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572 points bookofjoe | 8 comments | | HN request time: 1.134s | source | bottom
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pfooti ◴[] No.41864842[source]
I have a pretty old paperwhite. When it started deleting books i had side-loaded via calibre, I decided to get a kobo. I have a libra color, and I have to say: price notwithstanding, it's a great device. I don't have a lot of experience with more recent devices, but compared to my 2nd gen paperwhite, it is _amazing_.

Color is good enough to read comic books on it, the google drive integration means it's not too hard to get my CBR/CBZ files on directly. The annotation / notetaking featureas are nice (I haven't leaned into them yet, but they work well even on the small screen size), plus all the regular stuff with normal book reading. Also, since it's kobo/rakuten, the libby integration is better (search and select library books right from the device).

The actual reading app is maybe 90% as good as reading on the kindle (or a more specialized reader like perfectviewer on android). There's some annoyingly fiddly features- font size is kind of weirdly variable, when going through CBR files there's no "read next in the folder" gesture nor is there a "this is read/unread" state in the google drive ui, so you always have to remember which book you are finishing when opening the next in the series.

I tried out one of those boox readers with the android apps, which would be even better software-wise, but the boox hardware seems like garbage (for an N=1 at least). My display came with several rows of stuck pixels, and apparently it's a good thing that I ordered from amazon instead of the boox store, because the reviews indicate getting an RMA from boox directly is a pain.

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1. jorgesborges ◴[] No.41865315[source]
I stopped using Calibre because it turned out to be more annoying than simply emailing an epub to my designated kindle address. I've never had anything removed. Most of the content comes from libgen.
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2. thimabi ◴[] No.41865396[source]
I think Calibre is able to integrate with the “Send to Kindle” email interface as well, so you can have the best of both worlds :)
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3. boznz ◴[] No.41866397[source]
Sigh.. "Send to Kobo" would be nice to have
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4. theshackleford ◴[] No.41866476{3}[source]
I have my Calibre install setup with the content server feature which makes your Calibre library accessible to any device on the local network. I can then transfer the books to my Kobo by using the browser and hitting the content server's IP address.

I can't remember all the specifics of how I set it up and honestly i've not used it in a while because I used it to get all my old Kindle purchased books on (which was a lot) and i've not booted the docker container since.

Is this a reasonable work around/alternative or have I misunderstood? If so, I apologise. Oh also, I think I had to do some custom stuff with my Kobo as well to support this functionality, but I don't remember it being difficult. Got it all wrapped in an evening of tinkering.

5. globular-toast ◴[] No.41867021{3}[source]
Easiest is with KOReader. You start a server in Calibre then connect to Calibre in KOReader (not via the web browser). At that point it's like you plugged it in via USB, you can add/remove from the device from your library.
6. Hikikomori ◴[] No.41867299{3}[source]
You can use Google Drive with Kobo.
7. cg5280 ◴[] No.41867381[source]
Yeah, I personally don't see any need to maintain a digital book library (like with calibre) when libgen is so accessible. Email to Kindle is a great feature; I've also never had anything unexpectedly deleted.
8. ableal ◴[] No.41869300{3}[source]
Try this: https://send.djazz.se/

Minimal work if you configure the site as the homepage in the Kobo web browser.