I still don’t understand why people even use e-books, let alone an Amazon one. Picking up and reading a paper book is one of the most beautifully simple hobbies you can possibly have. You don’t need to pay a monthly subscription, you don’t need to log into your account, you don’t need internet access, you don’t even need electricity!
I bought a XTEink X4 and flashed it with crosspoint. I went from reading maybe one book every 2 years to having read 5 novels in the last 2 months already. The advantage of the ereader is that I can pull it out of my pocket in any moment of downtime instead of scrolling on my phone and just read
Back in high school/early college, i was reading daily for ~4 hours at a rate of 60-100 pages per hour. Which means a novel every 2-5 days.
Assuming it takes 5 days to finish a book, that means ~6 books per month. Or ~72 books per year. If every one of them cost $10, then you’re looking at around $700 worth of books per year for a teen.
You might be asking: then why not borrow from a library? Well, a) I lived in a country where literature was heavily censored, b) I mostly read in English, which was not available in said library, c) after reading a stupid amount of books per year, you start to realize most books published by the US big 5 fall into specific categories, and to find something not in those you need to look into indie publishing. These days, most people self publish through ebooks on Amazon (and are locked into exclusively deals because of Kindle unlimited, so no physical copies). At a certain point, an ereader is more economical and environmentally friendly than paperbacks. (I used a phone back in those days, I would have killed for an ereader).
As for why I had an old kindle device registered to my Amazon account, I don’t actually read on it (it has never been turned on since 2019). It is solely used as a dedrm device. Until last year, older kindles can be used to remove drm from purchased ebooks by simply downloading the ebook from Amazon’s website and running a script with the Kindle’s serial number. I believe supporting indie authors (that are sometimes chained to Amazon) is more important than hurting Amazon. So once I could afford it, I started purchasing all the indie books I read, downloading them, and ripping the drum for archival purposes. I would read my books on another Kobo e-reader.
As for e-readers I’ve used: I like things with physical buttons, big bw e-ink screens, and epub support (I have scripts to reformat epub books to my liking). The best e-reader I’ve had was the Kobo Forma, which I gave a friend after I acquired the Kobo Sage (which was a huge disappointment and piece of crap). These days, everything is shifting to shitty color e-ink screens, so I recently bought a refurbished Kobo Libra 2 (smaller screen, but still paperback sized and has no phantom button issues like the sage). I plan to de-solder and replace the battery and use it for another 10 years or so, until color e-ink gets better or they give up on it.
I think it is kind of absurd to argue against the utility of a computer attached to an eink screen. Sure I love physical books too. I don’t see the conflict.
The problem is Enshittification not the “digital” part…??
Consider that the vast majority of people who use digital devices and eink digital devices whether they be big corporate kindles or more interesting devices like supernotes, boox, or remarkable note taking/reading devices still enjoy reading a physical book on occasion too.
It isn’t that simple, the question is how do you relate to reading through physical and digital contexts and how heavily those contexts are controlled by ensnaring forces generally in the pursuit of resistance against freedom of speech and freedom of thought?
The promise of digital books wasn’t to allow corporations to further dissect what is beautiful about reading… the promise was to be able to make books that could magically be copied endlessly for anyone that wants it.**Most of the classics in english literature, Ulysses, Moby Dick, Dracula, Pride and Prejudice, Middlemarch, Wuthering Heights, The Great Gatsby, The Brothers Karamazov, The Complete Works Of Shakespeare… are available in open access ebook formats. Can you not see the deep beauty to that?
I love reading on digital screens, but also I love buying a physical version of my favorite book so I can carry it around and read it, which makes me more careful with buying books and more likely to try utilizing libraries for the books I don’t want to buy when I still want to read them physically.
I also love sometimes picking up a random book somewhere in life and reading it just because it is the kind of book I never would have encountered through another means other than happening to encounter it while pursuing some other goal.
There is no fundamental conflict here, just a bunch of bullshit brought in by late stage capitalism and shitty greedy behavior.
Putting books on computers is a great idea, so are audiobooks. Books are great too. End of story.
I still don’t understand why people even use e-books, let alone an Amazon one. Picking up and reading a paper book is one of the most beautifully simple hobbies you can possibly have. You don’t need to pay a monthly subscription, you don’t need to log into your account, you don’t need internet access, you don’t even need electricity!
