If so, how do you do it? Do you use Google Play books or use apps like PDF file readers? I’m only 19 and I’m interested to start my reading hobby. Though I can also grab some books on a close bookstore nearby, I am also interested to do it digitally.
I use an ereader that runs googke text to speach which makes any book an audiobook. I listen to about a book a day.
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.
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.
No, I read books on paper.
If you’re looking for free, I would suggest OpenLibrary, which has an android app: https://openlibrary.org/
I will say that the app/site is not fun to use. It’s not intuitive and very poor in it’s “rental” process.Since I have an Amazon Prime account, I most often read books available for free that are included with Prime.
Had no idea they had an app. After peeking at that page, I still don’t. Do you just mean it’s a PWA, or is there a native one?
But yeah, agree that their UI/UX does not make it much fun. Still a great resource.
Sorry, I should have linked it: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.loomishouse.ol_reader_app
I think the 3.5 rating is generous but its technically usable.
Paper. It’s unwieldy but there’s something about screens that doesn’t work for me.
I usually download an epub of the book and put it on my Kavita server, then read from my phone.
Kavita? Is that an app?
The link Axolotl replied with is it. Its a selfhosted server software that you host on one machine and access from others. You access it via its webui on your browser, and it gives you a browser based reader for all your ebook and manga files. The benefit to that is its device independent. You can pick up and keep reading from anything with a browser.
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?
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
I read the entire Dune series on my phone, laying on my belly, and it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. I did it with an app called eBoox, which reads different formats, making it very practical.
I do. Depending on the file format, I use either Librera (from F-Droid), basic text editors, or even any native PDF reader.
But I also have a few physical books, one of which (Mark H. Williams “Lilith: Woman, Goddess, Demoness”, Brazilian Portuguese translation I purchased from a physical library in São Paulo) was the only one so far I managed to read entirely, from cover to cover, in mere days.
Not that I didn’t read the other books I purchased (such as a Brazilian Portuguese translation of Kybalion or a Brazilian book from a Luciferian school I was once a member of), it’s because this specific book was the most spiritually important to me back when I purchased it, I was too obsessed in learning more about Her, so I focused on reading. I found other books about Her (non-fictional books, because there are lots of fictional novels involving Lilith and I’m more interested in real texts, grimoires, especially involving real rituals), but the physical versions would need to be imported and, well, I’m certainly going to import one day, when I get to get a job/income, because those books are priced in dollar while my everyday reality is priced in Brazilian Reais (USD 1 is approximately BRL 5.20, but then there are also importing fees which likely depends on the mood of whoever bureaucrat from Receita Federal is dealing with the package I’m trying to import).
Until that happens, I’m quite limited to finding and downloading books (that is, when I manage to find those specific books for downloading, because many of the books I’m interested in reading are so rare that they don’t really have downloadable versions). Sometimes they come as epub, sometimes they come as pdf, sometimes I manage to find them on sacredbooks as txt, so the file format determines where I’m going to read: epub in Librera, pdf on either Waterfox browser (PC) or any Android PDF reader (such as mupdf mini), txt in any text editor (such as KDE Kate on PC, or a simple text editor I got from F-Droid).
I dont read books on my phone but I do listen to audio books off my phone.
My wife uses a Kindle. She also had the Barnes and Noble version of that. I think it was called a paper white.
Thanks for the suggestion but I think that’s gonna make my phkne bloated? I think audio books’ file sizes are big?
Yeah they will but you can pull them off once you are done listenning to them
I’ve read on my phone quite a bit. On Google Books but also with an app such as ReadEra (on Android) in order to make use of https://gutenberg.org/ and https://standardebooks.org/. You can also get library books digitally.
That said, I would recommend a Kobo if you can afford it.
I use Cantook on my phone and skip the account setup. I convert Kobo books and other ebooks using Calibre to Epub. I like Cantook because there’s a setting to use the volume buttons to turn pages.
I prefer an e-reader, but I used my phone before I got one. It is nice to always have my books on me with the phone, but the e-reader is much more comfortable for long sessions.
This is the way.
My wife does, she went through like 15 of them in 2025.
She just uses the Kindle app on her phone.
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.
