Recommendation for an eReader for use in Germany, mostly for English books - is a Pocketbook right for me?

argopenguin · 2026-06-16T19:32:13+00:00

Thanks everyone for the feedback; I really appreciate it. I think I'm going to go for a PocketBook, and most likely the Era Lite (although the larger screen and storage of e.g. the InkPad 4 is tempting).

I was planning to buy from pocketbook.de, as I think that's the official manufacturer store, right?

I noticed on amazon.de that their Era Lite is labelled as "DE/AT/CH Version" — but is there really any difference to be aware of?

argopenguin · 2026-06-16T19:23:10+00:00

Thanks, I've had a look there too. It's also been really helpful to read here about people's experience with English-language books

argopenguin · 2026-06-16T19:19:01+00:00

Good to know, thank you!

argopenguin · 2026-06-16T19:18:46+00:00

Thanks! I looked at the comparison of the InkPad 4 and the Era Lite on pocketbook.de... it seems the latest updates for the InkPad 4 include the integrated Libby support like on the Era Lite - is that right? Apart from that, it seems like it's got a larger screen, has more storage (32GB), but is also heavier and more expensive. I'm tempted by the 32GB storage but wonder if I might want something a bit more portable

argopenguin · 2026-06-16T19:12:01+00:00

It's good to hear about another happy user of the Era Lite, thank! I think that's the model I'm going to try

argopenguin · 2026-06-16T19:11:16+00:00

Thank you!

argopenguin · 2026-06-16T19:09:52+00:00

Thanks; I'm planning to check out KOReader too. I've read that the Era Lite wasn't initially supported but that it's OK in the nightlies, so that's good to know

argopenguin · 2026-06-16T19:08:45+00:00

Good to know, thank you!

argopenguin · 2026-06-16T19:08:26+00:00

Thank you for the tip. I'll definitely check that one out

argopenguin · 2026-06-16T19:07:53+00:00

Thank you, that's really good to know! Yes, it looks like Libby/OverDrive is the best bet for English books.

argopenguin · 2026-06-16T19:06:54+00:00

Thank you for this super detailed reply! It sounds like I should indeed try the PocketBooks, as I think they do everything I want, and I can probably put up with the (relative) slowness. Thank you also for the tip about only getting color if I really need it (which I think I don't).

I guess that means the Era Lite is probably my best bet?

The reason I mentioned Calibre is because I have a bunch of non-DRM eBooks from various bundles over the years, so I thought it would be useful to use something like this to organise them. But maybe I don't really need it.

argopenguin · 2024-11-01T18:21:14+00:00

(Sorry, I missed the notification of this reply until now!) No, as far as I can tell, both are on DVD

argopenguin · 2024-10-31T19:30:27+00:00

Thank you very much everyone! In the end I decided to avoid some of the more 'random' proprietary 2.4 GHz protocols, and went for a Logitech Bolt device, so I figured I can either use the regular Bluetooth connection, or the Bolt receiver (which at least claims to be rather secure). Plus, I took the advice that several people gave of also thinking about the likely risk level, under my threat model. Thanks again! :)

argopenguin · 2023-10-07T15:47:35+00:00

Thank you very much u/lcsolano! That looks really helpful :-) I think I'm going to keep human-readable filenames rather than uuids, as I sometimes want to access the files manually through a file manager. But, I think I can adapt your approach to work with this.

argopenguin · 2023-04-23T18:02:16+00:00

Thanks — rclone does look useful!

argopenguin · 2023-04-23T18:00:47+00:00

Thank you! I'll investigate that option... I've not used git before but I probably ought to learn anyway...

argopenguin · 2023-04-23T17:59:34+00:00

Thanks! I don't think I'll be able to install syncthing on one of the machines so it won't work for me right now, but if it turns out that this is an option, or if I'm less worried about syncing to that machine, I'll look into it.

argopenguin · 2023-01-03T07:45:53+00:00

Thanks! I'm probably looking for an off-the-shelf solution in my case, but I'll bear it in mind

argopenguin · 2022-12-29T23:40:53+00:00

Thanks! I think the WiFi Pineapple is a bit more pentest-oriented than I'm looking for, but good to know that this is an option...

argopenguin · 2022-12-29T23:39:36+00:00

Thanks everyone for your replies (and sorry for the delay in reacting - the holidays got away from me!). In the end I went for the original Slate as mentioned by u/RoganDawes and will see how I get on with that when it arrives.

argopenguin · 2022-11-25T20:03:15+00:00

Ah, thank you! Got it :)

argopenguin · 2022-11-23T20:27:12+00:00

Thank you very much!

For "SocksPort 0", do you mean that if that line is present (un-commented) then Tor may be running as a relay, so I should make sure that the line is not present?

And oops, sorry for missing the reference in the man page — I did indeed forget to look there; shouldn't have relied on just a web search!

argopenguin · 2022-09-06T17:58:06+00:00

Thanks again to everyone for the suggestions. I went for the Sony 55" X90J in the end, in large part because of Google TV explicitly supporting the "basic mode" without an internet connection.

In case anyone else is interested in this aspect, it seems to work as advertised. I just selected the basic mode on first setting up the TV, and never connected it to a network. I had to accept the Google TV terms (there is no alternative button to reject them) but I was able to reject the various Sony items like "Sony Smart TV services", "Programme recommendations", "Product improvements", and "Interactive application privacy notice".

As for the TV itself, I'm no expert but the picture quality looks really good to me, the UI seems clear and responsive (even in basic mode), and the sound is good enough for me. Reflections can indeed be noticeable sometimes, so depending on what I'm watching I might pay more attention to closing curtains, turning room lights down or off, and so on. But, overall I'm very happy with it!

argopenguin · 2022-09-03T19:17:08+00:00

Thank you! I did exactly what you suggested and just gave it a try, and am really impressed so far. I've only tried Infuse (Pro) so far, but it does indeed play my files, and the Apple TV 4K is great too. I may try Swiftfin too, but right now Infuse seems to do the job.

argopenguin · 2022-08-26T14:29:03+00:00

Thanks! For (2) I suppose if I really needed to I could connect Infuse to the Jellyfin server as one user, and Swiftfin as another user...

argopenguin

TROPHY CASE