5 ms·

I hear the complaints about Kindle but... How are we supposed to do? In three "taps" I buy a book and 10s later I start reading it. Legally. The device just w

I hear the complaints about Kindle but... How are we supposed to do? In three "taps" I buy a book and 10s later I start reading it. Legally. The device just works. The alternatives? Libraries here (France) have a very limited offer of ebooks. Even for ebooks in English. I owned a Kobo circa 2013 and it was awful. I tried friend's devices more recently, and it's not the UX I expect from a "book". A simple comparison; "Parable of the Sower", bought it for 3.49€ on amazon.fr, it's at 5.26€ on ebooks.com and it still got DRMs. Even pirating is less convenient: some files are buggy, some files are weird OCR of physical books, you have to deal with the download and transfer... And I just can't read physical books. I hate that. So usually, if I really enjoy an ebook, I buy a physical copy in a local bookstore and give it to a friend/whoever I think is going to like it. I would love an open ecosystem where I could rent ebooks from a library, and buy books that can be read wherever I want. But that's not going to happen because the big guns of the industry think they know better. So that's where I'm at: buying & reading books in Amazon's walled garden, or doing neither at all.

yreg 2y ago
> Even pirating is less convenient I stopped reading ebooks and actually moved to physical books, but from what I remember pirated books were super convenient. I had this giant library of tons and tons of scifi/fantasy books I once randomly copied from someone and it didn't even take that much storage space. It lasted me my childhood and I've only managed to read a small fraction of it.
- aradox66 2y ago
  Sci Fi more than a decade old is the golden zone for piracy. Everything else is harder. Contemporary books, very hard.
  - goosedragons 2y ago
    Sci Fi tends more likely to be DRM free. Baen has been selling DRM free eBooks for forever direct and TOR also has a DRM free policy.
  - AngryData 2y ago
    Ive never had trouble finding any sci-fi books on the high seas, even newer ones. I did try to grab some trash romance novels for my mother before though from her wish list and 9/10 of those simply weren't available and half of the time he one I could find was in some crazy ass format that stock kindle didn't want you to read.
  - sandos 2y ago
    If you know, you know, but pirating books is... very very easy. The answer is not torrents or Usenet.
    - aradox66 2y ago
      i want to knowwwww
      - yreg 2y ago
        I guess https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna%27s_Archive https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna%27s_Archive
        aradox66 2y ago
        Ah yeah I mean there's always some big archive that is constantly dodging takedowns, I find it hard to keep up as these tend to go down every few months and you need to know the new one somehow
goosedragons 2y ago
What exactly is the UX you want from an eReader? I find Kindles and Kobos are pretty similar. So I'm curious what exactly was better about Amazon. I personally find Amazon has worse text options, font sizing, line spacing etc. I have purchased eBooks that were just bad OCRs, some publishers just don't care. Kobo will also price match with Amazon, you get credit back and an extra 10% too.
- Uvix 2y ago
  I'm intrigued that you think Kindle has worse text options than Kobo; in my experience it's the other way around. My Kobo doesn't have the ability to justify just body text while leaving headings alone; my Kindles have handled that just fine for over a decade. What options does Kobo have for text that you think Kindle is missing? I use my Kobo for comics and buy those through them (specifically got one with a large screen since Amazon didn't have a similar device), but I don't know if I'd switch to Kobo for novels. I'd rather buy from Kobo and sideload to my Kindle.
  - goosedragons 2y ago
    Line, paragraph spacing, fonts and font sizing and margins. Amazon has like 6 options of each. One of which I consider almost tolerable (but not quite) and the rest are useless. Kobo has a LOT more play with these settings and much easier to get something I like.
  - chipotle_coyote 2y ago
    With my Kobo Libra 2, if I set justification to "off", it follows the justification that's in the ebook -- which usually tend to do exactly what you're asking, e.g., justify body text while leaving headers alone. When I switched over to Kobo a few years ago, it seemed much easier to manage custom fonts, too, although I think Kindle has improved in that regard. I don't think there's a tremendous amount of difference between the two in practice anymore, though. (In terms of text handling, that is.)
    - Uvix 2y ago
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
debo_ 2y ago
In Canada, I use my (now 8-year old Kobo) plus a public library app to borrow ebooks from our library system for free. Everything just works. It's terrific. I'm sorry to hear the same doesn't work where you are.
- sandos 2y ago
  Here in Sweden there used to be like 3 libraries that used OverDrive and worked with Kobo, now its down to like 1 library! :(
chipotle_coyote 2y ago
I can't speak to the experience in France, but my experience with Kobo in the US has been that it's just as good as a Kindle in most respects, and better in some others, such as integration with Overdrive and Pocket. (My understanding is that Kindles have gotten better at Overdrive since I left that ecosystem.) I mean, I can buy a book on a Kobo and read it legally in just as few taps, and I can also borrow a book on Kobo and read it legally. Also, Kobo plays more nicely with Calibre, including a much nicer DRM-stripping management plugin, which seems relevant to the overall topic of this thread -- all the Kindle DRM removal plugin how-tos out there stopped working reliably for me years ago.
syntaxing 2y ago
Uhh what? There’s like four tabs for the Kobo interface, one specifically for books. You literally just click the book you want to read…Not sure what more you want from an ereader or how much easier it can get.
palata 2y ago
> I owned a Kobo circa 2013 and it was awful. I got my Kindle around that time, even though I had actively looked for alternatives. Nothing seemed to compare then. But I'm ready to believe that now in 2025, Kobo caught up? I read many comments here praising Kobo.
bambax 2y ago
> some files are weird OCR of physical books Kindle store has those too.

