I tried, but I gave up. I find that mobile screens (at least the ones I've used) are the wrong dimensions for books. Either the linebreaks are way off, or I have to use zoom levels that are cumbersome.

Plus sometimes I like to jump back and forth, and that's much faster and easier when you can use physical bookmarks.

I find that good Ole books are the superior format. The only thing missing is the ability to ctrl+f

My reading is probably 60% audiobooks, 30% ereader and 10% ebooks on my phone. I could read entire books on my phone, but I just don't find that as enjoyable or immersive as the ereader. The amount of distractions on the phone is also a big negative. I use the app koreader to sync progress between the ereader and phone, so wherever I am I can always open up a book instead of scrolling YouTube shorts or whatever, but I still end up doing that more than I should.

Anna's Archive or libgen for downloading epub, Librera Pro from F-Droid for reading.

PDF sucks, epub let's you configure everything like font, font size, space between lines and alignment to the left.

I pretty much prefer reading on my phone than physical book.

My local library uses overdrive for ebooks, which you can check out and either download for kindle, download as epub, or read online in your internet browser. I usually download to an eink reader, but if I'm reading on my phone I use the read in browser option.

Suggestion: if you plan to read on your phone, look in the settings to set the background and text color of whatever app you choose to something that doesn't strain your eyes.

I have an old android tablet that’s too slow to do anything useful, so I repurposed it as an e-book reader. I use Moond Reader to open epub format files.

I also use this method. Very easy, no fuss.

yeah i occasionally do this with epubs from shadow libraries. it's not foss but i use Lithium (com.faultexception.reader) for it. only works for epub, but it's very lightweight/fast and not privacy invading. there's a pro version but the free one seems to work fine, and i couldn't find any cracked versions. having my volup btn for next page is very useful for one hand reading in mass transit.

Kavita sounds awesome! I see that you can send files to a device for offline reading. Do you know if you do that, if your reading state re-syncs to the server when you go back online?

No. I'm on my phone more than enough. When I read books, I read physical hard copy books.

That’s my preference too but it’s a privilege a 19yo might not be able to afford on top of their phone bill, unless they have a secondhand bookstore nearby.

Plus one for Kobo, mine is almost 10yo and still going strong. Plenty of storage even for long vacations. My partner uses a Kindle and rages against its limitations 😅

No, that's why I bought a Kobo last year and it's been great. The phone is for audiobooks.

At least 6 hours a day, easily.

Royalroad, mostly, but also AO3, Questionable Questing and Spacebattles.

I also download everything to a calibre library and read it using Audiobookshelf.

I used to before I got my ereader. IMO the way to do it somewhat comfortably is, get an app that lets you display epub files in dark mode (light text on black background), and turn the brightness down until the text is visible but doesn't strain your eyes. Unfortunately PDFs do not play nice with any reader software so you're going to want to look for other formats, or convert them and put up with conversion artifacts.

I always said I'd never do ebooks, mostly because of the screen. Then came eink. I resisted for years but finally got a kobo last year and I fucking love it.

No more carrying 5 paperbacks on a trip, just the kobo with 20+ books queued up and ready to go. Plus, I can read in the dark without disturbing the spouse with the backlight on 1%

I begrudgingly have been won over.

But yeah, screw books on phones with LCD/OLED... eInk only.

Nice. I also recently added an ebook with some games to play with a standard deck of cards. So I can bring my kobo and a deck of cards since I have some games queued up to learn.

Absolutely! I use the Libby app and a regular library card. They link up so you can read all the ebooks in your library system for free, just like checking a regular book out. Sometimes you have to wait for a popular book, which I usually try to appreciate as a rare exercise in patience but can be annoying of course. But it's actually free, no adds, simple to use.

I use an ereader that runs googke text to speach which makes any book an audiobook. I listen to about a book a day.

Libraries are the GOAT.

Moon Reader+ and Calibre. (There are some other suggestions for obtaining material listed that are great). I read 3-4 books a week, sometimes more.

I don't. I've tried, but I can't. Between the size, the distractions, and the feeling that it's the wrong device somehow, I just can't.

A tablet is slightly better, but an eink reader is the best hardware; especially with .epub or .mobi files where possible. Google Play is a decent source, but there are DRM-free ebook sources that are better; and Libby (or any library app) is the best source.

True. The O.G., if you will.

There are plenty of apps that can open EPUB files (the format most digital books come in). I use one of those.

I did not tried it yet (i still need to buy the hardware for my home server which is a pain in the ass with all these price spikes of...well everthing) but it seems so from the demo site + there is also sync with Anilist/MAL as the site says

Technically, Manga and manhwa ARE Books. So, if I round it up, I read books on pirating sites.

It is a bit of eye strain (pixel 9a)
However, I have tried with koreader which kinda makes it like a ebook, also on a tablet. It's still an eye strain.
I have however on occasion use librerareader and used the text to speech to 'listen' to ebooks.

Yes.

