u/Kerkeis

i got into sanderson maybe a year ago. you cant really ignore the guy if you read fantasy, he's everywhere. i havent finished everything, probably not even halfway through the cosmere tbh. but i've done stormlight, mistborn era 1, a few standalones.

english isnt my first language. i can read technical docs for work fine. even read dungeon crawler carl in english and loved it. but something about sanderson's prose... i wanted it in my native language. idk why exactly, it just felt like something i wanted in my own words.

and it barely exists there. not even all of mistborn era 1 got translated. they just stopped halfway. so i got tired of waiting.

i bought the english ebooks and built an AI translation pipeline from scratch. i work in software, run a small dev agency. we do AI stuff for clients but i'd never touched translation before lol. the first attempts were bad. not grammatically, the prose was fine mechanically. but the glossary was a disaster. fantasy terms got translated literally, magic systems read like onboarding docs. it was a mess.

so i started editing the output myself. catch the mistakes, feed corrections back into the agent's skills. rinse and repeat. after a few books it actually got good. like i'd forget it was machine translated at all. the tone and rhythm all landed.

now i've got several cosmere books in my language, proper epub files on my e-reader. and i'm probably the only person who's ever read them this way, which is kind of a weird flex.

honestly i dunno if this is genius or insane.

so two questions: is this a valid way to read sanderson? does it count if i'm the translator and the reader and the QA team? and the legal one. i bought all the english ebooks, i'm not distributing these anywhere, they live on my devices. is this allowed? or am i cosmically breaking some law here lol

Been through a bunch of e-readers over the last decade. Started with PocketBook back in the day — had a few 6-inch models, honestly was kind of a fanboy. That size was the sweet spot: small enough to throw in a bag, took it hiking, traveling, everywhere.

Eventually upgraded to a bigger color reader. And honestly? The color didn't matter for me. I read novels, not comics or PDFs. The bigger screen was nice but it stayed home more — too bulky for everyday carry. Then a couple months ago I kept seeing XTEINK pop up. Pocket-sized, physical buttons, no backlight, no touchscreen. Sounded like a weird downgrade on paper.

But the pocket format got me curious, so I grabbed an X4. 9 books in 2 months. NINE. (Okay, 6 were Sanderson — Stormlight re-read. Those things are addictive.) For context: I read maybe 5-6 books all of last year.

The size is the killer feature. It's always in my pocket. Coffee line? Few pages. Waiting for a meeting? Few pages. Instead of pulling out my phone and doomscrolling, I just read. Same habit, completely different outcome. The no-backlight thing turned out to be a non-issue. I read with a lamp or during the day anyway. And the physical buttons? After a week I stopped missing the touchscreen. Page turns feel more deliberate. Liked it so much I got an X3 for my wife. She was skeptical — "another gadget?" — now her X3 lives in her bag.
Curious — anyone else switch from a bigger reader to a pocket-sized one? Did your reading volume change, or is it just me?

Been using e-readers for about 10 years. Started with PocketBook, had a few models over time. Honestly was kind of a fanboy — the 6-inch form factor was perfect. Small enough to stuff in a jacket pocket, took it hiking, traveling, everywhere.

At some point I upgraded to a bigger color e-reader. But... meh. The color didn't really add anything for me since I mostly just read regular novels. And the bigger size meant it stayed home more.

Fast forward to a couple months ago. Kept seeing posts about XTEINK readers, the hype got to me, decided to try one. Picked up an X3. And look, I'm not gonna pretend it's perfect. No backlight means I can't read in the dark. No touchscreen takes some getting used to — it's all physical buttons. But here's the thing — I've read 9 books in 2 months. For context, I think I read maybe 5-6 all of last year. 6 of those were Sanderson (Stormlight re-read... don't judge, they're addictive lol).

The biggest change: it replaced doomscrolling. Instead of opening my phone and scrolling Twitter/Reddit/whatever when I'm bored, I just grab the X3 and flip a few pages. Same pocket-sized form factor, completely different outcome. Turns out my phone addiction wasn't about having something in my hand — it was about what was ON the screen. Liked it enough that I bought an X4 for my wife too.

hey everyone, new here 👋

got myself a birthday present. been reading about DAPs forever — how the sound "opens up", better instrument separation, all that audiophile talk. honestly thought it was mostly copium.

but reading about it and hearing it — completely different things.

Shanling M1 Plus → Truthear Zero:Red

source: Deezer FLAC + local files

first thing i threw on was Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov). i know this piece inside out, and with this setup i heard bow textures and background string details i'd just missed before. the violin solo actually gave me chills.

i get it now. super happy with this.