DIY ebook reader with FOSS operating system as well as software and okreader for Kobo. Both are relatively experiment. Your next option would be to just choose the option comes the closest to your values, probably one that is Linux-based and/or has open source components like Kobo (Kobo's Github), and maybe installing Koreader. Some users avoid certain companies for some moral reasons, usually they are Amazon and ChiCom companies. There are lots of reasons to not buy Amazon such as its business practices, adware, botnet and more but it does have its downsides. Obviously Amazon has the world's biggest online bookstore and online comicstore with services like Goodreads, Kindle Unlimited and Comixology. Pretty much the only one most people/normies know of and buy from. Because of this, most publishers when putting a book out online will usually only cater to Amazon's store. Finding eBooks outside of Amazon's massive ecosystem is slightly more difficult. Of course, that won't be a problem for more advanced /g/entoomen. Amazon uses their own proprietary format so even if you just download it from their website and upload it a non-Amazon ereader it probably won't work. Luckily, there is conversion software but sometimes it has its flaws depending on the formats though it can be further adjusted through manual editing. Amazon's devices also comes with adware and make you spend extra to take it off. Some people also avoid CCP products in fear of spyware. If you avoid those companies then the major ones that are left are Kobo, Barnes and Noble's Nook, and Pocketbook. Next is the price range which dependent on your budget and does determine feature set. Lastly is the content of what you are reading and additional features you would like. Most modern ebook readers can handle the more common eBook formats as well as comic/manga formats. Depending on the model, modern devices sometimes have backwards compatibility with older formats that are being replaced. Older ereaders obviously usually don't support the newer formats like AZW3, AZW4, EPub3 and comic formats. Some models support audiobooks.
/g/ Approved E-Book Readers
Modern
Models released within past few years.
Basic
Usually the cheapest models a brand offers. Around 6-7 inches touchscreen with support the common ebook file formats. Most hold around 8-16 GB. Downside is they sometimes have poor backlight.
- Kindle - The standard regular model. 6 inch screen that is very thin and portable. Latest generations has 16GB instead of the usual 8 GB.
- Kobo Nia (Official Certified Refurbished)
- Kobo Clara BW - Kobo Clara refresh. First product they claim to be repairable even when out of warrenty. Even partnered with iFixit.
- Kobo Clara Colour - Latest Clara but with color e-ink
- Kindle Paperweight - Very thin, waterproof 6.8 inch screen with warm lighting that make it easy on the eyes when reading in any environment.
- Pocketbook Basic Lux 4
- Pocketbook Lite
- Pocketbook Era
- Pockerbook Era Color
- Pocketbook Verse
- NOOK GlowLight 4
Premium
Usually have bigger screens. Around 7-8 inches with sharp e-ink and great lighting. Most have additional features like being waterproof, page turn buttons, more storage, and sometimes Audiobook playback.
- Paperwhite - Fast and lightweight Kindle with a bigger screen and much more storage
- Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition - Basically the Paperwhite but with a few added features like wireless charging.
- Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition - Amazon's first color e-ink device.
- BOOX Palma - Phone size unlike others in this range. As its name implies fits in the palm of your hand and like a phone could fit in pocket in pants or jacket. Comes with its own modified Android.
- BOOX Palma 2 - Upgraded version of the original Palma.
- BOOX Poke5
- Kobo Libra 2 (Official Certified Refurbished) - One of /g/ and /lit/'s favorites. Great lighting, waterproof, 7-inch screen with page turn buttons. Can play Audiobooks and connect to bluetooth devices.
- Kobo Libra Colour
- Kindle Oasis - Fully waterproof, 7-inch device with great lighting and page turn buttons. Unfortunately, you have to pay extra if you don't want ads on Lockscreen.
- Kobo Sage (Official Certified Refurbished)
- Pocketbook Verse Pro
- Pocketbook Verse Pro Color
- NOOK GlowLight 4 Plus
- BOOX Page
Elite
Usually don't have to go this far. Additional features include more responsive screen, notetaking, additional apps and sometimes color.
- Kindle Scribe - E-reader that can also double as an E-notebook.
- Kobo Elipsa 2E - E-reader that has notetaking capabilities.
- Hisense Hi Reader
- Pocketbook InkPad
- BOOX Note Air 3
- Hyread Gaze
Discontinued
No shame in buying something from older generations that is either refurbished or used somewhere on the internet.
