What sort of ebook reader do we really want?

[shalym]

Originally Posted by RZetlin

My Options:

• Large screen - 8" or larger
• Colour screen
• Durability
• Waterproof
• Good batter life
• Cloud backup

Here you go...

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0189XYW08...1_k_ods_tab_ts

Shari

[barryem]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Are you aware that you can tell Calibre to insert a "metadata jacket" page into the book? This will contain all the book's metadata, description, etc, so that it'll be in the book itself.

Thanks for mentioning this. I had no idea. I just found it and it's set to do that in my Calibre. Probably the default or I set it sometime and forgot. Anyway it's been doing that all along, which I'll find extremely useful.

Barry

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by shalym

Here you go...

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0189XYW08...1_k_ods_tab_ts

Shari

I haven't seen where any of these tablets are waterproof and I wouldn't claim they had particularly long battery life either.

Dale

[Timboli]

Talking about battery life, I couldn't believe how good the battery in my Samsung 9.7" Tablet is. I'd powered it off and not touched the thing for a few months, expecting it to be flat when I checked it the other day, but it was showing 97%. Still the same a few days later when I started to read Shania Twain's autobiography, which is not exactly short. A month later, after reading a couple of other things on my Kindles, I finally finished the biography on my Tablet, and it's now showing 46%. I'm impressed. Both my Kindles would have been well and truly flat if I left them that long. In real terms, I can get about 2 decent size novel reads out of them, before they usually go flat, but even not using them, they go flat within a month or two.

[Wearever]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

That would be the Kobo Aura One. You get a good 300dpi Carta screen and many more font sizes.

I have been considering Kobo's as a larger e-ink screen. I've been reading the Aura One thread here too. I've always liked the idea of a larger e-ink screen. So far I've only had Kindles PW's & Voyage, I like them both. I would love to see the H20 & One in stores like Best Buy. I would have to take a road trip to Montreal, to see one in stores. I've just never ordered anything without seeing it first. I know it's getting harder to do now, Although I've got to get past the ordering without seeing them first. Kudos to Kobo for making different sizes. They have gotten my attention.

[McGonigle]

Originally Posted by HarryT

What would you consider to be a large library? Checking my Kindle Voyage, I see that I currently have 1874 books on it, and it's not the slightest bit sluggish.

I'm guilty of presenting my case very badly. My primary wish is to be able to browse the contents of a 4000+ library on the reader with no or little delay, like I would in Calibre.

With the Onyx T68, the onboard browser is inadequate, it takes forever to scan or perform a search of my library. A Unix-based device, like my old Boox A60 offers a folder based access, but again the search and sort functions are inadequate.

It would be perfectly reasonable to expect me to do my sorting and searching in Calibre, but I would prefer to do it on the reader.

If Kindle Voyage is able to perform such tasks, I can only wait in anticipation for Amazon to release a reader with a 7 or even better 8 inch screen.

[Timboli]

All drives, as they get closer to capacity, have a reduction in responsiveness, that is the nature of what they are. You see this very apparently on cheap Tablets for instance, and no doubt even cheap ereaders. In the end, you get what you pay for ... ram & processor being the governing factors, that can compensate for the drive situation.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by McGonigle

I'm guilty of presenting my case very badly. My primary wish is to be able to browse the contents of a 4000+ library on the reader with no or little delay, like I would in Calibre.

With the Onyx T68, the onboard browser is inadequate, it takes forever to scan or perform a search of my library. A Unix-based device, like my old Boox A60 offers a folder based access, but again the search and sort functions are inadequate.

It would be perfectly reasonable to expect me to do my sorting and searching in Calibre, but I would prefer to do it on the reader.

If Kindle Voyage is able to perform such tasks, I can only wait in anticipation for Amazon to release a reader with a 7 or even better 8 inch screen.

The Kindle fully indexes every book as it's added, which allows you to search both for titles/authors and for text within books. Just timed it on my Voyage, and any search completes in under 2s.

I don't have the slightest difficulty in locating books on the Kindle. As well as searching for books, you can also browse the library and jump directly to any point in the sort order when browsing by author or title (eg in author sort mode I can type in "chr" to jump to the point in the sort sequence where my Agatha Christie books are).

