#kobo books

[abybweisse]

Ch212 (p0), Cover and title pages

Now that I have my own copy from Kobo.

[physalian]

Eternal Night of the Northern Sky is now available on Kobo!

For all you anti-amazoners out there. @mxxnlightwriting convinced me to check it out and the two don't have exclusivity clauses (unless you opt-in to their specific plus/unlimited programs) so, why not? Indie authors gotta maximize our distribution ourselves.

Some print-on-demand companies do have exclusivity clauses and/or don't play well with each other and here is a nice breakdown video of how the bigger ones in the US interact.

[thelattechronicles]

Going from Kindle to Kobo: My Thoughts and how I settled on the Clara BW

I've had my one and only e-reader: the 4th generation Kindle since 2011. That's quite literally over a decade old- 13 years, to be exact.

It's been deemed old enough to justify an upgrade. Not that I had even been needing one, or considering getting a new one; rather, the Kindle had just started glitching on me and freezing this past September. After 13 years, I'd say it's an accomplishment that it took this long for the tech to finally start breaking down on me. Believe me when I say that this Kindle had not been babied by any means whatsoever.

Now, it's been exactly 30 days since I've gone from my Kindle 4th gen 2011 model (thanks Mom and Dad) to the new Kobo Clara BETWEEN. Read on to see what my thoughts are on this upgrade!

I don't think I can go back to the Kindle UX and world, and I truly do see what people are saying about Kobo just being overall better.

For starters, here are the specs between both as a comparison:

(Side note: the 4th gen Kindle is SO old that I had to dig around for a review of it, and found one on The Ebook Reader dot com)

As you can tell from the glaring number of red X circles, the basic Kindle 4th gen does not have as much much going for it compared to my new Kobo Clara BW. But that's okay! Here are some things I LIKED about the Kindle:

The e-ink screen

The physical page turning buttons on the side - I still love the page turners and how I just need to press down on the side. The buttons are very streamlined and a part of the side plastic framing.

The wallpapers when the device is turned off

The battery life (once upon a time, one charge could last me a good 4 months I stg)

The size of the screen (was not willing to go smaller, but was open to go bigger)

Straightforward system and user interface (turn on, find book, read.)

Being able to email epubs and PDFs to the Kindle directly via the Whispernet

Here are some things I DISLIKE about my Kindle today:

Its current extremely short battery life (I don't think a charge can last me two weeks now)

Being locked into the Kindle Amazon storefront and ecosystem - yes, I purchased each and every book on Amazon that I have on my Kindle...

Not being able to make Libby work on the Kindle (as a Canadian reader)

Lack of backlighting options

Anything to do with any sort of typing (I had to physically press the arrow buttons and wait until it landed on the right letter to press enter, then move on to the next letter, rinse repeat. Needless to say, it gets exhausting real quick trying to type out a short word, let alone a title of a book you're trying to find in your Kindle library storage.)

Lack of ad-free options with today's Kindle models (I got lucky with my Kindle 4th gen, where the home screen goes directly to my storage, listing all the books and collection folders I created. I hear this is no longer a thing, and the home page is the Amazon Kindle storefront. Ew.)

So, the Kobo Clara BW does a lot of what I liked about my Kindle - and more! It has quite a lot going for it: a long battery life, multiple backlighting options (reg vs warm lighting), bluetooth (if I wanted to do audiobooks, but I do that on my phone anyway so it's just a bonus for me). The Kobo Clara BW has crisp displays (I've read some manga and comics on it), and the zooming in and text font/size adjustments are super easy to navigate.

I know, I know. No physical page-turning buttons. I still lament the loss of my buttons. I know there are some Kobo models such as the Libra that have the buttons, but I strongly believe that the Kindle 4th gen buttons are superior. I liked that they were a part of the side, rather than a blocky-looking extension, like the buttons on the Libra are. The touch screen was a bit of an interesting thing to navigate in the beginning, but as we use touch-screen phones, it was very easy and quick to get used to it.

Why not the colour option?

Granted, the Kobo Clara colour as well as some other colour alternatives did come out. Why did I not choose the colour option? Yes, colour e-ink and e-readers are pretty to look at, but for someone who uses e-readers purely to read novels and text-heavy documents, it seemed unnecessary for my purposes. In store, I did a side-by-side comparison of the Clara Colour and BW and actually found the lighting to be drastically different at max brightness and warmth. Here's a picture I found online that gives you an idea of what I mean:

As you can see, the Clara BW version (right) has a crisper and whiter background, and the Clara Colour (left) looked a bit orange-red-toned overall.

ABOVE ALL: the Kobo ecosystem has been fantastic for me.

As someone who has been pitifully buying every single e-book on Amazon thus far or loading janky PDFs with too-small-text, the Kobo Clara BW is a breath of fresh air. It was very easy to connect my Libby account in the Settings. I now have an automatic delivery of all my ebook loans to my Kobo (!!!!) (A dream come true for Canadian e-readers!). I also have Calibre downloaded on my laptop and with it, can customize my Kobo to no end. You can see that I've gone ahead and gave my Kobo some wallpapers, which include my favourite The New Yorker covers. I'm happy with how much I can do with my Kobo. The Pocket app feature also came as a pleasant surprise! It's nice being able to read articles during work lunches and save any interesting articles on my computer, and those articles get automatically downloaded to my Kobo.

