edinbruh 30 points 6 days ago

There's calibre, and then there's everything else. Also take a look koreader. You can also use koreader from calibre

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emb 5 points 6 days ago

I hear these names thrown around a lot. I've only briefly tried Calibre, and not KOReader yet.

I'm kinda curious, what's the difference between them and the roles they fill?

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OneCardboardBox 21 points 6 days ago

Calibre is an ebook library manager with a reader built-in. Koreader is purely reader software, and it works particularly well on touch and eink screens.

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edinbruh 4 points 6 days ago

This👆

That's why I referred to it as "plain": it's just the reader. And it is mostly made to replace the original reader software on eBook devices, but you can also use it on desktop if you want.

The question is if you are looking for just a reader, or a library manager. But you can also mix the two, so use calibre fo manage the library and have it use koreader to open books

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njordomir 3 points 6 days ago

You already received a reply to this, but I recently had both installed and also recently reviewed my apps to uninstall duplicate-purpose apps.

KOreader looks like what comes on a Kindle, Nook, etc. I have it loaded on an old Kindle 4th Generation I inherited from my Grandpa. If you like eBook readers, this one is for you. Librera is for people who are Android users, especially those who download and store books on their devices. It follows more typical Android design conventions and functions more like a full eBook suite vs a reader tool.

I think I'm going to go with KOreader for my uses, but have immense admiration for the developers of both.

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everett 5 points 6 days ago

Librera is for people who are Android users

I'd reword this a little, to

Librera is better for people who are Android readers exclusively

Because if you're the type who uses a dedicated e-ink device for reading, also having the same application and book library on your phone has some obvious benefits. But if your phone is your one reading device, you'd probably try the Android version of KOReader and be like "wtf is with this UI?"

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njordomir 1 point 5 days ago

Agreed on the exclusivity thing. Matching apps could be a big benefit. I don't read across devices (or if I do, it is for different books), but I want to give cross-device syncing a try once I get my Calibre library all fixed up.

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Obin 1 point 5 days ago

I use KOreader on an Android phone because it's so configurable and allows me to read efficiently on an AMOLED with white on black text and a very minimal, space efficient interface. Also the large amount of style overrides allows one to fix even the most badly formatted epubs without editing or processing them in Calibre.

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njordomir 1 point 5 days ago

Good point on the AMOLED. I actually like the different UI. It keeps me zoned into my book and zoned out of Android.

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JC1 1 point 4 days ago

I used to use KOreader and calibre web NextGen together. But koreader isn't nice to use on my current phone as the auto rotate doesn't really work. So I moved to librera. I'm missing the progress sync, but since I mostly read on my phone, it's fine.

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morto 29 points 6 days ago

If you read epubs frequently, just on your pc: foliate
If you read epubs frequently, and want to also manage your ereader library: calibre
If you read epubs occasionally and want the same software for reading everything: okular

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KssioAug 21 points 6 days ago

I really like Foliate. Great interface, easy to use, enough customization. It's available through Flatpak.

If you want something more feature rich and don't care too much about UI, then Calibre.

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pglpm 4 points 6 days ago

Seconding this. I use Foliate for epub, and Okular for the rest.

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solrize 19 points 6 days ago

pandoc file.epub -t plain > file.txt
less file.txt

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Ghost 12 points 6 days ago

interesting approach

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funkajunk 8 points 6 days ago

Based af

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spaghettiwestern 8 points 6 days ago

Calibre's ereader is quite good.

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SocialistVibes01 7 points 6 days ago

Firefox with some extension when in a pinch.

Otherwise, Calibre.

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myrmidex 6 points 6 days ago

This is a tough one. All readers I tried had something that annoyed me. If forced to read on desktop, I will use Calibre. But nowadays I prefer calibre-web to put the epub automatically on my ereader.

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muhyb 6 points 6 days ago

I just use Foliate but on my current system Foliate has a weird bug for me that it cannot open any books for some reason so I'm using Readest now.

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fratermus 6 points 6 days ago

For actual reading on linux I use fbreader. For eBook management I use calibre.

