/lit/ - Literature

>>13997675
The best thing about them is that you can pirate books and save hundreds or thousands of $$$. Use libgen to find whatever you want and caliber to edit the formats.
The only bad thing is that they run out of battery eventually. If you just read at home it shouldn't be a problem but if you are travelling frequently then don't forget the charger.
The experience of reading on them is decent. They don't emit or reflect light like a tablet does. You can also change the font type and size as well as make notes or find the meaning of words which you don't know.

>>13997675
>Pros:
Hold lots of books on one device, save space
Highlight unknown words to find definitions
Easy highlighting/note-taking that doesn’t permanently remain in the book
E-ink is surprisingly nice to read, plus you can change font and size. Some kindles have a backlight
>Cons:
PDFs need to be reformatted to fit it right, otherwise you have to constantly zoom in and out
Battery life (most last a while though).
No orgasmic feeling of paper on your fingertips

Overall it’s a good choice if you are running out of shelf space and/or travel a lot, though you’ll probably still prefer physical books. I still get good mileage out of my Paperwhite

>>13997811
does editing the formats fuck up the formatting or does Calibre just change file format and nothing else leaving it perfect? I didn't think about pirating the books but that is a good point.

>>13997852
Any recommendations on a particular e-reader? Should I just ebay a paperwhite and be done with it?

karl.. easy on that of which we cannot speak

Just read on your phone or tablet or computer.
Eye stress is a meme

>>13997941
*because converting pdfs is bs,
and a lot of books can only be pirated in pdf

>>13997941
>this feels uncomfortable but anon assured me that such feelings are a meme so I shall ignore them

>Kindle 4th/5th Generation can be had for as cheap as $15 on ebay.
>Pirate whatever books you want using the sticky thread and Calibre.
>I've had my Kindle 4th generation for now almost 7 years and it's still going strong.
>My model doesn't have a backlight, which I prefer. Just read by your lamp like a real book.
>you can still take notes in books and use bookmarks using the Kindle software, plus you can use stuff like search functionality which can be a godsend if you're trying to find a specific quote or section

>>13997949
Ebook-convert "bookname.epub" "bookname.pdf" with calibre installed on linux.

>>13998026
Good shit. I think I'm going to look further into it and see if I can get something cheap then. It seems like people only have kindles though. Is everything else just trash?

I was considering a kindle specifically, as I had been gifted a few books and audiobooks through audible and the kindle store in the past, but I thought maybe there was some other secret S-tier shit that I wouldn't know about.

Do I want a kindle or kindle paperwhite? I dont understand why one is more expensive

>>13997941
>yeah, no, all that science and studies shit is for the birds. I'm telling you it's not real.
I like reading on the couch and my eyes definitely do feel a strain from looking at my phone for too long. Also, my pixel 3a screen isn't comfy to read on. it's too fucking small for that really. I'd rather pay money and buy a book than read that shit on my phone.

>>13998046
but it looks like shit and destroys sensible important layout decisions, footnotes, images, etc

>>13998050
>Is everything else just trash?
Nah, but Kindles are so abundantly available and good that it's usually the best route. B&N made their own ereader called the Nook which is solid and can be found cheap. Otherwise, there's Kobo ereaders which are apparently pretty good.

>Do I want a kindle or kindle paperwhite? I dont understand why one is more expensive
Paperwhite has a backlight. Battery life is shorter, but you get a backlight. Also, there are touch versions which can still be had cheap these days. The Kindle 4th/5th generation has a very simple button layout and UI though. I never felt the need for touch, and I don't like a backlight anyway.

>>13998063
what studies

>>13998142
> footnotes
Nerd

>>13998157
ok, then have fun fiddling around with the conversion to control whatever layout problem there definitely will be

>>13997896
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cu-NdBwF7uk

Who was in the wrong here?

>>13998531
they belittle Karl so much but some of the stuff he says really aren't all that dumb, just oddly put.

I read E-ink doesn't strain your eyes, but wouldn't the backlight on newer models nullify this perk?

>>13999099
Don't know, but you can just turn off backlight if you don't want it.

>>13999099
The light some e-ink devices have is a frontlight, not a backlight. So the light comes from the front of the screen like it would if you pointed any old light at it.

>>13998147
Have a paperwhite with touch, didn't realize new kindles use buttons. How does taking notes/highlights work? I feel like I'd prefer pressing a button to turn a page instead of tapping a screen

>>13997675
I'm trying to think who the other characters would be, and I feel like Gervais has to be Porky and I guess Merchant would be a Starman...

