If you have an ereader with an eink screen… it’s a no-brainer. Digital books are soooo good.
- virtually no weight
- virtually no space
- waaaaay cheaper
- your local library has probably a way bigger and more accessible catalogue of ebooks than physical ones
- tap and hold a word and get an automatic definition/translation
- adjust text size or font
- dark mode, if you into that (in some models)
- Text-to-speech (in some models)
- highlight text and write notes without f-ing up pages
- literally translate entire phrases or look particular information from Wikipedia or similar with a simple gesture.
- backup all of those and do crazy stuff like an automatic daily email to yourself with cool notes you took months/years ago.
Physical books nowadays are like vynil music… it’s for the artwork and having a physical “certificate” of something you love. Like… if I discover a book I really enjoy, I’ll probably buy a physical version so I can, you know, have it there on the shelf, like you have family pics or something.
I dunno about the vinyl parallel. I’m a physical book reader myself—I’ve tried an ebook, I read a few books on there. But it didn’t hold me the way books know how to. Just right.
Not to mention, I’m trying everything I can to realistically separate myself from the “internet of things.” I use the internet, but I try to achieve as private of an experience as I can manage. I’m wary of cameras these days. I never used social media. I cover any camera pointed at me that I can…my point is, a book doesn’t know I’m reading it or how long I’ve read it. Buying used books, no one knows who I am, how long I’ve spent reading, WHAT I’m reading, etc.
I can’t say the same about these e-readers. I don’t need ANOTHER device I’m constantly worried is stealing every single metric it can possibly gather about me.
Just got a kobo libra 2 a couple of weeks ago and I’m loving it. You forgot to mention the dictionary native to most e-readers too!
I’ve been eying up this one. Have you used other ereaders before? Have you got anything to compare it to?
I hear that having a screen that isn’t flush with the touch surface really improves the word clarity. I’m not really enjoying my paperwhite 5 because it’s has a weird blurred effect on the screen because it’s flush
This was my first e-reader, but I played around with my mom’s Paperwhite 5 for a bit before deciding against it. The UI on the paperwhite is better but you don’t really interact with it much for it to be a big problem. I also patched mine using calibre to add some features that aren’t present on the stock UI. I’m not sure about the particulars with the display but text and images are fairly crisp. All in all, I’m pretty happy with it
