I've had this post in a draft state for a couple of months, but I recently got an email from Kurijn who's considering picking up an e-ink device and was curious if I had any thoughts about another brand that's privacy and open source respecting. This prompted me to finally get around to publishing this post, so thank you Kurijn.
Late last year I bricked my Onyx Boox Poke 3 and replaced it with the Hisense A7 e-ink smartphone. Both of these developed some hardware issues. Prior to me accidentally bricking it by wiping the system partition, within a year and a half of owning it, the Poke 3 would power cycle from anything beyond a gently tap such as simply setting it down on a table. I bought the A7 as a replacement and after about 6 months the frontlight went out for no particular reason. This prompted me to sell both on eBay (I don't like keeping unused and broken techno-clutter around). I had been considering picking up a new e-reader, but I've become a bit jaded from my past experiences with e-ink devices and everything I've been looking at just annoys me, so I've made the decision to not buy another e-ink device and would like to share my few reasons why.
It's pretty cool that we can carry around an entire library of books when traveling. But lets be honest, do you really need (or want) an entire library of books with you? At any given time I'm reading no more than three books. If I'm traveling, I may want to read a couple of these depending on the type of traveling I'm doing. I'm already a light traveler so adding a book or two isn't that big of a deal and the e-reader was just one more thing I'd have to charge. I also already can and do bring my entire eBook library when I travel. Years ago I wrote a post about reading on your phone and how it's essentially a little pocket eBook reader. I have my entire eBook collection synced up to my phone at all times, and although it's not ideal for long term reading sessions, it's great for shorter ones. If I forget my book, my phone can work in a pinch. It's reminiscent of a small pocketable paperback.
The second reason why I've decided to not buy another e-reader is due to my compulsion to tinker, fiddle with, and hack on any and all electronics and computers, including e-ink devices (which was really how the Onyx Boox reader met it's demise). I'd guesstimate 30-50% of the time I was "using" either of my recent e-ink devices was spent tinkering with it to some degree or another. Maybe I'd ask myself "could this be more than just an e-reader?" and then I'd proceed to conduct various experiment such as turning it into a mini-writing setup or a smartphone replacement. By their nature of being computers in the technical sense, they can be a distraction for me while I read. Physical books, on the other hand, are simple and can't be fiddled with (or bricked for that matter).
The third reason is there doesn't seem to be a good e-reader out there that's reliable, isn't pre-installed with shit, and isn't locked down by the OEM. I know that Derek shares my sentiments. It seems difficult to find an e-ink device that's not a Chinese brand and filled with spyware and bloatware, or a Western brand like Kindle that's also filled with spyware and bloatware for that matter. Maybe it's unreasonable for me to believe that anything less than a device that respects privacy and provides full root access is unusable. Kurijn reminded me that the PineNote by PINE64 exists but 1) they don't seem to be available, 2) they're development devices with no OS installed, and 3) I again run into the problem of my compulsive need to tinker when the primary reason for an e-reader is to read. Don't get me wrong, I would love to own one because it would be fun to play around with!
So, I've come to read almost exclusively physical books, but to me the greatest benefit of an e-reader is being able to read in the dark. So I invested $5 into a booklight and it's fucking awesome. It has "cool", "warm", and "warmer" light settings, each with three brightness levels, and it recharges via USB-C! It's 2-5% of the cost of a low-range e-reader. I'm not distracting myself with a web browser of by fiddling with, nor getting frustrated at the software collecting telemetry and phoning home with data about who knows what.
I've been avoiding going down the rabbit hole of booklights, because there are lots of different varieties. However, the one I have is great and have no intention of "upgrading" anytime soon.
I also just like having physical books around. I've noticed that I'm more likely to pick up a book and read when it's sitting on my table or a shelf. With physical books I'm able to focus better. Simple solutions are usually better solutions. I'm not saying I'll never buy an e-ink device again, but for now, no need to complicate my life.
Thanks for reading. Feel free to send comments, questions, or recommendations to hey@chuck.is.