But 95% of my reading is actually on old eInk devices (kindle, nook).

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user224 5 points 6 days ago

I like KDE Arianna.
Unfortunately, while in the past (I think version 24) it would show 2 columns in portrait mode, now it only shows 1 page in the middle, which I personally consider a regression.

Aside from that there've been some improvements. While in the past I had to flip pages by pressing arrow buttons at the bottom, it now supports swiping the pages, which is much nicer on a touchscreen.

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flamingos 5 points 6 days ago

Emacs, of course.

I mostly use Foliate, but I actually do most of my ebook reading on my phone.

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GreyCat 4 points 6 days ago

KOReader is goated. So many options, I use use it mainly on phones but it works on PC as well.

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zarkanian 2 points 5 days ago

That's weird. On F-Droid, it says that it was made for an older version of Android, so it can't be updated, but the version listed is 4.3+.

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GreyCat 1 point 4 days ago

It does say that but it works perfectly fine.

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wotaku 4 points 4 days ago

I use foliate

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swelter_spark 3 points 4 days ago

I use Calibre. I"ce tried others but many of them are not very customizable.

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jared 3 points 5 days ago

Readest and Foliate are the best ones

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somegeek 3 points 6 days ago

Sioyek.

The greatest e-book reader

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joe 2 points 6 days ago

I only read on mobile (android) using Readest but they do have desktop versions and I assume they're just as good as the mobile version.

They just added functionality to play audio overlays (like from Storyteller), too, which is something I've wanted for a while.

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Secret_Music 2 points 6 days ago

That seems like a promising app. I was using Librera for Android, which also handles just about every format and has a lot of settings to play with. But Readest seems like that, plus with a nicer, less clunky look and feel.

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joe 1 point 6 days ago

I host a Grimmory server, and Readest's koreader sync works really well with it.

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communism 2 points 6 days ago

I use Zathura. Not really meant to be an epub reader (ie missing ways to change the font)—afaik it just converts it to a pdf then displays the epub using the pdf engine. But it works fine for my purposes and means I can use my preferred pdf reader for epubs too.

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superbetter 2 points 5 days ago

same here! I prefer the simplicity of zathura, and whatever the default font is set to when I open the file tends to be what I want anyway, so no complaints. ^^

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tomatoely 2 points 6 days ago

It is web based, but I really enjoy using the flow epub reader.

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CleoMenezesJr 2 points 4 days ago

Foliete FTW

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anon_8675309 1 point 5 days ago

Calibreweb

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meurglys 1 point 5 days ago

I use epy from the command line. It's available in the official Void repo, or in the AUR in Arch.

https://github.com/wustho/epy

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fivemahit 1 point 5 days ago

I use baca (because i3) https://github.com/wustho/baca

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TrollAccount69 -1 points 6 days ago

You could look at the screen, but there’s also braille terminal support.

Some people do tts but that’s questionable, even if you don’t recognize that audiobooks aren’t reading, why burn power doing tts when you could just dl the mp3s instead and make it easier on yourself.

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Vendetta9076 2 points 6 days ago

"don't recognize that audiobooks aren't reading"

What a cringe take.

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TrollAccount69 0 points 5 days ago

If you could read youd be very upset by my reply.

E: it’s really cruel to just make a funny one liner response to you. Reading and listening are two wildly different types of cognition. There is no argument against that and I don’t intend to engage with anything you present claiming otherwise. If you want to win an internet argument by having the last word about it, here’s your chance.

For your own sake please incorporate reading, actual looking at the written word and translating it into ideas, into your life especially if you’ve moved away from doing so. The process of reading has been linked in many studies with improved cognition as you age. For your own sake and the sake of the people around you, read. Do not fool yourself into believing that listening or watching is the same as reading. It will only hurt you and people who go by your example.

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Vendetta9076 1 point 5 days ago

Your name is literally troll account 69.

What a loser.

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TrollAccount69 0 points 5 days ago

Please read. Listening to podcasts and audiobooks is no substitute. When you listen you’re thinking in a different way than when you’re reading and it’s important not to lose those cognitive capacities.

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