this post was submitted on 20 Feb 2026
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Trying to get away from my phone more, and an e reader sounds like a good way to get myself to read more. Kobo is sounding like the most recommended one based on some googling, but I’m also ok with jailbreaking something like an older kindle from eBay. Something that plays nice with Libby would be ideal but not required. pirate-jammin

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[–] miz@hexbear.net 14 points 3 days ago (2 children)

apparently I'm the only kobo user who doesn't know about koreader.

[–] Cowbee@hexbear.net 7 points 3 days ago

It's a nice software to sideload.

[–] RedWizard@hexbear.net 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I also have no idea what koreader is.

[–] edie@lemmy.encryptionin.space 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Koreader rocks. I use it on an android tablet to check if my books work well.


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[–] sewer_rat_420@hexbear.net 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I've used KOreader exclusively for a while and had no idea it was a Kobo thing. I actually have stayed away from e-ink stuff because I wasn't sure how my dubiously acquired collections of books in various formats would work on it. This is convincing me to get a Kobo lmao

[–] SuperZutsuki@hexbear.net 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Even on a stock Kindle you can load pirated stuff very easily

[–] sewer_rat_420@hexbear.net 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I guess I just assumed that all these e-readers were pretty locked down since they are made and sold by publishers. And my FIL has a kindle and spends a ton on books. But I think I want one of these color Kobos now, when I can get up the cash

[–] SuperZutsuki@hexbear.net 2 points 3 days ago

You can just connect a Kindle to a computer and drop anything on it. Most books are in epub format but Calibre converts to azw3 with no issue.

[–] RION@hexbear.net 12 points 3 days ago

I am yet another kobosexual

[–] spectre@hexbear.net 10 points 3 days ago

Kobo is decent and budget friendly, i recently upgraded to pocketbook which has nicer hardware

[–] Commie_Chameleon@hexbear.net 9 points 3 days ago

Looks like Kobo is popular here too so I’m gonna go with that I think (sorry Boox, Pocketbook, and Tolino heads). Koreader’s gonna get slapped on it the second it’s in my grubby little hands. Gonna read some theory and reward myself with some disc world inbetween. My list right now is Blackshirts and reds, trans liberation, and settlers!

Thanks fellow bears hexbear-retro

[–] mayakovsky@hexbear.net 10 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I like my kobo with koreader installed. Really easy to install koreader on it, just drag and drop, and restart. The only thing that doesn't work is Bluetooth.

[–] imogen_underscore@hexbear.net 4 points 3 days ago (2 children)

what are the upsides of koreader?

[–] TrashGoblin@hexbear.net 7 points 3 days ago

Better font rendering, more options for customizing regular book formatting and fixing bad book formatting. A plugin ecosystem.

[–] mayakovsky@hexbear.net 3 points 3 days ago

In addition to the other comment, the PDF reflow function is great. No other ereader software compares. Its not perfect, but its still really useful when I can't get an epub version of something.

Also Idk if kobo has the function built in, but I use koreader to connect to my self hosted calibre opds catalog to download books to it.

[–] RedWizard@hexbear.net 9 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Kobo's are very good. I have mine configured to redirect the Kobo store to my own Calibre-Web library, and pull all my books from there. I got my SO a Kobo, and configured her with an account on the same server, set her up the same way. It's very nice.

[–] Inui@hexbear.net 6 points 3 days ago (2 children)

This is also my setup. I also have ShelfMark which provides a nice interface for people to download from Anna's Archive and my private torrent trackers without actually logging into them or anything.

Without this, it's easy enough to just plug the Kobo on and dropping books into the Kobo folder too. That's how you have to do it with PDFs, since Kobo sync doesn't support them.

[–] wheresmysurplusvalue@hexbear.net 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Do you set up ShelfMark to use some sort of anonymizing proxy or VPN? I haven't gotten around to figuring that out so I've been doing downloads manually by starting a VPN first.

[–] Inui@hexbear.net 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

I've been torrenting for about 20 years while living in the US and have never used a VPN while downloading. Not saying it's necessarily a good idea, but unless you're a major distributor yourself, I only ever got an ISP letter very early on for downloading obviously hot topics like Harry Potter (for the GBA lol) and Game of Thrones.

