e-reader advice?

[ratcreature]

Currently I use a 7-inch Nexus tablet for e-book reading, and that suits me fairly well, i.e. I like that I can't just read books but also have a browser, can check email etc., the screen works well enough except in bright sunlight, and the features of the ebook apps are decent, but I run into issues with the battery life semi-frequently, and the tablet does not recharge very quickly either.

I don't think I have extreme battery demands, but say I recharge it fully overnight, then take the tablet with me, use it intermittently throughout the day, and it connected to wlans a couple of times, and then back home I want to read an e-book for several hours that same evening, that may not work without recharging, or at least without running the charge really low. And then recharging it from something as low as 10% battery to full again can take longer than seven hours, which is annoying.

So I am considering whether I shouldn't get a dedicated e-reader for those times when I want to read an e-book or fanfic for several hours. I would consider a newer tablet, but I'm not sure those are really significantly better when it comes to battery life, especially the ones priced in the mid-range. Also there don't seem to be many 7-inch ones around anymore, and I don't actually want a larger device. Mine easily fits not just in my purse, but also into the inside pockets of coats and parkas and such, which a 10-inch or even 8-inch one wouldn't, whereas e-readers, which tend to smaller sized would.

So now I'm wondering which e-readers are good. I do not want an Amazon Kindle, because most of the non-fanfic e-books I read come from my public library which uses epub (often with Adobe's DRM), and I don't want a device that doesn't support different formats natively. And all the fanfic I have already downloaded for reading on my tablet is in epub too. I know that I can convert things via Calibre, but I refuse to get a specialized e-book reading device that then can't even read different e-book formats. That is just ridiculous, IMO.

So does anyone have good experiences with current non-Kindle e-readers that would fit my criteria? (Not too big, good battery life, support for different e-book formats including library e-books, easy transfer of fanfic e-books to the device via Calibre, decent search and sorting options for finding books again on the device are sort of the essentials)

From looking at tests, comparisons and my library's e-reader info sheet, the ones I'm currently considering most is the Pocketbook Touch Lux 3 and the Bookeen Cybook Muse Frontlight. I also looked at the Kobo Glo HD, but I am not thrilled with this forced registration you apparently have to do to use your own device.

Comments

[anotherslashfan]

I use a PocketBook Touch Lux 3 and while its browser is slow to respond sometimes, it's good for reading and organising/finding files. It's open to a lot of formats and has the typical e reader battery lifespan - easily a week of heavy reading with backgorund light turned on.

[ratcreature]

That is good to hear! I worried how it might be for finding books on the device. The tests I read weren't that informative in that respect. I don't do a lot of organzing on my devices, because for that I use my Calibre library or Goodreads (for books I read) or pinboard for fanfic, but I need to be able to search for titles an authors at least rather than having to scroll through the gazillion fanfic stories that will eventually have accumulated on my device.

Does it show you when you have read what for stats? I find that very useful in my current ereader app when I forgot to log my reading dates in Goodreads right away and don't remember which days exactly I started/finished. The Android Kindle app doesn't seem to do that for all the creepy tracking and cross-device synching of your reading Amazon does and it annoys me all the time when I read books I bought from Amazon there rather than first breaking them out with Calibre.

[anotherslashfan]

I really like the options for organizing the books on the PB Touch. You can make folders easily and move files easily and as long as you use the PB for it it'll keep the stats of how much of a story/book you have read. Its search function is okay as well, you can find things via title and author as per usual.It doesn't show you when you started/finished reading, though - at least not as far as I've noticed. It offers a lot of different options for synching and such - I just don't use most of them because I prefer to keep my reading private.

[ratcreature]

Yeah, I really don't want to be tracked via my e-reader auto-logging and syncing everything automatically either. I mean, I like to share my reading on Goodreads and via bookmarking for fanfic, but on my own terms.

[featherwizard]

I think ereaders are generally superior for long reading and totally worth getting. Especially the ones with frontlights included, which remove the last niggling problem of having to have a reading light. I don't have any experience with the ones you've listed, though.

http://www.the-ebook-reader.com/ebook-reader-comparison.html is a great comparison of the more popular ereaders if you haven't seen it. http://the-digital-reader.com/ is also a good site if you haven't run across it.

All ereaders except Kindles should be able to handle multiple formats, although Barnes and Noble ereaders only do PDF and ePub. Format really isn't a concern with modern ereaders, thank goodness. If your books are in epub everything modern should read them except Kindles.

I think Kobos only track reading stats for their special kepub files? Or track more stats for kepubs and just a few for epubs, perhaps. I never pay attention to reading stats, so I'm not sure. All ereaders I've heard of have a search function as well as the ability to sort by author, title, dated added, etc.

I've found that not having an SD card slot makes it impossible to carry my library with me, so for me that's a must have. Fanfic does build up over the years. :) YMMV, other people are perfectly happy with smaller device storage. Also, book transfer is very easy with an SD card slot. I just save the books to the card and then stick the card in the ereader.

There was a way to get around the Kobo registration on the mobilereads forum last I checked. I'll see if I can dig up the link. It's definitely irritating though. EDIT: http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=215885 That thread says there's no confirmation of the email so it can be anything, but it's from a few years ago so perhaps that's changed?

