Dissatisfied Kindle user, looking for a reader I can organise books better on

[vickan__]

I have a Kindle PW3 that I barely use. I can't jailbreak it since it's updated too far. A lot of things annoy me about the Kindle: the ads that I can't seem to get rid of, the way the collections system works (it takes forever adding books indvidually), the fact that I can't use my tags/shelves/etc from Calibre or Goodreads, the fact that everything has to be mobi.

I do like the size and weight of it. I want an e-reader that is just as easy to hold in one hand and read from, that weighs very little so it doesn't hurt when I lose grip and drop it on my face in bed (stopped using my iPad for reading because of this). A good form factor/nice design, with e-ink and a backlight.

And most of all, I want to be able to customise things after my own needs, as much as possible. Like being able to use tags or categories from Calibre, or else my shelves from Goodreads, being able to sync with my PC, let me pick fonts, screensavers, etc. If I have to jailbreak it, it should be easy. Ideally the manufacturer actually cares about making things better for the end-user, and jailbreaking isn't necessary because they get that people should be able to do what they want with their own device.

I've never really looked to much at ereaders and Googling has given me an overwhelming amount of results. It's hard to see from sales pages how the actual OS of a device works and how easy it is to organise books and so on. Does the device I want exist? Where can I buy it? I really appreciate any advice you guys can give on the matter! Sorry if I'm being annoying/asking stupid questions!

Budget isn't an issue. I live in Sweden.

Thanks in advance

[Ravensknight]

1) I think you can pay, even after the fact, to get an ad-free version of the kindle. It would be under your kindle account at amazon somewhere.

2) I think the Kobo line of ereaders allows a more robust collection management [not sure, as I don't own one. But there are several plugins in Calibre for kobo, so you'd have a lot of support]

3) You can convert files to azw3 as well, not just mobi. Highly recommend Calibre if you haven't already checked out the sub-forum here at MR.

I'm still on a K4 non-touch [buttons, yay!] so I can't give first hand experience for newer readers.

[vickan__]

Originally Posted by Ravensknight

1) I think you can pay, even after the fact, to get an ad-free version of the kindle. It would be under your kindle account at amazon somewhere.

2) I think the Kobo line of ereaders allows a more robust collection management [not sure, as I don't own one. But there are several plugins in Calibre for kobo, so you'd have a lot of support]

3) You can convert files to azw3 as well, not just mobi. Highly recommend Calibre if you haven't already checked out the sub-forum here at MR.

I'm still on a K4 non-touch [buttons, yay!] so I can't give first hand experience for newer readers.

1. That just makes me mad. More fool for me for not reading up more about the Kindle before I bought it I just assumed, it's the most well-known/common eReader, it's probably going to be the best, right? The bare-faced cheek of making me pay to remove ads from my device I already paid for.

2. Thanks for the tip. I read on the Kobo forum a bit to get an idea. But it would be great if someone could confirm which (if any) of the features I mentioned wanting exist on the Kobo.

3. Yeah, I use Calibre for converting! But I find the limited format thing to be stupid on principle. Most of my books are epubs, and converting them isn't the worst thing ever, but why does it have to even be like that? It would be a nice bonus to have a reader that can read most formats.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by vickan__

1. That just makes me mad. More fool for me for not reading up more about the Kindle before I bought it I just assumed, it's the most well-known/common eReader, it's probably going to be the best, right? The bare-faced cheek of making me pay to remove ads from my device I already paid for.

When you buy a Kindle, there's a selector on the ordering page saying "With Special Offers" and "Without Special Offers", allowing you to choose whether you prefer to buy a discounted advertising-supported model, or a non-discounted ad-free model. Entirely your choice. If you choose to buy the advertising-supported model at a discount, you can later repay the discount you received and remove the ads. This isn't "bare-faced cheek" at all; it's a choice freely and openly offered to all purchasers.

See here for more information.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by vickan__

2. Thanks for the tip. I read on the Kobo forum a bit to get an idea. But it would be great if someone could confirm which (if any) of the features I mentioned wanting exist on the Kobo.

Kobo's do most of what you want: collections based on any column you want calibre; 11 built-in fonts plus sideload whatever you want; font size selection isn't limited; no jailbreaking needed, but there are a lot of patches that can tweak things more to your liking; several calibre plugins to add function.

3. Yeah, I use Calibre for converting! But I find the limited format thing to be stupid on principle. Most of my books are epubs, and converting them isn't the worst thing ever, but why does it have to even be like that? It would be a nice bonus to have a reader that can read most formats.

My opinion would be ereader that supported one format perfectly. As long as it was the format I wanted it to support and they took my definition of perfectly

Kobo supports a lot of formats. But, the MOBI support is for older versions and DRM free only. It does PDF, but not reflow and the navigation if you need to zoom in is clumsy. CBR/CBZ are well supported, but, again, clumsy if zooming is needed. epub support is very good using the Adobe RMSDK so supports Adobe DRM. They also have their own format , "Kobo ePub" or kepub. This is basically an epub but uses a different renderer and has some slightly different rules (eg ignore widows and orphans in the CSS) but some advantages (eg. popup for footnotes, some nice in-book statistics).

[HarryT]

It's perhaps worth noting that if, as many people do, your use for collections is to arrange books in series, this can be entirely satisfactorily done without the use of collections by appending the series name and number to the book's title using a Calibre metadata plugboard. This can be done on any device.

