u/Clickety_Clack4137

Hi all,

Not sure if this is the right reddit to ask, but I'm looking for a good general history book on the Byzantine Empire. After reading through a bunch of classic Greek history and then Roman Empire stuff, I'm looking for a way into the Byzantines.

I checked the Reddit History thread that gets suggested, but that thread is 14 years old now. If there's another thread I should go mosey off to, let me know. But I figured I'd try here as well. Thanks!

They help you read and put down your phone. Since buying a Kobo couple of months ago, I've read two novels borrowed from Libby, two Shakespeare plays from Standard eBooks, maybe half a dozen magazine-length feature stories I saved on Instapaper, about 80 percent through a non-fiction book on translating Shakespeare into foreign languages, and am about to start on the second volume of Kotkin's bio on Stalin. I'm sure there's one or two other things in there I've forgotten.

I mean, I've read quite a bit in the past - I'm an English major - but this e-reader is just completely destroying the doomscrolling habit. Huzzah!

I’ve ditched my Kindle 10th Gen PW and am now trying a few different ereaders with the intent of keeping one and returning/selling the others. My use case: I’m mainly interested in books, either from the store, free sideloads and Libby. I’m also very interested in portability - I like to grab my ereader and run out to the coffee shop etc to spend some time with my books. 

Right now I’m using the Era Color and the Clara BW to read alternating chapters in The Sympathizer. On the way from eBay is a Kobo Libra 2. 

So first up: 

Pocketbook Era Color: This one was a bit of a curveball - I purchased on Amazon what was advertised as a B&W Era and instead received the color version. 

KoReader is easy to install on the Era, but I’m basically reviewing this as a stock product. I don’t particularly like using KoReader - it’s useful but the UI is something I think only tech-minded people could love and us normies just have to endure. Also, I’m of the mind that a company should be judged on what it’s done with its product, not what it could be if you go through the trouble of using outside mods. 

The hardware: Very handsome - probably the most solid feeling and best looking e-reader I’ve used so far. Which can actually be something of a demerit - it looks/feels too nice to just shove into my pocket and its size, while still relatively compact, is just wide enough that it doesn’t slip into a pocket as easily as smaller ereaders. 

The buttons are nicely done and having a “home” button to bring the reader directly to the main library is great. 

The size is kinda weird for me. Although the buttons make it seem like it should be a one-hand experience, the Era is just wide and heavy enough to make it just as likely the reader will use two hands after a little while. The Era is so nice looking/feeling that it’s actually something you want to pick up and hold. I noticed in my time using it that I didn’t read with it just placed on the table very much - I always wanted to have it in my hand. 

The screen: I get what people mean about the color e-ink screens being dark and less focused. The latter bit I don’t mind too much, but the darkness gets a bit annoying when you know pushing up the lighting is going to drain the battery faster. It also makes me wonder if I’m getting the benefits of using e-ink - supposedly less eye strain - if I’m just having to max out the lighting to get a decent visibility. 

I actually do like the color bit. I don’t read manga or comics on my ereaders, but I do appreciate seeing the color on the book covers. That’s something I actually miss now when I go try my other readers. 

I’m neutral on the 7” vs 6” screen size. The Era’s 7” is nice on the eyes, but I’ve found that 6” screens give me the impression I’m reading faster because I’m turning more pages. Nice kind of a placebo affect, that.

The UI: This is where the PocketBook kinda fails me. The UI is almost great but has too many minor annoyances to really gel for me. Once I get things set and can start reading these complaints generally go away, but the Era is not as “set and forget” and other readers I’ve had.

Set up is a bit too convoluted, at least if you’re in the U.S. It asks you to sign in to your PocketBook account. If you're in the US, don’t even bother with setting this up - just skip all this because the store is (understandably) focused on the German market and you’re going to be sideloading books anyway. But you might have to do this if you want to use Cloud loading via Dropbox or email - I haven’t gotten that far yet. 

Libby set up requires you to make an account with Adobe (bytebooks.com is your friend here if you don’t already have one) and enter that info. Nothing major, but it’s still another step or two you have to do on an outside device. 

Setting margins on this thing is all but impossible to do on the stock OS. I installed Koreader just to tweek the margins enough to prevent the text on a few books from bleeding right into the extreme edges, becoming all but unreadable. 

I did NOT find the page turning to be as slow as some people have said, but I have found that changing the lighting to be oddly stuttered. I’m also minorly annoyed that getting to the lighting menu requires one or two taps. Kobo knocked it out of the park on the Clara BW I have where it’s a gesture that doesn’t even require going into a menu. [Edit: Thanks folks for showing me that there IS a gesture-based light adjustment! It's a bit laggy compared to the Clara BW swipe, but it is there and it is convenient.]On the Era, I feel like I’m constantly fighting to get good lighting - even setting it to “auto” gets me wonky, all-but-dead-looking screens.

I don’t see where to change the book progress bar on this thing or even if you can without using KoReader. From what I can tell, you only get the book page counter at the bottom, something I’ve never found useful given that you don’t know how many “taps” equal a page. This again is something I find much more well done on the Kobo - chapter progress in “taps” on the top and total-book progress on the bottom. 

The device sleep page (a sleeping cartoon ereader) is kinda childish. Changing it requires creating your own template using GIMP or another image editing program and mucking about in the Era's root menu. It’s not impossible, but why in Dawg’s name PocketBook doesn't allow the option of setting the current book cover as the device’s sleep image is beyond me. Update: Apparently there's a way to do this, but it's for some reason not showing up on my device.

And I just discovered one feature I quite like - the RSS news feed is well done and something I like to have on an e-ink screen. We'll see how much battery will drain from my using this feature for the NYT and WSJ, among others.

So far I really want to like the Era more than I do. As a physical product, it’s the nicest ereader I’ve used, hands down. I like the color book covers. But the constant need to tweek settings before I actually read a book is kinda annoying and it not being a true “grab and go” device for me is a checkmark in the “con” list.

After nearly 10 years with a Kindle PW 10th Gen, I decided to update. I bought a Kobo Clara BW last week and am really liking it - page turns are quick, UI is much cleaner than that on the Kindle, Libby intergraton is better and the size is perfect for a portable ereader - it almost disappears in my pocket.

BUT. I just now noticed Amazon has some refurbished PocketBook Eras for dang cheap. I'm going to try one out. One thing I'm curious about - is it possible to sync books wirelessly between these two devices? Or is that just not going to happen?

Watching the Japan-NED match on Japan TV (NKK) in the US and, nope, no commercials during hydration break　(飲水タイム）。

Like many of you, I was absolutely joyful over last night's match - for someone who's been watching USMNT soccer since the 90s, seeing that game surrounded by screaming fans at the local bar last night (including the obligatory "guy who obviosuly started drinking earlier now loudly telling everyone who HE thinks should have started) was like a dream come true. To not only NOT concede a late goal to tie things up, but man of man that Gio outside-boot slam - that just exorcised a lot of demons.

BUT - let's remember. It was one game. Versus Paraguay. In a match that didn't really test what everyone knows has the potential to be the weakest link in our chain - our keeper and D (though I though Ream did well last night). I don't want to get all Euro-troll-farm on this, but while we definitely saw Proof of Concept last night, I still want to see if this puppy scales up. I feel like the Australia match will be a mess as they go physical. For me, the match against Türkiye - not just the result, but how we play - will be when I feel like I can decide how big my confdience level can get. So after that blaster of a game last night, I'm screwing my head back on this morning.

Still - LFGOOOOOOOO!