Do you mind a used ereader? The last-gen Barnes and Noble frontlight ereader was pretty good, and can be had used inexpensively. The downfall was the organization - it has a decent search and sort functions, but folder organization isn't really there without rooting it. Sony T3 might also fit the bill.

[ratcreature]

Since this was posted I've bought the PocketBook Touch Lux one, and after some initial problems it's working out well.

The initial installation and firmware update process frankly sucked worse than any other device I've ever tried to turn on in that the thing froze and crashed and generally caused much anxiety on my part before I ever even got to turn it on properly and without me doing anything besides trying to follow instructions, so I didn't fiddle with it, or had done anything yet besides using the on button, and giving it wlan access before the massive fail started.

But eventually I got it sorted and it is nice for reading, especially with daylight, though the slow response of the screen takes some getting used to, but battery life is much better than a tablet, book transfer is easy via USB (and it has an SD card slot I haven't used yet too) and no registration was needed anywhere for it to work.

Barnes & Nobles doesn't sell in Germany so you can't really get Nooks unless you import one, and then it is pretty useless, I think. I did consult a German ereader comparison page before buying though.

[featherwizard]

Glad to hear you're enjoying your ereader! Thanks for the feedback about the update process - I'm looking for a new ereader also, and if setup was that bad I think I'll take PocketBook off my list.

I thought B&N was in the EU, but perhaps it's just the UK? Thanks for correcting me on that point.

I tend to save every story I remotely like, so I probably have a very large reading collection. :) Plus the comics and PDF nonfiction take up a lot of space.

[ratcreature]

I have similar hoarding tendencies when it comes to fiction. It seems whenever I fail to save something, the story ends up vanishing eventually and I regret not having saved it. And these days it is more convenient than ever to download fanfic.

I'm not sure the setup would be necessarily nightmarish, but googling my problem showed me others who had their PocketBook hang with firmware updates, mostly with large libraries for some reason, which shouldn't really have been my problem at all considering that at that point I hadn't yet transferred any books. But the thing tried to download or synchronize some example books that had come with the reader, and it hung during that from what I gathered. (And then most of the example books were Russian and Ukrainian ones, no matter that those languages didn't feature anywhere in my language selections, probably because PocketBook is an Ukrainian firm, but seriously, why do this? I deleted those anyway.)

And actually I'm not even sure what fixed my problem, because I did not need to do the arcane fixes I found via googling (those people had to revert their firmware to an older version via SD card), and I didn't do what their support eventually advised me in answer to my frustrated mail to their support, which involved connecting it to my computer and doing something, because by the time I got that answer, I had mostly tried turning it on and off a few times, and pressing the abort button combination, and eventually it just seemed to get over itself. Once it got past that hanging point things went smoothly.

Though the support response time actually wasn't bad, but I had bought the device on a Friday afternoon, and they got my very frustrated and aggravated email in the early evening on said Friday, after I failed for some hours to make their device work, and their response came on Monday.

But I definitely turned the auto-firmware updates off.

[mecurtin]

So a couple months later, do you still like it? My Nook is about to join the choir invisible, so I'm in the market for a new ereader.

[ratcreature]

Yeah, it has been working out well, and has mostly replaced my tablet for ebook reading. I still find the slow response of the reader with its e-ink display compared to a tablet a downside, but it doesn't matter for just reading, only for more interactive things, like searching in a book, or using the webbrowser, so that is worse compared to reading on a tablet, where it is easy for example to look things up that appear in a book, and I don't really do that with the e-reader (as a plus I'm also less likely to interrupt reading for checking email and such on it). On the upside the battery life is so much better than a tablet, even when you use the background light, it is lighter and reading outside in sunlight is good. So now I read most long fanfic and ebooks on the ereader. I has been working well with Calibre too.

[jimandblair.livejournal.com]

i use a nook, which was not my choice, it has limited functionality/it's an e-reader and nothing else, can do a couple of formats (i.e. you need calibre). To use it fully you have to register (i didn't). But it is very light, excellent if you have problems with your sight (with regards to the in-house backlight and text controls), but the battery lasts a long time.

[ratcreature]

I don't think they sell Nooks in Germany, probably because it is enmeshed with Barnes&Nobles and they don't have stores in Germany afaik. Some large chain stores in Germany cooperate offering their own reader called Tolino, which from what I've heard isn't bad, but annoys you by starting with their native shop and offers or something unless you go to great lengths. I prefer devices not shackled to stores.

[jimandblair.livejournal.com]

yes, I do appreciate the shakled/registration issue. I thought to mention it for your information and it is a good product for folk with visual issues (which is why I got my mum one) and the battery!

[ratcreature]

*nods* Thankfully my eyes are okay for now as far as reading goes (*knocks on wood*) though I don't like screens to be too bright, because on very bright backgrounds I notice the vitreous crap floating in my vision more, but the various e-ink displays I've seen are actually better for that than my tablet screen, so I'm not too worried about that that.

[lynx212.livejournal.com]

Personally I have a Kindle and an Android smartphone for portable reading and internet surfing. I don't like the Nook as much as I like the Kindle.

[ratcreature]

Barnes & Nobles doesn't sell in Germany so you can't really get Nooks unless you import one, and then it is pretty useless, I think. And I ruled out all the readers that would bind me closely to their system and need me to register with them anyway, so no Kindle or Tolino either.

Since this was posted I've bought the PocketBook Touch Lux one, and after some initial problems with the firmware update process in the setup it worked out well.