Kobo is the answer. It used to require some finicking to get it so you didn't have to sign up with Walmart, but now that's supposedly no longer an issue (I've had my Kobo for a long time). Install Calibre and the Kobo extension for Calibre. You now can borrow epubs from your local library, purchase them from your favorite online ebook store, or sail the high seas if you don't give a fuck.

Buy a Kobo, never connect it to WiFi. Or flash KOReader on it. Either way much better than the alternatives.

I'm very surprised the top answer isn't pocketbook. Their entire business model is reworking Chinese e ink tablets to make them GDPR compliant and privacy respecting. I'd recommend the pocketbook verse pro if you want a lit screen and USB C, but they have a cheaper model without those features.

Here is a good spec comparison table for ereaders in general. I'd point out basically all e-readers have great battery life.

https://ewritable.net/comparison-tables/comparison-table/

I was on the same journey as you a month or so back and luckily the PineNote just got a second batch produced.

I wrote down some of my thoughts here, maybe that helps: https://domistyle.gitlab.io/pinenote-2024/

Just... Another kobo. I don't actually use calibre though, i just get the books in epub format. Then when you hook the kobo to the PC, it shows as mass storage anyway. Just dump your files, and after ejected it does its cursory file scan, and it shows them properly listed in the device.

Of course Calibre offers a lot more functionality, so if you want to have a proper library it might make sense to manage your books from there. I'm basically saying no conversion is needed a it natively reads epub.

I have an old Kindle Paperwhite. I put use Calibre and USB to manage the library, no Amazon connection necessary. Works great.

used kindle paperwhite, check firmware version to ensure jailbreak

jailbreak, install koreader

use calibre to manage library, source books from uh. the seas

amazon devices have quite good screens for the price

however, if you are reading comics, you should get a bigger screen probably a tablet, look into boox and meebook, both are android based

i would not recommend color screens rn, they still have significantly lower contrast and resolution and refresh is slow af

I use a Kobo with Calibre! I use it for fiction and theory alike.

I use a boox leaf 2, it has android without google play services OOTB, you can install that if you want and you can side load apps like normal android too. It has a nice crisp screen, adjustable backlight (color and intensity) micro SD slot in addition to the 32gb internal storage. It will open pretty much any eBook format out there, and you can also use kindle app and adobe digital editions for DRM books (if you don't strip the DRM)

I highly recommend it.

On Android I use FBReader. I paid for the Premium version.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fbreader

Instead of self-hosting, I have a device that can hold a large amount of sideloaded material and sync between my PC and device with syncthing. Boox devices work well for this.

I can't speak to the privacy of it, but I love my Kobo Elipsa 2E setup. I've got NickelMenu, Synching and Autoshelf installed, so I can sort books by directory and have them sync. I also have KOReader installed with some other goodies, but rarely use it. The reading experience in the stock firmware is way nicer. And the screen is big enough to read full size PDFs comfortably. Kobo runs Linux under the hood, and there are extensions to give you Telnet/SSH access so you can mod what you need.

Also, being able to borrow books from Overdrive/Libby on it and support my local library is rad.

I did the whole Calibre with Kobo extensions thing for a few weeks, but it just didn't work out very well for me. I like to have my books synced to multiple devices and Calibre just isn't built for that.

I recently got a Boox Go 6. It's just a really simple android tablet with a paper type display. So whatever android reading app you use you could probably run it. Strictly in terms of privacy I'm not sure if it's uniquely well suited. But I would expect it's better than Kindle or Kobo.

I bought an old Sony ereader on eBay a couple years ago but the battery is shot and apparently replacing it requires soldering?! I had been thinking about bringing it to a phone repair shop to get it fixed but now I think that is probably a no-go. Yesterday I researched how repairable the Kobo ereaders are and based on iFixit they seem pretty horrendous, even the newer Clara BW that has an OEM repair guide and official OEM parts available on iFixit (although it is marginally better than the old Aura HD). Now I am thinking I may just forego ereaders altogether. The repair situation with laptops, tablets and phones is bad enough nowadays. I don't want anything to do with something even worse than that. I would get the PineNote but I am too poor to pay $400 for an ereader.

