Note: I’m just very happy with the products & services mentioned here, I am in no way affiliated with them.

Why did it not work out last time?

One of the main pain points was the unsatisfying feeling when finishing a book: I wanted to place it onto my book shelf. As the shelf got quite cramped over the years I started to mostly borrow books from the library again. I had totally forgotten about the library to be honest.

I still like to go to a well sorted bookstore and look for interesting new books. I don’t get these from the library as it would be like cheating the store. Back then with the Kindle I had no choice to get the book in a digital version except from Amazon. And that would be a crime to my moral feelings.

Another thing that bugged me was that Kindle is an Amazon product. Since 8 years or so I don’t have an account with them anymore and try to avoid them as much as possible.

Selecting a reader

The trigger to look for an eReader was the problem every night: my wife wants to sleep already, I prefer to read a bit more but the light annoys her. How often did I try to read under my blanket in bed — neither comfortable nor enjoyable.

When I looked for a device I thought Tolino is the eReader to get in Germany. When I read reviews, it turned out that the software on recent devices seems to be really buggy. I was suprised about this, like how can a reader fail at turning pages… Kindle is out due to Amazon and Kobo isn’t really an option in Germany. I learned that the Tolino devices are actually Kobo hardware running with Android instead of a Linux system.

Somehow I came across Pocketbook and decided to get a Pocketbook Era.

Why I’m in love now

The device’s form factor is very nice, easy to hold with this side panel. For the quality of the reader I think all the recent ones are good compared to ten years ago. It has a background light which was a necessity for me.

As mentioned, I use my library a lot these days. The Pocketbook comes with an Integration to Onleihe by default, which is the eBook service of libraries in Germany. It’s such a great feeling to just tap a few times and have a new book ready to read!

The best of two worlds

And for discovering new books: the Pocketbook allows to set different stores as the default and I chose my favorite local bookstore, Cohen & Dobernigg. I can even go to the physical store, look for books and then buy the eBook right in the store.

As the Pocketbook has a cloud sync feature that syncs the eBooks themselves as well as the reading position, the new eBook will just appear on my device after buying a book in the store. Perfect, that’s such a great integration! 🥰

To satisfy my feeling of placing the book on a shelf, I signed up to literal.club: a nice overview of the books I read and that I want to read in the future.

It sure is nice to go through a physical book, but with all the analogue / digital combination it truly is the best of both worlds to me. I’m off, I have to read.