Without a setting in the app itself, I think you'd have to hook up the Docker container to something like Gluetun so that all traffic from that container is directed through the VPN. That's how people usually set it up with torrents, but I'm not super familiar.

Thanks for the explanation! I'll have to look into Gluetun and see if I can set it up.

[–] mayakovsky@hexbear.net 2 points 3 days ago

ShelfMark

This has been my new favorite service, it works so well with calibre

I got a free Kindle from work a while ago, jail broke it and put KOReader on it, works like a charm. I haven't set up calibre-web or anything, so I just turn on the SSH server, connect via SFTP via Termius from my phone, and copy books over.

[–] shrek_is_love@lemmy.ml 7 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The BOOX Palma 2 runs Android so you can easily install Readest and Syncthing on it. It's a really nice size and has decent build quality in my opinion.

I have a boox and I'm really happy with it.

[–] Cowbee@hexbear.net 7 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

I use an older Kobo with KoReader, but the XTeink x4 looks cool as a small option if you are down to put crosspoint on it! Boox Go 7 is nice if you want android and color!

[–] miz@hexbear.net 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

hmm that XTeink is so tiny and $70 is a good price point

if I ever get to live somewhere with good public transit I would definitely get one of these

[–] Cowbee@hexbear.net 4 points 3 days ago

Yep! I would've bought one if I didn't already have a perfectly servicible Kobo.

[–] CorpoCorpse@midwest.social 6 points 3 days ago

I loved making the swich to Kobo from my kindle. I do however wish I had gone with something a little less proprietary. I still love it, I grabbed the Libra Colour and use it on occassion to read comics or manga. Libby syncs perfectly. My favorite function is instapaper though, I can read webnovels formatted perfectly on the device with zero hassle!

[–] Ildsaye@hexbear.net 6 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

My old Tolino has a jailbreak that lets me just drag and drop epubs, etc. directly onto it.
woweeConvenience that isn't surveillance and/or a walled garden? In this economy?? wowee

[–] bigpharmasutra@hexbear.net 4 points 3 days ago

Kobo is the way to go. If you can wait for the new model, whenever the hell they decide to release it, then I'd go with that. Fuck Amazon and their walled garden bullshit.

[–] Blockocheese@hexbear.net 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I have a kobo and this post encouraged me to try and install koreader, which didnt work and I thought that was because I didnt have nickel installed so I tried that and despite dragging the file to my kobo, that also wouldnt install blob-no-thoughts

[–] Commie_Chameleon@hexbear.net 3 points 3 days ago

Calling hexbear tech support line (I think all we have is a Linux vanguard party though)

[–] cbd@hexbear.net 4 points 3 days ago

yeah kobo will do you well. i had koreader on a kindle but it kept resetting itself and fucking me over. i do recommend setting the option to wake the battery with a magnetized cover off on the kobo, for some reason it drained my battery, probably from bumping around in my backpack

[–] bobs_guns@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 3 days ago

I like Boox. You can put Mihon, Syncthing, Du Chinese and Pleco on it so you can easily read graded readers and manhua. I have the note max in grayscale and it rules for reading text books as well.

[–] vovchik_ilich@hexbear.net 3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

For an extremely minimalist and pocketable experience, the XTEINK 4 is my most fun eBook reader. Note that this device can only open epub and txt files, and the text formatting in epub doesn't work, so I have to run my epub books through calibre and convert to txt to add markdown to know what's going on with formatting.

People are recommending Boox but they've gone overly expensive lately IMO. For a multipurpose, fast android ereader I'd go with a BigMe, much more bang for your buck especially for the pencil-enabled models, or if you want an affordable huge b&w screen, my Moaan W8 is wonderful.

[–] 21Gramsci@hexbear.net 4 points 3 days ago

I have a Pocketbook and I'm quite happy with it. It supports side loading out of the box.

[–] Snort_Owl@hexbear.net 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] Commie_Chameleon@hexbear.net 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] HexReplyBot@hexbear.net 2 points 3 days ago

I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:

i have a kobo that still gets use. it was their cheap option and a few years back, so it was a little slow, but the fucker still works and has an excellent battery, alongside no drm and shit. love it