I have always been a big reader. For a long time, that meant having to buy or borrow the books I was interested in, always carrying one or two books with me, then ending up with shelves of books that have been of interest to me once but would now be best donated away.

This led to an interest in ebooks.

I see several key advantages to ebooks.

First and foremost, ebooks are portable. I can carry a library with me, switching books as I finish them. This has longer-term implications: nowadays, I read ebooks when possible, reserving my shelves for editions I love of books I love.

Furthermore, ebooks are often free or inexpensive¹. Even when they cost as much as a paper book, I am saving on shipping costs, which can be significant, especially when you read books in various languages.

Finally, ebooks are more accessible. You are able to choose your font of choice², font size, and color scheme for optimal reading conditions³. This is a luxury at this point in my life, but I fully expect it to become a necessity as I age.

I have long loved ebook readers. Designed with a single purpose in mind, they tend to do an acceptable job of it, and their use of e-ink technology means that they have a battery life measured in weeks while not straining the eyes more than a normal book.

However, when my ebook reader died of old age and I had to replace it, I turned toward my phone. While ebook readers made a lot of sense 10 years ago, modern phones have a large screen and are always in our pocket, meaning that I can read during any downtime⁴ without having to carry an additional device. Plus, while the software and user interface on virtually all ebook readers prove to still be wanting, phone applications tend to follow higher standards.

I have no personal experience with Apple applications (I do know that there are options), but on Android, I am very happy with ReadEra. It is free, does a fine job dealing with epubs (this is admittedly a low bar as epubs are a fairly convenient format), gives me all the display options I want (detailed in the following section), and is surprisingly good at dealing with pdfs (which are sometimes the only format available, especially when reading academic works).

Speaking of software, I recommend that you pick up Calibre. It will let you read ebooks on your computer (which can be useful to take a cursory look before sending them to your phone or ebook reader), can be used to convert between ebook formats, and even lets you search for places to buy the ebook you are looking for.

Any modern ebook reading application will be able to adjust its display settings to your preferences⁵. Your goal should be to make reading as comfortable and effortless as possible.

On a screen, such as a phone, I recommend using a light-on-dark color scheme (I like very light grey text on a very dark grey background). It helps reduce eye strain (all white on a screen is light), reduce battery usage on some devices, and it leads to better perceived contrast under some conditions.

I also recommend increasing font size; defaults tend to be too small. I usually increase the text size until it feels too large then take a step back from that point.

I have no strong personal preference as to font type⁶, but there is research hinting at sans-serif fonts being better if you have trouble reading. However, those are minor differences dwarfed by other factors like font size.

Most people (and a lot of authors) default to pdf as their format of choice to share text. This stems from a good intention; everyone can open a pdf and it will look identical on all devices, but it has dire consequences as far as ebook reading is concerned. The pdf format is strictly read-only and there is very little that your reader can do to improve your reading experience on a screen significantly smaller than a piece of printing paper.

On the other side of the spectrum, epub is a great default for ebooks. Internally, epubs are made of compressed htmls. This means that the reader can easily tweak their appearance, as you would style a website, to suit your preferences while preserving the text.

You might also encounter other formats such as mobi or azw3 (two formats developed by Amazon for their ebook offerings). Overall I would avoid them unless your application or device of choice has a special affinity for them. Exotic formats tend to not age well (once everyone stops using them, there is very little reason for new applications to support them) and proprietary formats put you at the whim of their owner.

You will also sometimes find books published online as a website. In theory, you should be able to convert those into epubs easily (after all, they are already in an html format), but in practice obtaining an acceptable result might be non-trivial. I recommend reading those directly in your browser (potentially with a reader mode extension for increased comfort).

Piracy is not the only way to find free ebooks.

A number of older books, as well as older translations, are added to the public domain every year. This is a great option to read classics. You will find them in such places as Standard Ebooks (this is the gold standard, their ebooks are superior to the ones offered by most editors), Project Gutenberg (their ebooks tend to be on the rougher side, but if a book is in the public domain then they likely carry it), Internet Archive (they are more pdf focussed but can be the only option for some rarer texts), or Global Grey ebooks (I must admit that, despite good feedback, I have yet to try their offerings).

You will also find that a large number of (often small, independent, or militant) authors have free copies of their books available on their websites (see for example qntm’s books and Charles Stross’s Accelerando amongst others).

Nowadays, most editors sell ebook versions of their recent titles (see for example Tor Books, which, while not perfect, goes the extra mile and publishes DRM-free ebooks, as do some authors) that are priced somewhat cheaper than a new paperback copy.

Otherwise, you will find ebooks for sale on various websites such as bookshop.org, ebooks.com and, obviously, Amazon⁷. I recommend installing the aforementioned Calibre and looking into their integrated Get Books option, which lets you browse various providers.

Finally, and at a significantly lower price (if not free), most public libraries will let you access a vast collection of ebooks (often via Libby). I would recommend consulting your public library’s website or asking them about it⁸.

I highly recommend ebooks as a way to reduce bulk and increase reading comfort. Obviously, reading ebooks does not mean letting go of paper. I do buy paper editions of books I love, and have already read on my phone. Buying a physical edition is a way to further support authors⁹ and they are a lot easier to lend to friends.

Reading an ebook feels weird the first time, but you quickly get used to it: give it a try!