Project Gutenberg website. They also have files you can download, but I prefer using the website.

Moon Reader+ has been my epub reader for many years and it's worth the few bucks to buy. The free version is perfectly adequate if you don't want to read pdf files. I don't read on a phone, but prefer a tablet with the larger screen, but have used it on a phone without too much discomfort when my tablet died.

Same here. I've used this app for over a decade now. I'm just now realizing it.

Yes. I've got a Kobo reader but mostly use the Kobo phone app to read the books I buy there. For my own files, eg from Project Gutenberg, I use ReadEra Premium, which is superior to the Kobo app. It can handle just about any format, including .mobi, which not even Amazon's Kindle app does now. I like it a lot.

Finally, there's Libby, the library app. I use it mainly to read the New Yorker magazine. You need to belong to a library first. Sign up to Libby and you can borrow from the library's collection. Mine allows you to borrow a book for two weeks, so I mainly stick to magazines.

I'm so used to reading on my phone now that I find print books cumbersome and limiting - I always have half a dozen books on the go and can't imagine carting around that many books.

I've used moon+ reader pro for years. Maybe even since it's release. (Admittedly I don't use it as much anymore as I prefer eink devices for reading but am stuck with a kindle for now)

The tons of customization options was my biggest draw. plenty of font/layout and color options to help find what works best for you and your device.

I also love and use calibre, but I'm not sure it's needed by OP at this time. It doesn't sound like they've got a large collection of books so I think it would just be overkill and depending on their tech level might turn them off.

Ha ha, that reminds me of some of the performative reading I did as a teen - ostentatiously reading a "cool" or difficult book to impress people. The joke was on me when I started reading War and Peace. I got swept away by it, loved it, and was condemned to carrying around this massive paperback until I'd finished it.

When I use/d my phone for reading I always go high contrast - Black background and bright orange text.

Whether LCD or OLED I find that color combo works great for legibility while keeping screen brightness low in the dark (to reduce eye strain) and not having to set brightness as high during the day outdoors (preventing the screen from eating the battery as quickly.)

Have you done any DRM stripping recently? I bought books back in my Kindle days that are now trapped there. They made changes last year so you can't easily transfer files on to your Kindle reader and I think they tightened the DRM too. I tried via Calibre, which used to work but doesn't any more.

That's step 2. - They want to get into reading.

Step 1 is to do it the cheapest way possible. Which means either real books or on a device they already have.

Then if they find they enjoy it they can/should start spending some money on hardware/software to enhance the experience.

But there's no reason for them to spend any money on tech until they know reading recreationally is for them.

This is the way.

There is something special about reading real books. I just wish my life was more stable. Over the years I've lost my huge physical book collection that I started as a kid due to a combo of lots of moving and limited space to keep them.

The convenience of digital means I don't have to suffer that particular loss anymore.

My partner does and I have no idea how they stand it, for ebooks, my library works with my kobo so it's either that or epubs. I can do a tablet for ebooks but I find the phone way too small.

Libby is supported by a bunch of library systems on android, used KOReader for ebooks on android too.

That's why I love and have used moon+ reader for years. Lots and lots of options to help fix screwed up formatting. Especially back in the day it seemed like for every 3 "good" books, at least 1 would be janky and I'd need to make adjustments for it to display well on whatever phone I had at the time

I used to move a lot too, so that was part of the reason for getting a kindle, but I'm not moving any time soon, so it made sense to get books again.

If you read in any other languages, the phone is great. I make the type big to avoid eyestrain, and i have a couple of dictionaries installed for unfamiliar words. It’s so much faster than paper dictionaries - i don’t even lose my page.

For books in English: paper.

DRM is always a moving target. For a long time I used the free DeDRM tools in combination with Calibre to remove it from Kindle books, but that software is no longer supported. There are several commercial options. The only one I've found that has really kept up with the changes is EPubor Ultimate.

When the big change hit, almost nothing worked for a while. EPubor got their DRM-removal working again in a month or so. Since then, I don't think they've ever been more than a week behind in updating their software to deal with the changes.

I hate DRM. I pay for everything I use and feel that I should be treated as a valued customer and not as a probable thief.

Thanks! For me, finding books I'd bought and paid for locked away underlined the stupidity of DRM. If they were print books, I could lend them to people, sell them, give them away. Because they'd belong to me, I bought them. No fuss about intellectual property rights or whatever.

THAT will teach you.

I could not imagine reading longer texts on my phone. I always send everything to my iPad and even then, screens are anti-relaxing to me. E-paper is fine but I prefer real books. Alternatively audio books for long car rides but that’s usually reserved for music and podcasts.

Yes l just started today also l am using librera

ProseReader is pretty good

No, the screen is too small.

My phone screen is too small. I have a separate, larger, e-ink screen for that.

I read a little on my Palm Pilot, then did it on my phone. Switched to an e-ink reader as soon ad it was practical. Of all the devices I've used, phones were by far the less comfortable.