my amount of reading went thru the roof when i set up this setup
readest - open-source ebook reader with pc and mobile apps.
i like it, it has an attractive dark mode, nice display settings, minimal-ish interface, good highlighting. [although, I don’t bother annotating too too much.] good pdf support.
readest cloud - crucially, readest has a free cloud service, 500mb. [is a lot of epubs]
you can sync your ebooks across devices - it syncs books, reading progress, notes, etc.
i drag an epub into readest - on my computer i have it set to ‘read in place’ and not copy the file into a separate library folder - but on phone, it will download the file into its cache. [no more emailing myself epubs.]
audiobookshelf - self hosted audiobook server - it integrates and i can access it directly from readest, so don’t have to look at another thing. this doesn’t count against your cloud storage since you are self hosting.
i can stream audiobooks on the go now - nice to listen to audiobooks while driving, i find.
[this one does require some self-hosting knowhow tho. it’s not hard, use tailscale to mesh your devices, run the server off your pc, access your home ip on phone, job’s a good’un]
and of course u must have a good source of epubs pdfs and audiobooks this is the last part of the setup that Changed Things for me.
so the upshot is, i now have the ability to bounce between computer/phone/iPad and have access to the same books and bookmarks/reading progress on each, thus making it much easier to continue reading a book.
start reading book A late at night on PC, pick it up next morning on my phone for my train commute, continue reading on iPad at my lunch break[1], put on the audiobook while i’m running errands or washing dishes, come back to the PC at night… etc.
for physical books, i prefer trade paperback size (b6-ish) and of course always read with a pencil handy, maybe some small post-its. i much prefer annotating physical copies, always have, i used to print out my PDFs in college as well.
haven’t been using iPad as much lately, pain to carry it around. little bit big/heavy. ↩︎
I love manga but I never used to read that much of it because it was too expensive to buy and it’s hard to rely on the library to own a whole series. I recently got an iPad Air and set it up with the Panels app. Now I can just download manga from the internet to my NAS, and then transfer from the NAS to the iPad when I’m ready to read it. Suddenly I’m blasting through Kaiji and 20th Century Boys, having the time of my life. It’s the perfect device to read manga on. Its screen size is almost exactly the size of a double page spread in a standard manga volume.
For prose books I prefer to read them on paper, so all I need is a nice couch. I also prefer trade paperbacks when possible. When I was a kid I used to love eating shelled sunflower seeds while reading, filling up a whole bowl with the discarded shells. Possible ADHD self-medication? You be the judge!
Library: I borrow 3 to 4 books every month and cycle through them.
Printing PDFs: I print out articles from magazines and long wikipedia item that I like to read. I may throw them away after reading because printer paper is cheap when bought in bulk.
Kindle DXG, use to read manga. I rarely read manga these days, so I need to remember charge it about once a week.
I don’t read a lot of books digitally because I get too many books from local used bookstores, thrift shops, little free libraries, etc. I think it’s nice to have an excuse to not look at a screen. I like to read outside if possible & sometimes try to read while walking which is a delusion where I pretend the walk and the reading don’t both crater in pace. But all those kinda need a physical book.
Accordingly, my reading choices often end up guided by convenience or whim and since I have way too many around I usually aim for the stuff i lug around first . I beat up paperbacks bad from creasing etc. kind of guilty about it.
On tablet I read comics etc. sometimes.
On tablet & laptop pdfs or books that are pricey/out of print/quick/etc via like generic apple books. Pretty much never phone. I have a early non-backlit kindle which I like the e-ink but refreshing, formatting errors, size, and the contextless void vibe of progress do not draw me in .
I dont really take notes or if I do it’s after I’m done reading for the time and more in the sense of like a random textfile document, or a journal/notecard I scribble in and in both cases likely will forget about and never look back on, or just kind of walking around kind of working through what I’m reading in my head. I have tried writing in books but found it not for me
I forgot how to finish books for a while but now that I have an e-reader that I can shove whatever I want on I use that for every expensive and rare book and things i need to read RIGHT NOW and I’m finishing a book a week again. it’s still a struggle against my adhd. on a bad day I’ll just be staring at the same page for like ten minutes reading the same thing over and over again and not absorbing shit, but lately I’ve just been pushing through the shame of feeling illiterate and it’s getting easier. it’ll still happen where a half hour will pass and I’ve only turned the page once but it happens less now
Like the rest of you I spend like a zillion hours a day reading words on screens but the idea of reading a book on a screen remains repellent to me. I don’t like doing it for sizable essays either but it what are you gonna do, buy a printer? Psh.
The one place I often split the difference, out of practical necessity, is ttrpg books. They are often beautiful objects and nice to have in meatspace but they also aren’t real books and I feel ok keeping reference material in pdf.
I’ve got one of the pre-refresh XTEINK X4s, without the pain in the butt pogo pin connector (maybe it’s fine, I don’t want to find out!).
It’s really nice and tiny (smaller than my already kinda small phone), and I got a little magnetic case for it, but with no backlight I’ve had to improvise and get one of those magnetic gooseneck selfie lights for phones. It works pretty well!
As for my books…no fancy setup, I’m just puttin’ ePubs on it…
this is the last part of the setup that Changed Things for me.