I have just been using my old iPad (with the low contrast feature enabled for bedtime reading) but obviously that is not great for privacy so I would have to use another device for some books. I could use an old OnePlus that I have but it has an AMOLED display so it's not great for reading but maybe I can mitigate that with the right software and configuration.

I would just buy paper books but unfortunately that has its privacy issues as well, at least in my case. If one is in a shared living situation it can hard be to keep private what you are reading if other people are nosy. And even just buying paper books anonymously can be impossible if you cannot buy what you want to read with cash at a brick and mortar store. I have no idea how you anonymously order books online (and I am not talking about some dark web marketplace that accepts Monero and has 10 books). It is probably possible if you have enough money to throw at the problem, which I don't.

I use a Kobo Libra 2 and it's been great

I read on my phone amoled display in dark mode with the app Cool Reader.

I have had the same Tolino Shine for... 10 years now? It recently broke down and I will definitely get the new Shine at some point. You can put books on it yourself via usb and basically never need to connect to the internet if you don't want to. Unsure tho if it is available outside of Germany/EU.

there's the pineNote but its a bit pricy

The Miyoo Mini Plus. It's a Gameboy Linux Emulator device. Besides being able to run most games up to ps1, you can also put ebooks as pdf or epub on it.

PineNote (Pine 64) or reMarkable (Pro if you have budget, 2 or even 1 otherwise)

Both work on Linux proper, the reMarkable comes with Linux out of the box whereas PineNote comes with Android but one can install Linux on it.

They are mostly to sketch but it is also good to read. You can pretty much use whatever you want on them, including developing your own software. I don't know if they have Calibre clients because whats I do is... just scp my ePubs or PDFs on there.

Here are my tinkering notes on both https://fabien.benetou.fr/Tools/Eink but feel free to ask any clarification.

PS: the Bookeen Diva also does not require any software, namely you can plug it on Linux, it gets detected as a filesystem and you can copy DRM-free content on it. It's a totally different form factor (much smaller so IMHO not great for comics) and I don't think there is the same open-source community as the other 2.

I was on your point 4 years ago. After some research, I'm using Kobo + Calibre-web with Kobo Sync integration:

https://brandonjkessler.com/technology/2021/04/26/setup-kobo-sync-in-calibre-web.html

I have a Boox Go Color, but most Boox ereaders are good devices. You can have a Calibre library self-hosted and use the Android app "Calibre sync" to access it on your ereader.

I've had an e-ink device, and read ebooks on a number of devices. Some notes:

• If it's a casual read and I can get the book in epub or mobi format, I might just have it on my phone and use Librera.

• I did not like e-ink displays at all. The text itself doesn't appear easier on the eyes to me, and if anything the jarring refreshes on each page turn make the overall experience even more straining. For this reason regular Android tablets have become my preferred way to read books.

• For tablets I suggest one that is at least 10 inches. A lot of ebooks are still only available in pdf format, and I've found that anything smaller than a 10 inch display makes for bad pdf reading.

• Following from all that, I would suggest the Pixel Tablet, because from a privacy perspective, you have the option to install GrapheneOS on it. From there you can get F-Droid, install any of those ebook apps, and now you have a reasonably secure and private ebook reader - and the best part is, because it's a general purpose tablet, you're not accumulating unnecessary single-purpose devices. You never know if the tablet might have other important uses down the line.

I have a good experience with PocketBook.

I don't have experience with any readers until recently. Did some research and went with. Kobo colour. It has met expectations and I'm using it with no issue.

I wanted physical buttons.

I didn't want an Amazon device.

I have a Kobo sage and its pretty good. Just avoid the color ones.