A Bit of Electronic Advice

[ecosophia]

These days an enormous amount of old occult literature is available in PDF format. For ecological reasons, I'd prefer not to print out everything on paper, and it gets old having to sit at my computer desk rather than lounging on the couch, so I'm considering picking up some kind of electronic e-reader for the purpose. The difficulty, of course, is that I'm about twenty years out of date when it comes to technology and I have no idea what's available. 

What I'm looking for is a simple device that will allow me to read PDFs. I don't want it to be connected to the internet if I can avoid that, and I certainly don't want it to be dependent on one of the big predatory internet firms; I can get all the books I want from archive.org and iapsop.com, and I'm not averse from using USB drives to get them to my e-reader. 

Do such devices exist? Have you used one? Would you recommend it? Inquiring Druids want to know. 

(If I can get it used, that would be a plus -- I prefer to get all my technology that way, to keep things out of the e-waste stream..)

Comments

[deng]

I hate that my kindle paperwhite opens to a 'home page' of 'recommended' books that is nothing more than an add page.

I hate that it makes money for a evil rich old bald guy who flys metal dongs into space.

I hate that it is an amazon product.

I hate that amazon knows what I'm reading and when I'm reading it.

I hate that it stirs up so much hate in me.

I hate that it is the best e reader on the market.

I hate that it is so easy to send PDF files to my kindle account and Bezos will convert them to kindle format for me.

[(Anonymous)]

I feel almost the same way.

You don't have to connect to the wifi - you can attach Kindle to a PC/Mac and drag and drop files in it. And yes it can read pdf native - no need for conversion.

To build up on JMG's point, I am amazed how many great books you can find online. Plus, I can find originals in latin, french etc and Kindle have relatively good dictionaries for a lot of languages (there are many dictionaries created by people even for minor languages).

Why not buy new an older generation Kindle? They were available Amazon and they are cheap.

I would not buy it used unless you are ok with reading always connected to an outlet - the batteries don't last that long (similar to a laptop)

[(Anonymous)]

In addition, it is known among the EHS community that it is better to use a laptop on battery than plugged in, which causes the device to emit harmful EMFs. I'm pretty sure this is true of other gadgets as well (probably due to the need to convert the electricity from AC to DC).