Basic
The cheap models from a brand's older generations.
- Kindle - Recommend getting at least an 8th or 9th generation if you want support for the newer formats. Usually only have 8 GB of storage. If you exclude firmware and other built-in software, they're somewhere around 7.5 Gigabytes.
- Kobo Clara (Official Certified Refurbished)
- Nook Glowlight 3
Premium
Elite
Beyond Stock
Might void warrenty if you have one but here is what (You) can do with your ebook reader outside of the stock experience. Changing your device in various way which includes rooting, jailbreaking and installing additional software. (Rewrite coming soon...)
General
- Koreader - Open source document viewer for E-Ink devices written in Lua. One of the most active and popular ebook related software projects. Works on numerous ereader devices as well as Linux desktop and mobile Android. Uses their own section on MobileRead as their official forums. There lies many answer such as how to install on certain brands and models as well as useful plugins to play around with.
- Vuizur's Wiktionary Dictionaries - Dictionaries pulled from Wiktionary that can be added to your device if you don't like what you get out of the box or want more options than what stock allows.
Kobo
Kobo is probably the best choice in terms of modification, patching, rooting and adding addition software. They even began supporting right to repair albeit for environmental reasons and not necessarily to give customers more autonomy over their device. If you want to bypass registration, use this guide(it's pretty old but still works). As of 2024, Kobo's newer devices uses a new MediaTek SoC with Secure Boot enabled that makes patching a lot harder.
- Quill OS ( formerly InkBox yet they continue to use the InkBox website) - An open source reader and operating system for Kobo. Uses Alpine Linux, Qt and X11/Xorg. Still being worked on.
- Plato - An open source document reader for Kobo's e-readers. Very similar to Koreader but written in Rust. Supports DjVu. Still in experimental phase but it is usable without many issues.
- NickelMenu
- NickelClock - A mod for NickelMenu that adds a small persistant digital clock so you can see the time while reading.
- KFMon - Kute File Monitor. Revival of an older Kobo program called fmon.
- NanoClock- A small persistant digital clock for Kobo.
- okreader - Likely abandoned. A full software/firmware stack for Kobo for a full open source experience. Based on Debian and Koreader.
Kindle
Jailbreaking is mandatory if you plan on doing anything outside of what Amazon allows you to do like adding external ebooks and audiobooks. Amazon, unfortunately, intentionally make their Kindles difficult to jailbreak. If you plan on using doing more with the Kindle, hold back on updates or use a downgrader at your own risk and move/store your ebooks on a different machine. Usually, every so often, newer firmware updates patches/breaks exploits used by the jailbreaking community. Also many methods usually reset all content therefore erasing your content. Check out MobileRead's master index of Kindle hacks.
- LanguageBreak - Lastest and most recent Kindle jailbreak that works on firmware version
5.16.2.1.1and lower. - MobileRead's Open Sesame! Thread - Thread on the MobileRead forums which keeps an index of the latest up to date Kindle jailbreaks.
- KUAL - Kindle Unified Application Launcher. As its name implies, its a new Launcher/Home for your Kindle. Works very well with Koreader.
- KUAL download page - Index that contains the KUAL download page as well as forks and additional plugins.
- Alpine Kindle - Alpine Linux on Kindle. Comes with kterm, a small terminal emulator for Kindle. Both pretty old and not up to date with modern Kindles.
PocketBook
Not many have a Pocket Book but they are actually developer friendly. Has a few community made programs. They even provide an SDK for making applications. It is also surprisingly pretty easy to mod and root.
- PocketBookSync - Koreader plugin for syncing PocketBook library to Koreader.
- pbtools - A set of small tools in Rust for Pocket Book.
Nook
Used to have an large and active hacking community but that went away when Barnes and Noble began to aggressively fight rooting and would sometimes roll out a new DRM scheme every couple of months. Developers moved onto other devices and the mod community has never recovered so installing additional software is close to non-existent on modern Nooks. Even koreader is difficult to install.
Converting Files
E-books come in a variety of formats and you may find one that your device does not support.
- Calibre - (Cross-platform) Converts between almost every e-reader supported format.
- KindleComicConverter (KCC) - (Cross-platform) Converts and optimizes manga and comics to epub, mobi, and cbz formats.