[vickan__]

Originally Posted by HarryT

When you buy a Kindle, there's a selector on the ordering page saying "With Special Offers" and "Without Special Offers", allowing you to choose whether you prefer to buy a discounted advertising-supported model, or a non-discounted ad-free model. Entirely your choice. If you choose to buy the advertising-supported model at a discount, you can later repay the discount you received and remove the ads. This isn't "bare-faced cheek" at all; it's a choice freely and openly offered to all purchasers.

See here for more information.

I bought my Kindle from a Swedish approved reseller (a brand new unopened Kindle), and there was 100000% nothing like that in the options I had available. Amazon doesn't ship to Sweden for some reason.

Also calling it a "discount" is just a matter of phrasing. The other way to look at it is there is an upcharge if you want a Kindle without ads.

[vickan__]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Kobo's do most of what you want: collections based on any column you want calibre; 11 built-in fonts plus sideload whatever you want; font size selection isn't limited; no jailbreaking needed, but there are a lot of patches that can tweak things more to your liking; several calibre plugins to add function.


My opinion would be ereader that supported one format perfectly. As long as it was the format I wanted it to support and they took my definition of perfectly

Kobo supports a lot of formats. But, the MOBI support is for older versions and DRM free only. It does PDF, but not reflow and the navigation if you need to zoom in is clumsy. CBR/CBZ are well supported, but, again, clumsy if zooming is needed. epub support is very good using the Adobe RMSDK so supports Adobe DRM. They also have their own format , "Kobo ePub" or kepub. This is basically an epub but uses a different renderer and has some slightly different rules (eg ignore widows and orphans in the CSS) but some advantages (eg. popup for footnotes, some nice in-book statistics).

That sounds pretty sick. I guess I'll be going with a Kobo. Thanks for the confirmation

Originally Posted by HarryT

It's perhaps worth noting that if, as many people do, your use for collections is to arrange books in series, this can be entirely satisfactorily done without the use of collections by appending the series name and number to the book's title using a Calibre metadata plugboard. This can be done on any device.

I want to organise my books by genre, since I have like 1000+ ebooks it's hard to browse a long list of books :/ Thanks for the tip though!

[Pajamaman]

The other option is to get a Boyue or an Onyx. These are open Android based devices. They work like your phone. You can arrange books how you want in a normal folder type system. Fonts can be customized in the e-reader apps that come with the device, or you can install other e-reader apps. You can read any e-book format. You can buy both models on banggood. You can also buy the Onyx from Germany from Booxtor in the Onyx sub-forum.

[HarryT]

The downside of the "generic" Android devices is that they have rather short battery lives compared with dedicated readers. I used to have to recharge my Onyx T68 about every two days, compared with once every two weeks for my Kindle Voyage.

I'd suggest the OP goes for a Kobo if the Kindle is proving not to be to their liking.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by vickan__

I want to be able to customise things after my own needs, as much as possible. Like being able to use tags or categories from Calibre, or else my shelves from Goodreads, being able to sync with my PC, let me pick fonts, screensavers, etc.

A Kobo does all of that and would likely be what you are looking for.

One thing though:

I do like the size and weight of it. I want an e-reader that is just as easy to hold in one hand and read from, that weighs very little so it doesn't hurt when I lose grip and drop it on my face in bed..

You might want to look for a Kobo Glo HD, which is not made anymore. The current 6" Kobo, the Aura Edition 2 has a screen that is not as nice as the Paperwhite.

The current higher end Kobos, the H20 and the Aura ONE are both larger than your current Kindle.

Do you have the option of seeing Kobos in a store before you buy? If not, do some online research before you commit.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by vickan__

That sounds pretty sick. I guess I'll be going with a Kobo. Thanks for the confirmation



I want to organise my books by genre, since I have like 1000+ ebooks it's hard to browse a long list of books :/ Thanks for the tip though!

Hi. I just wanted to comment on genre. Since you have 1000+ & I assume you plan on more, I would suggest genre> subgenre^sub-sub-genre Example Cookbook:Regional:State:City:Title Cookbook:International:Country
Cookbook:Celebrity: Name:Title
Cookbook:Appliances:Small:Type:Title

The more books in a genre, the more breakdown you need.
I think my physical recipe cards have over 200 categories.

I have over 2000 physical cookbooks. I need to genre the database. They are organized on the shelves. Most of them anyway. I have about 50 that need shelved.

Good luck.

And I agree with the guys on get you a kobo.

[crossi]

Amazon's choice to go with their strange organizational system (have you noticed that books sorted by author are sorted by first name then last) is one of my biggest disappointments. I just don't understand why they didn't go with basic folder organization. It's not like it not a well known and commonly used system. Why this entirely weird and mostly useless organizational system?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by crossi

Amazon's choice to go with their strange organizational system (have you noticed that books sorted by author are sorted by first name then last) is one of my biggest disappointments. I just don't understand why they didn't go with basic folder organization. It's not like it not a well known and commonly used system. Why this entirely weird and mostly useless organizational system?

Books sorted by author are assuredly not sorted by first name. They are displayed "firstname lastname" but sorted "lastname firstname". If your sorting order is wrong, your books' metadata is wrong.

[crossi]

It's still a weird system. Author's names at the least should have been treated like collections, where you see only the name and need to click on it to see the books by that author. And it's still incomprehensible to me why they didn't go with standard, Windows to Macs to Linux, folder system.