Comment by stevewillows | Hacker News Reader

Comment by stevewillows | Hacker News Reader

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It'd be worth trying out a proper ereader. I picked up a Kobo Libra so I could get back into reading and away from audiobooks a bit. I've read studies that the brain can't tell between the two, but I was halfway through an audiobook recently and realized I had no clue what was going on.

I bought this as my summer project -- basically, 'Steve, let's retrain your brain to focus on long form reading again.'

What I like about an ereader / eink is that its not some flashy screen with a bunch of stuff going on in the background like an iPad or whatever. The screens look great and have an amazing refresh rate these days.

The Libra is a 7" screen, which I figured should be good enough to read PDF'd magazines in landscape -- and I was right [1]! This uses KOReader [2]. While the images themselves aren't the same as a color magazine/screen, it's good enough. For epubs everything is exactly as you'd expect.

With my own ADHD, the initial get-down-to-reading is tough, but I've noticed that it is getting easier with each session. And it is also getting to the point where I am looking forward to reading.

[1] https://i.imgur.com/9hncMyI.jpg

[2] https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=295612

I still find a huge difference between ereader and physical book myself. I have a Kindle Fire, which I keep constantly in airplane mode and use no apps except Scribd on, but I find myself reading much faster on it, and also remembering much less of what I actually do read. And I can barely read pdfs on my mac, even with airplane mode and other distraction-reducing things turned on. I just don't like the format. I've come to realize I truly do best recall from physical books, and if I want to learn something new, I'll likely buy physical, though I might use pdfs for a while to test quality.

are kindle fires eink? If not, you should check out some eink -- its so much better than an LED/LCD etc screen.

They're not unfortunately, but the Scribd app also doesn't work on the e-ink readers either (Scribd is really the only reason I have a Fire over e-ink). Lately my Fire has been having issues, so I'll likely switch over to e-ink next time I purchase one and give it a shot. But I think it's just something about physically holding a book that helps me retain more from it -- I've found this to be true even when I'm reading the same book on both (taking the Kindle out walking on a windy day, but reading the physical copy at home)

I think a lot of people have the same experience with paper vs a device -- even an e-reader. Even if it's just a placebo, it's still valid.

I had an old Kindle Keyboard (wifi.) I struggled reading off of that thing -- whereas this new Kobo Libra actually looks like paper and is a breeze to read off of, which may also be a placebo. :)

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