Get a Kobo. They are excellent. I had a 2020 or so Paperwhite from 'zon but it made me feel sad all the time. My Kobo Libra 2 has caused me to read more since I got it than the entire before portion of my life.
If you get any books off amazon use calibre and DeDRM. IIRC DeDRM has stopped but also has been forked on git and continued by someone else so you would want the more up to date fork. Adobe digital editions DRM or whatever it was called I believe can also be removed up to a certain version but you have to download it for the first time with an old enough Adobe app version get the old drm version or it will get permanently locked to the newer version that can’t be removed. Anyway removing DRM let’s you read the ebooks on whatever device you want. It’s not illegal in any country I have bothered to research except if you are doing it to distribute or sell.
As a side note if it helps anyone, I was able to get the whole procedure to work on Linux too by installing the required versions of kindle desktop and Adobe digital editions via Lutris and wine. Calibre and plugins are already cross platform.
Edit: updated DeDRM fork link because goog search results are utter shit these days. github.com/noDRM/DeDRM_tools
I have a Kobo Aura 2, and I love it. That’s my first ebook reader, and I haven’t had any other one since.
Personally I avoid Amazon because I definitely don’t wanna get tied to them. I’m not sure if this is still true, but when I got my ebook reader, these were my choices:
get a non-Amazon device, and I can read anything except books from Amazon
get an Amazon device, and I can only read books from Amazon
So it was a no-brainer for me. One of the best purchases I’ve ever made.
You can get ebooks from any source (well, not considering the AI generated crap that Amazon is getting flooded with; if you want that, you need to get a Kindle), and your computer/smartphone will handle it as a standard USB storage device, so you can simply copy over your ebooks.
Colouring books! The wife, mother, and mother-in-law all find it therapeutic so they get that. Father and father-IL get booze. Brother gets a happy Xmas text as we stopped exchanging gifts years ago.
Grew up Lutheran, with a mom who is very strong in her faith. Felt a connction my self for a while but always struggled with skepticism. Always dealt with self-image issues growing up, and the idea of sin turned much of that to into self-hatred. Sure, sins are forgiven, but you are still supposed to try and avoid them, but I always felt at odds with what I felt was just part of who I was (don’t really want to go into it, but not anything gender/orientation related).
Eventually, learned to love myself more, but this started the rift for me. The other thing is something I’ve always been unable to shake: of all the religions in this world, who is to say one is the “real” one? Everyone has their own image of what “God” is.
Much further reflection and family conflict later, that got expanded to the understanding that religion in general is just one of many ways we try to frame or understand things that are otherwise difficult to. Things like Purpose, Creation, our place in the grand vastness and chaos of the universe.
Nowadays, when it comes to spiritualism I align more to a sort of naturalistic pantheism. Instead of prayer, I meditate, and focus on celebrating life and wondering at the beauty of it all.
This got long and I’m not sure it makes much sense, but I tried. Not great at translating concepts/ideas into words.
I found plantable paper stars/snowflakes that can be used as gift tags or tree ornaments. The paper contains wildflower seeds so you can plant this paper star into the ground in spring and it will sprout flowers.
I once met some hippie-like people who fed themselves exclusively by dumpster diving. Not sure where they got their stuff, but they had a lot of high-end foods (cheese wheels, expensive meats, not-so-fresh produce, etc). They lived in busses, vans, RVs and stuff like that. They didn’t have jobs; not sure how they got money for things like clothes; odd-jobs I guess.
Less extreme “hacks”: Goodwill, or Ross/Marshalls if you’re feeling fancy. Ebay/Craigslist/Offer-up (need to be careful about getting ripped-off, and Ebay isn’t as cheap as it used to be). Buy, cook, and eat mostly cheap staples (rice, beans, pasta, etc). If eating meat, you can use it sparingly by cooking recipes that comprise mostly of cheap staples. Budget Bytes has decent recipes. Unfortunately, most people’s biggest expense is housing, and there aren’t many “hacks” for that. Maybe, get a work-from-home job and move to Wyoming or something
I was teetering from logic for years, but I watched the towers fall on 9/11 and it finally pushed me over the edge. It there is a god and he allows this shit to happen, then he is wretched. It was a small shift from there to, no… there is no good, no god
I’m gonna chime in with some of the others and say Onyx is actually really good. I got my Nova 3 (black and white, not color) to replace an old Kindle and I’ve been loving it. The fact that I can write notes on it has been a game changer for me and has completely replaced pen and paper notes. On top of that, the fact that it’s Android means I can install other apps and that just opened all kinds of windows for experimenting with the device that I didn’t expect, it really is just basically a tablet with a much more readable screen. And second best thing to notes I’ve found about my Nova is how nice reading manga is on it, I’m even paying for a subscription to Shonen Jump now plus using Tachiyomi for fan-scans.
Only damage the thing has taken in the time I’ve had it is a couple corners coming off the case, which I just glued back on. Device itself feels good as ever.
asklemmy
Active
This magazine is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.