My deep dive into reading only started after I got an ereader. My train commute gives me a solid 30 minutes without internet or distractions. I have tried podcasts, reading on my phone, bringing a physical book, but I never stuck with it. When I saw the Kobo clara came in Color e-ink and a back light, I was intrigued enough to try it out.

I have been using the Kobo for about 6 months now, and I thoroughly enjoy it. Syncing books from a computer is as easy as dragging and dropping to the file system on the device. But you can do better with Calibre. ( Another article on that later). The screen can get get very bright, which I find necessary for reading in dim shadows. The font is legible and can fit years of books.

The battery life is weeks long, and I find I plug it in to sync books at a similar rate as when I need to charge it.

The color screen, while awesome looking, is a bit of a gimmick. I love seeing the cover art of my books on the lock screen. The screen is a bit small for comics. I have tried reading a few, but I find myself switching to a normal text book after a few minutes because it is much more enjoyable.

Color e-ink

The Pocket integration works great, even though Pocket itself is limited. The Kobo pulls the latest content on WiFi, then I can read on the train. For some reason the Pocket text is always smaller than the book text, and I have to change the font settings. A minor annoyance is that the articles images do not always load so some visual cues from articles are missed. Not sure if that’s a Kobo issue or a Pocket issue.

An aside: What I really want is a way to curate RSS feeds, then push the best articles to Pocket for reading on the train. I take the manual step of looking through my RSS feeds and then hit the “Share to Pocket” button. I would love to have it automated, but that is a problem with the “Pocket” service, not the Kobo.

I went to my local library to get a library card and try the Overdrive integration. I was able to check out a book, after waiting for it to be “returned” to the virtual shelf.

I also tried out the NickelMenu modification which lets the user add new menu options. The best one opens an FTP server so I can transfer reading material over WiFi.

My NickelMenu config:

# Experimental
experimental:menu_main_15505_label:Extras

# Main Menu
menu_item :main    :Pocket              :nickel_open: library: pocket
menu_item :main    :Browser :nickel_browser :modal
#menu_item :main    :Dropbox :nickel_open :library :dropbox
menu_item :main    :IP Address         :cmd_output         :500:/sbin/ifconfig | /usr/bin/awk '/inet addr/{print substr($2,6)}'
menu_item :main    :FTP                :cmd_spawn          :quiet:/usr/bin/pkill -f "^/usr/bin/tcpsvd -E 0.0.0.0 1021" || true && exec /usr/bin/tcpsvd -E 0.0.0.0 1021 /usr/sbin/ftpd -w -t 30 /mnt/onboard
    chain_success                        :dbg_toast          :Started FTP server for KOBOeReader partition on port 1021.

# Orientation flipped broken
#menu_item :main    :Orientation :nickel_orientation :swap
menu_item :main    :Sudoku :nickel_extras :sudoku
menu_item :main    :Solitaire :nickel_extras :solitaire
menu_item :main    :Word Scramble :nickel_extras :word_scramble
menu_item :main    :Unblock It    :nickel_extras :unblock_it

# Library
menu_item :library :Import books       :nickel_misc        :rescan_books_full

# Selection
menu_item :selection_search :Search DuckDuckGo :nickel_browser :modal:https://duckduckgo.com/?q={1|S|%}

# Reader
menu_item :reader    :Dark Mode :nickel_setting :toggle:dark_mode

Overall I am very happy with the Kobo clara. I may post more about the Kobo if it gets any updates. I am also looking forward to posting some reviews of sci-fi series I have read on the Kobo. Stay tuned!

-E