askchapo

Typically there is a basic browser, it would not be the preferred way to read things.

They can do pdf but it’s not ideal. PDF is a specific page size, it is better if the text is rendered by the device itself. EPUB is a pretty common format for books (just not on kindle), but there are other formats including plain text. A site like Standard Ebooks has really nice, free content. Lots of libraries have ebooks too.

E-readers are much better for reading. The battery lasts forever because it is not keeping a display “on” most of the time. On a good one the text is nearly indistinguishable from text on a printed page - but with resizable and changeable fonts. The writing is actually on a physical medium that is repositioned with an electric charge, it’s probably not like any other screen you’re used to.

E-readers are great for a mid-point between phones/laptops and printed word but it comes with caveats:

• Some devices are walled gardens, avoid those where possible (jailbreaking is possible depending on the device)

• Some devices don't sync well across platforms/other devices

• Text editing (e.g. copy-paste, highlighting, annotation) is not necessarily easy or as feature rich as it should be by this stage

• They work well with epubs and similar formats (e.g. mobi) but they don't handle PDFs and comic book formats well, if at all

If you want an experience that is very book-like, ereaders are pretty great especially if you are aware of their limitations and you're okay with that.

I'm not sure about reading websites on an ereader but I'm sure that it's possible with certain services like Pocket or something similar. You would be able to convert websites to an epub format but I'm not sure if there's a simple, user-friendly means to do this or if it would take a lot of fiddling around to achieve.

It's a real pain converting PDFs to epub format, although I can be lured into the multiple hour-long process of doing this for a PDF with words of encouragement, especially if the book is of particular importance to a broader purpose.

If you want to get better text editing and annotation options then go for a tablet or laptop. Same goes for reading PDFs and comic books.

I'd recommend LibGen and Anna's Archive for pirating ebooks. I'm also pretty handy at tracking down pirated books that aren't readily available on the mainstream piracy websites like LG/AA and similar sites so if there's a book that you are trying to get your hands on but you haven't had any luck then let me know the full title(s) and author(s) and I can go digging in the dark corners of the internet. I can also rip from the internet archive but the majority of their books are in PDF format so it's probably not as useful to you, although they do have a lot of rare books that are otherwise unavailable.

Epub or similar formats like mobi or azw3 are the way to go, most PDFs are laid out for A4 or 8.5"×11" paper and the text will look very small. I've gotten most of my ebooks from zlibrary, soulseek is another place that's worth looking. Converting PDFs to epub is possible if the PDF has text that can be parsed by the computer, but the formatting will likely get fucked up to some degree. If the PDF is purely image-based than it can't be done.

For online articles, I would maybe look into the Firefox Pocket integration that Kobo ereaders come with, you can send articles from your phone or PC to your ereader over the internet. I have a Kobo but haven't tried this yet because I keep mine offline. Most ereaders come with a basic browser but I wouldn't recommend it for practical use because of the low refresh rate and slow processor.

I have had both a Kobo and Pocketbook. You can convert anything to .epub with Calibre, and websites you can easily convert and send articles to read with Readeck automatically.

depends on your reader, most support multiple formats. They are usually closer to the experience of reading paper so it may help you.

libgen has most books for free: libgen.is

I got a Boox, and it's been a godsend. I just sync it with my calibre library and it works like a charm. Calibre is also very useful when it comes to converting ebooks from one format to another, and to keep track of your books.