There have been some changes in how I read e-books. I’ve been reading mostly non-fiction books for a little over a year. While I read over half of the books in paper format, I still read a lot in digital.

Kobo E-readers

  • I’ve had a Kobo Aura One for 7 years. Last year I began having trouble keeping connected while adding books via USB. I eventually ordered a new Kobo, this one a Clara BW. I was disappointed with its reading surface smaller than the Aura. The USB worked well, but the device didn’t show up in calibre, so I went digging to solve that. I found something on how to connect using KOReader. I decided to first test it on my funky old Kobo before chancing the install on the new one. My old Kobo now ran like a champ and stayed connected once I learned how to connect to calibre with KOReader. So now I’m using the Aura and the Clara sits unused.
  • KOReader has so many options that it was hard to learn to use, but I do like reading with it. However, when I shifted over to getting library books through Kobo instead of Amazon I found that books did not show up in KOReader. I had to reboot the device to get back to the standard program in order to read the library books. Eventually I found the option to exit KOReader and go back to standard reader without rebooting. Looks like I might just stay in standard mode now. If I run into trouble with the USB connection again, I can use KOReader for that purpose. Whatever works!!

Boox - E-reader and Note taker

I wanted something to take notes on the non-fiction books I’ve been reading. I was writing notes on paper and then typing them into digital format. I thought about getting a tablet to write notes on instead. Those are expensive, so I first opted for Rocketbook Filler Paper. I actually like this better than paper, because the writing shows up darker and I can reuse the sheet 500 times.

But I still wanted that tablet/E-reader combination. I especially wanted something to read pdfs with. I ended up getting a BOOX Go 10.3 which is monochrome and uses E-ink. It’s big (7” wide, 9.5” long) with nearly the entire area available for reading. I can split the screen to have a note page open with the reading. I can write on pdfs as well. There is no front light which saves power but means I have to read in a lighted area. I usually do that anyway, so it’s not a problem for me.

I installed Cantook and Hoopla easily on the Boox – Cantook for reading .lcpl books from Open Library (pdfs) and Hoopla for some books from my library that aren’t available on Overdrive. Overdrive handles most e-books from my library and provides formats for e-readers.

Kindle use

  • I had been using a Kindle to read e-books from the library and samples from Amazon. I had been downloading and converting books I bought to epubs to read on the Kobo and save.
  • This month Amazon did away with downloading, so I looked into using Kobo for all books except those of a couple authors I know who are on Kindle Unlimited and therefore can’t provide e-books on another outlet. I’ll still buy and read their books and just do without keeping a copy. Getting library books is as easy on Kobo as it was on Kindle. I can download and save the epub format of e-books I buy from Kobo.

Kobo Plus

I am trying out Kobo Plus, but probably won’t stay with it. It’s similar to Kindle Unlimited though not with the same books. (Authors cannot have their books on both.) Most of the books I found interesting on Kobo Plus are also available on Hoopla which I have with my library. So this is not a good deal for me except that it is more pleasant to read these books on the e-reader than it is on the Hoopla app. Is it worth 7.99 a month? We’ll see.