Are Kobo ereaders good?

Speaking of e-readers, what is the recommended kindle dictionary for french?

It’s patrician as fuck, eclectically if you’re learning a foreign language
>word comes up that you don’t know
>highlight it and t will give you the foreign language->English translation
>you can then click an option to instantly turn that word into a flash card so you can add it to your language vocabulary study in seconds
Plus you can pirate everything. Buying shit is for losers.

>>14001118
this. i only have it for the piracy. 2.1 GB of free books

>>14001118
Which is the best ebook to pirate on? Kobo or Paperwhite?

>>14001998
I use a paperwhite but it doesn't really matter because there's software like Calibre to convert ebook formats.

Is there an e-reader with a proper stylus and some writing software? This would sell me on them, but I am having problems finding such a thing, just e-readers that can use the terrible touch screen stylus and various smart notebooks that require you to put a piece of paper on them if you want to see what you are writing or complete junk or use digital paper.

I just want a wacom tablet that has a screen behind it and decent software. Would be so nice to be able to draw/write/read all on one handy device.

>>14002056
Wacom does make stand-alone tablets. They're expensive and I wouldn't call them e-readers though.

>>14002078
That is fairly close but too many features and too big. Need that with an 8-10" screen.

>>13997675
Get a used kobo that can do warm light

>>14002051
Can it convert pdf well?

yyeet

>>14002244
I haven't tried with books but it's pretty bad for research papers. It's fine for literature though because almost everything is available on LibGen in either .epub or .mobi format and those convert well.

>>13997875
Pdf to epub is certainly not perfect, and often leaves page numbers in weird places etc, but its definitely readable.

I'm a total autist so can't tolerate it, so I either find a proper epub version or manually edit the generated epub in calibre with a bunch of regex expressions.

I'm assuming epub to pdf works well. Converting between epub, azw3, and mobi is fine and will look pretty much perfect in my experience.

>>13997675
Another pro (or con?) Of ereaders is no one can easily see what your reading if you read in public. This is good for when you read stuff like Uncle Ted

>>13997852
>>14002614
So what the fuck is it with PDFs?
Why don't they work properly on e-readers? Why haven't they done something about it? What is it?

>>13997675
Use your phone. Ease of access will encourage you to read more and make it harder for people to waste your time.

>>13998063
I read on a pixel 3A for hours every day. Get better software and pick better settings. Moonreader with the whole screen as a page down click region, large font size and 0 brightness is very easy to read. I can do it while half dead on a treadmill.

>>14002673
What PDF is really good for is making sure the document is displayed exactly the same way regardless of what software or hardware is used to display it. That makes it great for documents that are to be printed for example. That also makes it bad for e-readers since their screens are usually smaller than the intended display size of the PDFs and e-ink is very slow compared to LCD screens which makes interactive zooming and panning a huge pain.

>>14002777
Why in the world would you post this in a thread about e-readers? E-readers are better for reading in every conceivable way, even the technology and eye health aside, e-readers are much easier to use for reading and have no distractions, unlike a phone

>>14002810
So is it basically a sizing issue? How big does the screen have to be to have the "intended display size"?

>>14002818
The depends entirely on what the creator of the PDF was thinking when creating the PDF.

>>14002830
Okay. Can this not be fixed by having a formatting standard for PDF books?

>>14002816
> E-readers are better for reading in every conceivable way
Your brain is on backwards.
>much easier to use
Not portable. OP doesn't have an e-reader but does have a phone. Click the screen to move to the next page is pretty easy. Volume down / up to change pages is pretty easy. Downloading a epub/mobi/pdf/html/etc and reading it natively is easy.
>distractions
I think you mean features.

>>14002830
Generally intended to be infinitely resizable. The page not being centred on text and not using word wrap is a reader issue.

>>14002846
I have to ask, do you know what an e-reader is, anon?

>>14002851
A tablet with an e-ink display.

>>14002846
So is this post elaborate bait, or is your brain actually "on backwards"? Are you retarded? What the fuck are you talking about?

Is a paperwhite a good option if I want to read manga I download as well?

Only buy an ereader for epub/mobi formats (basically HTML so it can resize to fit the screen unlike PDF). PDFs suck on ereaders. Most text only books have a mobi/epub format.

For fiction, eReaders. For non-fiction such as college textbooks, handbooks and scientific papers, a general tablet should do.