In true The Latte Chronicles fashion, if I were to give my Kobo Clara BW a rating:

★★★★★

If you're like me as a reader and your needs are similar to mine (and maybe your old Kindle is dying on you) I encourage you to make the jump to Kobo! I haven't regretted my Kobo Clara BW purchase at all. In fact, I've already finished 13 books since I booted up my Clara.

J

[pandoramedusa]

We’re back with my chaotic interests of the week. Reading books my friend recommended, book recommendations by @lit_laugh_love on instagram and more notes about everything.

As you can see, I can not stick to an aesthetic for my notes. But whatever.

[arctic-hands]

Does anyone I trust know where i can get a kobo books apk I converted the Amazon fire to android but the android it's running won't let me download it from the Google play store

[megaeralwrites]

The Shabti is very on sale right now on Kobo. A whole 75% off from now through 9/1!

[tricksnovelnook]

I received my graduation gift from my dad.

Now I'm part of the e-reader club! Wooh!

[storieschats]

Are all Christmas themed books bad? Maybe not🎄

I didn’t expect to be as charmed by Chloe Liese’s The Mistletoe Motive as I was, but here we are. On paper, it had everything that could have gone wrong: a short novella and a Christmas theme? Come on! But to my surprise, it turned out to be a delightful read.

The story follows two rivals working at a struggling bookstore who make a bet: whoever sells more books by the store’s closing date in December wins, while the loser resigns to save the store money. It’s a fun and quirky premise, and despite the novella format, which often lends itself to insta-love (not my favorite trope), this story leaned more into slow-burn yearning—and I loved it.

The characters were sweet and genuinely likable, and even in such a short span, I found myself caring about them. While the enemies-to-lovers trope was at play, it leaned more towards rivals-with-misunderstandings (as always with modern-day romances), so it didn’t give me an ick. Overall, this is a cozy, feel-good romance brimming with Christmas vibes and bookish charm (books about books, my kryptonite). If you’re looking for a Christmas rom-com to curl up with this holiday season, I’d definitely recommend it!

[falling4fall-xoxo]

Changed my kobo inserts up and started Lightlark!!

[pretensesoup]

My books are on sale on Kobo for the month of February.

Good time to try them out if you're curious and parsimonious. They're funny, sweet, deeply philosophical books about some guys in the 1960s doing magic, fighting demons, and occasionally making out (with each other).

[icoreswaw]

A breve uscirà il kobo a colori, quale occasione migliore per godere delle illustrazioni di iCORE nelle loro molteplici cromie? 🌈

[abybweisse]

Ch209 (p1), Cover and title page

Yeah, there's a lot of deception going on....

"A sinister smile that spells trouble" oddly refers to both of them here. "Smile" (our earl) isn't smiling, but that was the name he was given, but "Black" is smiling, and we know his sinister nature.

More to come soon, but I'm still reading.

[stfuattclagg]

I want a book where the couple are in a FWB relationship. The MMC says “we are not a couple. We can still see other people.” Then gets pissed and possessive when the MFC says the same thing.

[thelattechronicles]

The next 5 in my reading queue...

CURRENTLY READING: "The Beauty Molecule" by Nicholas Perricone, M.D. *

"Any Trope But You" by Victoria Lavine *

"People We Meet on Vacation" by Emily Henry

"Our Infiinite Fates" by Laura Steven *

"Slow Living" by Stephanie O'Dea *

* Starred books are ARCs— I've had the blessed fortune of acquiring quite a few Advanced Reader Copies of books coming out in 2025! My deepest thanks to the publishers for sharing these with me, and stay tuned for my thoughts on these!!

J

[faerynnbooks]

Sundered Moon's launch has been an incredibly exciting time for me, holy shit. Of course, I am not done with just one book in this series and this seems like a good time to announce Shattered Star! The galaxy has irrevocably shifted, the crew of the Banféinní saw to that. Deep in the heart of Blackstar, a warlord–Gilgamesh–has risen to power. Her might is uncontested; her loyal bodyguard, Enkidu, is her greatest weapon. Powers align to crush them lest their meteoric rise threaten the system-state itself. Eden has been a time of bliss for three new wives, away from battle, from their crusade. Yet the fight continues, and their honeymoon must come to an end. They have a new target, and new potential allies. The only problem? The destruction of the Fomorian Armory has made them the most wanted criminals in the galaxy. Mechanized Hearts continues in this neo-noir cyberpunk thriller! You can pre-order Shattered Star for your kindle and other eReaders. (such as Nook or Kobo) Also make sure to get your copy of Sundered Moon on kindle, in print, from itch or on other eReaders.

Happy reading!

[kitty-is-writing]

✨ Publishing Update ✨

My new series, Tales of the Northern Kingdoms, has passed all the verification checks and stuff to be available on Kindle and Google Play Books! The Kobo links are still good as well, so do take a look if you're interested 😊

All the relevant links are on my store page here

https://www.kittylewisfantasy.net/store

I'm also thinking of doing an ebook giveaway at some point. Let me know if you'd be interested in something like that!