Which ereader? Using Calibre to organize for school

ksburgess · 09-26-2015, 04:46 PM

Hi friends

Hoping for advice.

I am planning to buy ereaders for my kids to use for school. We homeschool and as they are getting older, many of the books we need for literature and historical fiction are available as free ebooks.

I really do not want to get Kindle Fires because I don't want them playing games and that is all that happens on friends' Kindle Fires - unless they're going to websites... which is also not reading!

But the benefits of an ereader are great and I think they would be an asset for school & family

Right now I'm collecting up books into Calibre and organizing them with tags, then copying them over to a dedicated Homeschool library. I would like to put this library onto each device.

I'm looking to buy 3-4 devices and have considered buying from ebay or possibly waiting for Black Friday sales (we have a 7" Windows tablet they can share til then, but I would prefer ereaders for reasons given above).

I order a lot from Amazon and we gave my MIL a Fire tablet as a gift a couple of years ago and she likes it... but not sure if this would be the best option. I've seen that a Kobo is good with Calibre-organized book collections.

Any suggestions on good devices - and also what editions might be good if I decide to buy from ebay to help us afford for multiple students (we have 7 kids!)?

Most of the books will be epub/mobi but I also do need them to be able to open and read PDFs for a few books available only in that format.

Barbara1955 · 09-26-2015, 05:43 PM

How about the New Fire on Amazon $49 You can use Freetime to regulate when they can Play etc. Or the Basic eReader for $79

Cinisajoy · 09-26-2015, 06:05 PM

The basic kindle would work great.

Hemmi · 09-26-2015, 09:22 PM

I'd look into some older Sonys on Ebay. Some can be had pretty cheap and older ones don't even have WiFi capability, you side-load all the books on there and it's just a reader. No games, no going to websites, no downloading other ebooks.

The only issue with Sonys is that you risk the batteries going bad but you can get replacement batteries. Sonys also can handle PDFs but, with Calibre, you can convert anything into EPUB.

I have a Kobo Touch, it did NOT do well with a PDF format ebook at all, it was impossible to read it on there without converting to EPUB.

meeera · 09-27-2015, 12:15 AM

If your killer feature is organising your collections with Calibre and having those transfer to the devices, Kobo is the way to go, as you identify. If this is optional and you want a more durable device (depends on the age/carefulness of your children), PDF reading, and battery life isn't a big issue, a cheap tablet might be a better option. With seven children, I'd suggest getting a mix of the two - tablets for PDFs, and the ereaders for reflowable books and for older/more careful children.

cybmole · 09-27-2015, 01:35 AM

Reconsider the new fire tablets for textbooks with colour diagrams, and superior prof handling. You can block browsing, gaming with lockable parental controls, but consider also encouraging word look ups online, easy from reading apps. Also use Wikipedia as a killer study app

ksburgess · 09-27-2015, 09:07 AM

Thanks everyone, this has been really helpful and given me things to consider

I've taken a look at the Fire tabs again and watched a couple of videos on the parent controls and they do seem pretty robust.

A question if any of you are using parent control. I see that when using Freetime (for the little ones), it looks like it's hard to sideload ebooks in. Can you view side-loaded ebooks when just using parent controls on the regular (non-Freetime) interface, like one would have for an older child? And are they able to view PDFs added to the Fire even though those are "personal documents?"

09-26-2015, 04:46 PM	#1
ksburgess Member Posts: 15 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2010 Device: netbook	Which ereader? Using Calibre to organize for school Hi friends Hoping for advice. I am planning to buy ereaders for my kids to use for school. We homeschool and as they are getting older, many of the books we need for literature and historical fiction are available as free ebooks. I really do not want to get Kindle Fires because I don't want them playing games and that is all that happens on friends' Kindle Fires - unless they're going to websites... which is also not reading! But the benefits of an ereader are great and I think they would be an asset for school & family Right now I'm collecting up books into Calibre and organizing them with tags, then copying them over to a dedicated Homeschool library. I would like to put this library onto each device. I'm looking to buy 3-4 devices and have considered buying from ebay or possibly waiting for Black Friday sales (we have a 7" Windows tablet they can share til then, but I would prefer ereaders for reasons given above). I order a lot from Amazon and we gave my MIL a Fire tablet as a gift a couple of years ago and she likes it... but not sure if this would be the best option. I've seen that a Kobo is good with Calibre-organized book collections. Any suggestions on good devices - and also what editions might be good if I decide to buy from ebay to help us afford for multiple students (we have 7 kids!)? Most of the books will be epub/mobi but I also do need them to be able to open and read PDFs for a few books available only in that format.

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09-26-2015, 05:43 PM	#2
Barbara1955 Non-Techy Posts: 4,455 Karma: 15499273 Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: WV---USA Device: Samsung Cell Phone & Amazon Fires & Kobo eReaders	How about the New Fire on Amazon $49 You can use Freetime to regulate when they can Play etc. Or the Basic eReader for $79

09-26-2015, 06:05 PM	#3
Cinisajoy Just a Yellow Smiley. Posts: 19,161 Karma: 83862859 Join Date: Jul 2015 Location: Texas Device: K4, K5, fire, kobo, galaxy	The basic kindle would work great.

09-26-2015, 09:22 PM	#4
Hemmi Grand Sorcerer Posts: 10,573 Karma: 15987608 Join Date: Apr 2015 Device: Sonys, Nooks, Kobo Libra, Forma, Mini, Paperwhite	I'd look into some older Sonys on Ebay. Some can be had pretty cheap and older ones don't even have WiFi capability, you side-load all the books on there and it's just a reader. No games, no going to websites, no downloading other ebooks. The only issue with Sonys is that you risk the batteries going bad but you can get replacement batteries. Sonys also can handle PDFs but, with Calibre, you can convert anything into EPUB. I have a Kobo Touch, it did NOT do well with a PDF format ebook at all, it was impossible to read it on there without converting to EPUB.

09-27-2015, 12:15 AM	#5
meeera Grand Sorcerer Posts: 5,814 Karma: 68407974 Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: Australia Device: Kobo Libra 2, iPadMini4, iPad4, MBP; support other Kobo/Kindles	If your killer feature is organising your collections with Calibre and having those transfer to the devices, Kobo is the way to go, as you identify. If this is optional and you want a more durable device (depends on the age/carefulness of your children), PDF reading, and battery life isn't a big issue, a cheap tablet might be a better option. With seven children, I'd suggest getting a mix of the two - tablets for PDFs, and the ereaders for reflowable books and for older/more careful children.

09-27-2015, 01:35 AM	#6
cybmole Wizard Posts: 3,720 Karma: 1759970 Join Date: Sep 2010 Device: none	Reconsider the new fire tablets for textbooks with colour diagrams, and superior prof handling. You can block browsing, gaming with lockable parental controls, but consider also encouraging word look ups online, easy from reading apps. Also use Wikipedia as a killer study app

09-27-2015, 09:07 AM	#7
ksburgess Member Posts: 15 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2010 Device: netbook	Thanks everyone, this has been really helpful and given me things to consider I've taken a look at the Fire tabs again and watched a couple of videos on the parent controls and they do seem pretty robust. A question if any of you are using parent control. I see that when using Freetime (for the little ones), it looks like it's hard to sideload ebooks in. Can you view side-loaded ebooks when just using parent controls on the regular (non-Freetime) interface, like one would have for an older child? And are they able to view PDFs added to the Fire even though those are "personal documents?"

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