[Timboli]

Just got reminded of something I would really like, when it comes to collections on an ereader.

I am usually adding an ebook to a folder with the author name, so having an 'Add to Author Name Collection' option would make it all much more sensible, with far less clicking, and I truly can't believe they don't have that already ... at least on my models.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Timboli

Just got reminded of something I would really like, when it comes to collections on an ereader.

I am usually adding an ebook to a folder with the author name, so having an 'Add to Author Name Collection' option would make it all much more sensible, with far less clicking, and I truly can't believe they don't have that already ... at least on my models.

I don't see what having collections by author name gains you, given that you can already sort your library by author name. Can you explain?

[Timboli]

I browse both my Kindles by Collections.
Much less to look at that way. And I get to to the ebook I want, much quicker.
Most of my collections are by Author Name.
There is no simpler or easier way ... certainly on the Kindles I have.
Plus, I set my Kindles up, and then leave them like that ... not a fan of changing settings all the time.

Collections are just folders by another name, and like for decent Media Players, they are much better to use than a long scrollable list, however you sort it. You just have to be smart with your folder and sub-folder names on a media player, and you can get everywhere quickly ... but alas I don't have the full facility for that on my ereaders.

Sure you could probably fiddle fart around and bring up a search and get there that way, but one mistype or a bad memory for names and you will wish you hadn't bothered.

As they say, simple is best .... (swipe swipe swipe) &or click click click.

All that said, I don't have a recent e-ink device to compare methods with. But even on my new Samsung Tablet, collections are quicker ... not so my Phone, which doesn't support collections with the Kindle App ... it is much more painful & slow with its large scrollable list.

The smaller the list the better, and collections make it smaller.

P.S. Don't mistake me though, only authors that have more than one ebook on my device, get their own folder/collection, all the rest go into a collection called Various. Short story collections also get their own folder - Collections. Some items appear in more than one collection.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Timboli

I browse both my Kindles by Collections.
Much less to look at that way. And I get to to the ebook I want, much quicker.
Most of my collections are by Author Name.
There is no simpler or easier way ... certainly on the Kindles I have.
Plus, I set my Kindles up, and then leave them like that ... not a fan of changing settings all the time.

Collections are just folders by another name, and like for decent Media Players, they are much better to use than a long scrollable list, however you sort it. You just have to be smart with your folder and sub-folder names on a media player, and you can get everywhere quickly ... but alas I don't have the full facility for that on my ereaders.

Sure you could probably fiddle fart around and bring up a search and get there that way, but one mistype or a bad memory for names and you will wish you hadn't bothered.

As they say, simple is best .... (swipe swipe swipe) &or click click click.

Thanks - it's always interesting to read how other people use their devices.

I don't use collections at all; I find it easier to use the "jump to a point in the library" facility of the home screen to get to a particular author, but what works for you is obviously the important thing. I have considerably more books on my device than you do (currently 1874 books on 235 pages of the library), and this method works very well for me. I use a Calibre plugboard to prefix titles with a series name and number to arrange books correctly in series order.

One small point, BTW: collections are not "folders by another name". Collections are tags, not folders. The primary difference being that a book can be a member of multiple collection, while only a single copy of it will be present on the device.

[Cinisajoy]

I have 46 pages of ebooks on my primary device and no collections. I have no trouble finding a book. (Ok sometimes I do but that is because it is on a different device.)

[spindlegirl]

My daughter is a "collections" person. I prefer to find my desired title/Author via the search bar.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by McGonigle

I'm guilty of presenting my case very badly. My primary wish is to be able to browse the contents of a 4000+ library on the reader with no or little delay, like I would in Calibre.

With the Onyx T68, the onboard browser is inadequate, it takes forever to scan or perform a search of my library. A Unix-based device, like my old Boox A60 offers a folder based access, but again the search and sort functions are inadequate.

It would be perfectly reasonable to expect me to do my sorting and searching in Calibre, but I would prefer to do it on the reader.

If Kindle Voyage is able to perform such tasks, I can only wait in anticipation for Amazon to release a reader with a 7 or even better 8 inch screen.

As HarryT already said, it's very fast and easy to search for whatever you want on the newer Kindles. But 4000+ books wouldn't probably fit on a Kindle. The Kindles don't have a memory card option.