Koreader

I took a leap and did something I've been very reserved about for a while now. I've installed Koreader on my Kobo. For those that don't know, it's an alternate reading application for e-readers like the Kindle, Kobo, or other e-ink devices. It gets installed as an application on the device, then you open it and it's like opening a whole new operating system.

The default "home screen" is a file browser, which was pretty lackluster if I'm being honest. I was whelmed, but I continued exploring. The actual reader part is where it really shines! There are a ton of options for customizing how books are displayed. All sorts of font choices, layout designs, orientations, dictionaries, and more. It's got so much more than the standard Kobo reader!

There's also a lot of additional features, like wireless syncing with Calibre. Calibre is like iTunes but for eBooks. It can also be a web service for libraries, which is what's helpful here. Koreader didn't grab all of my books the way that I was expecting it to. After some digging, it seems you have to set Koreader up with its own library. So I made a new folder, figured out how to connect it wirelessly with Calibre, and beamed over my books collection. Thankfully, I backed up all of my purchased eBooks into Calibre a while ago, just for retention and accessibility. That paid off here, since I was able to send my full library over the air in seconds.

Next comes one of the biggest headaches. The "Homescreen" if you will, or home directory as it's more aptly described. It's a simple file browser, you pick a folder and declare that "home," and it lists everything in that folder in alphabetical order. Organizing books this way is a nightmare and navigating it was a pain, especially after being spoiled by the UIs for Kindle and Kobo. After some digging, I found out that patches were a thing, and there was one to automatically sort by series. Awesome! A lot of my books are already grouped into series. I know because I did most of it by hand through Calibre when I backed up my books. While I was learning how to install patches, I got distracted by plugins, which are a different thing. Found a plugin for a "bookshelf" which is much more similar to the homescreens from Kobo/Kindle. It's now set as the default homescreen, and it makes everything look so much better and is now much easier to navigate my books!

I still need to tinker around with fonts and other plugins/patches to see what more I can do. I also need to go through and mark all of my finished books as so. Unfortunately, this means my annotations are gone (not permanently). I can still switch back to the default Kobo interface at anytime through a reboot, so they're not gone forever. Now I have the opportunity to make a whole new set of annotations, with all new highlighter colors!

If anyone has any recommendations for plugins, patches, or other things to try out with Koreader or improving my e-reading experience, please feel free to share!