I bought a XTEink X4 and flashed it with crosspoint. I went from reading maybe one book every 2 years to having read 5 novels in the last 2 months already. The advantage of the ereader is that I can pull it out of my pocket in any moment of downtime instead of scrolling on my phone and just read
That’s valid
Some people have finite space in their backpack/purse/fanny pack.
And the subscription argument is only valid for those not willing to pirate.
Back in high school/early college, i was reading daily for ~4 hours at a rate of 60-100 pages per hour. Which means a novel every 2-5 days.
Assuming it takes 5 days to finish a book, that means ~6 books per month. Or ~72 books per year. If every one of them cost $10, then you’re looking at around $700 worth of books per year for a teen.
You might be asking: then why not borrow from a library? Well, a) I lived in a country where literature was heavily censored, b) I mostly read in English, which was not available in said library, c) after reading a stupid amount of books per year, you start to realize most books published by the US big 5 fall into specific categories, and to find something not in those you need to look into indie publishing. These days, most people self publish through ebooks on Amazon (and are locked into exclusively deals because of Kindle unlimited, so no physical copies). At a certain point, an ereader is more economical and environmentally friendly than paperbacks. (I used a phone back in those days, I would have killed for an ereader).
As for why I had an old kindle device registered to my Amazon account, I don’t actually read on it (it has never been turned on since 2019). It is solely used as a dedrm device. Until last year, older kindles can be used to remove drm from purchased ebooks by simply downloading the ebook from Amazon’s website and running a script with the Kindle’s serial number. I believe supporting indie authors (that are sometimes chained to Amazon) is more important than hurting Amazon. So once I could afford it, I started purchasing all the indie books I read, downloading them, and ripping the drum for archival purposes. I would read my books on another Kobo e-reader.
As for e-readers I’ve used: I like things with physical buttons, big bw e-ink screens, and epub support (I have scripts to reformat epub books to my liking). The best e-reader I’ve had was the Kobo Forma, which I gave a friend after I acquired the Kobo Sage (which was a huge disappointment and piece of crap). These days, everything is shifting to shitty color e-ink screens, so I recently bought a refurbished Kobo Libra 2 (smaller screen, but still paperback sized and has no phantom button issues like the sage). I plan to de-solder and replace the battery and use it for another 10 years or so, until color e-ink gets better or they give up on it.
If anyone wants some examples of good, indie books that stuck with me over the years:
You can also find these in the other “usual” places.
I think it is kind of absurd to argue against the utility of a computer attached to an eink screen. Sure I love physical books too. I don’t see the conflict.
The problem is Enshittification not the “digital” part…??
In short, I feel the “digital” part has enabled the “enshittification” part
I think that is a problematic simplification.
Consider that the vast majority of people who use digital devices and eink digital devices whether they be big corporate kindles or more interesting devices like supernotes, boox, or remarkable note taking/reading devices still enjoy reading a physical book on occasion too.
It isn’t that simple, the question is how do you relate to reading through physical and digital contexts and how heavily those contexts are controlled by ensnaring forces generally in the pursuit of resistance against freedom of speech and freedom of thought?
The promise of digital books wasn’t to allow corporations to further dissect what is beautiful about reading… the promise was to be able to make books that could magically be copied endlessly for anyone that wants it.**Most of the classics in english literature, Ulysses, Moby Dick, Dracula, Pride and Prejudice, Middlemarch, Wuthering Heights, The Great Gatsby, The Brothers Karamazov, The Complete Works Of Shakespeare… are available in open access ebook formats. Can you not see the deep beauty to that?
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?sort_order=downloads
I love reading on digital screens, but also I love buying a physical version of my favorite book so I can carry it around and read it, which makes me more careful with buying books and more likely to try utilizing libraries for the books I don’t want to buy when I still want to read them physically.
I also love sometimes picking up a random book somewhere in life and reading it just because it is the kind of book I never would have encountered through another means other than happening to encounter it while pursuing some other goal.
There is no fundamental conflict here, just a bunch of bullshit brought in by late stage capitalism and shitty greedy behavior.
Putting books on computers is a great idea, so are audiobooks. Books are great too. End of story.
I would only buy an ebook to read (pirated, possibly) EPUBs and PDFs