yreg 2y ago

> Even pirating is less convenient I stopped reading ebooks and actually moved to physical books, but from what I remember pirated books were super convenient. I had this giant library of tons and tons of scifi/fantasy books I once randomly copied from someone and it didn't even take that much storage space. It lasted me my childhood and I've only managed to read a small fraction of it.

aradox66 2y ago
Sci Fi more than a decade old is the golden zone for piracy. Everything else is harder. Contemporary books, very hard.
- goosedragons 2y ago
  Sci Fi tends more likely to be DRM free. Baen has been selling DRM free eBooks for forever direct and TOR also has a DRM free policy.
- AngryData 2y ago
  Ive never had trouble finding any sci-fi books on the high seas, even newer ones. I did try to grab some trash romance novels for my mother before though from her wish list and 9/10 of those simply weren't available and half of the time he one I could find was in some crazy ass format that stock kindle didn't want you to read.
- sandos 2y ago
  If you know, you know, but pirating books is... very very easy. The answer is not torrents or Usenet.
  - aradox66 2y ago
    i want to knowwwww
    - yreg 2y ago
      I guess https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna%27s_Archive https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna%27s_Archive
      - aradox66 2y ago
        Ah yeah I mean there's always some big archive that is constantly dodging takedowns, I find it hard to keep up as these tend to go down every few months and you need to know the new one somehow

goosedragons 2y ago

What exactly is the UX you want from an eReader? I find Kindles and Kobos are pretty similar. So I'm curious what exactly was better about Amazon. I personally find Amazon has worse text options, font sizing, line spacing etc. I have purchased eBooks that were just bad OCRs, some publishers just don't care. Kobo will also price match with Amazon, you get credit back and an extra 10% too.

Uvix 2y ago
I'm intrigued that you think Kindle has worse text options than Kobo; in my experience it's the other way around. My Kobo doesn't have the ability to justify just body text while leaving headings alone; my Kindles have handled that just fine for over a decade. What options does Kobo have for text that you think Kindle is missing? I use my Kobo for comics and buy those through them (specifically got one with a large screen since Amazon didn't have a similar device), but I don't know if I'd switch to Kobo for novels. I'd rather buy from Kobo and sideload to my Kindle.
- goosedragons 2y ago
  Line, paragraph spacing, fonts and font sizing and margins. Amazon has like 6 options of each. One of which I consider almost tolerable (but not quite) and the rest are useless. Kobo has a LOT more play with these settings and much easier to get something I like.
- chipotle_coyote 2y ago
  With my Kobo Libra 2, if I set justification to "off", it follows the justification that's in the ebook -- which usually tend to do exactly what you're asking, e.g., justify body text while leaving headers alone. When I switched over to Kobo a few years ago, it seemed much easier to manage custom fonts, too, although I think Kindle has improved in that regard. I don't think there's a tremendous amount of difference between the two in practice anymore, though. (In terms of text handling, that is.)
  - Uvix 2y ago

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

debo_ 2y ago

In Canada, I use my (now 8-year old Kobo) plus a public library app to borrow ebooks from our library system for free. Everything just works. It's terrific. I'm sorry to hear the same doesn't work where you are.

sandos 2y ago
Here in Sweden there used to be like 3 libraries that used OverDrive and worked with Kobo, now its down to like 1 library! :(

chipotle_coyote 2y ago

I can't speak to the experience in France, but my experience with Kobo in the US has been that it's just as good as a Kindle in most respects, and better in some others, such as integration with Overdrive and Pocket. (My understanding is that Kindles have gotten better at Overdrive since I left that ecosystem.) I mean, I can buy a book on a Kobo and read it legally in just as few taps, and I can also borrow a book on Kobo and read it legally. Also, Kobo plays more nicely with Calibre, including a much nicer DRM-stripping management plugin, which seems relevant to the overall topic of this thread -- all the Kindle DRM removal plugin how-tos out there stopped working reliably for me years ago.

syntaxing 2y ago

Uhh what? There’s like four tabs for the Kobo interface, one specifically for books. You literally just click the book you want to read…Not sure what more you want from an ereader or how much easier it can get.

palata 2y ago

> I owned a Kobo circa 2013 and it was awful. I got my Kindle around that time, even though I had actively looked for alternatives. Nothing seemed to compare then. But I'm ready to believe that now in 2025, Kobo caught up? I read many comments here praising Kobo.

bambax 2y ago

> some files are weird OCR of physical books Kindle store has those too.