I love to read for pleasure and when I need to learn something. Over a year ago I bought a Kobo Clara HD E-Reader and I love it. I would highly recommend you buy one if you like to read fiction and text based books.
Previously I used my iPad to read digital books but found it to be bulky and heavy to carry around. I even designed and sewed a few of my own handbags just so it would fit my iPad. But they were quite big and cumbersome to carry around. And don’t mention reading in bed then falling asleep and the iPad whacking me on the head. That happened quite a few times
These are my 6 reasons why I love my Kobo E-Reader, and you will too.
1. Size
The Kobo is light and fits nicely in my hand. I also bought the Kobo Clara HD Sleep Cover to protect the screen as I’m prone to dropping things, and to enable it to stand up on the table so I can read while I’m eating breakfast or lunch.
The Kobo with it’s cover on weighs 266g and measures 165mm x 113mm x 17mm. Or 9.3oz and 6.5″ x 5.25″ x 2/3″. It slips nicely into the outer pocket of my much smaller Johanna Crossbody Bag without any noticeable additional weight.
2. Battery Life
The battery life on the Kobo is fantastic. I read about 30 hours a month on my Kobo and I recharge every 4-6 weeks. The recharge time is quick too at about two hours.
As a side note, Kobo email you every month “Your Kobo Reading Life” with the number of hours read and pages flipped. That may be useful to some of you.
3. Read Library Books
The reason I chose a Kobo over an Amazon Kindle is that The South Australian Library offers ebooks through Libby and OverDrive apps that are only accessible on a Kobo e-reader.
When I first got my Kobo I was surprised that I couldn’t borrow any book in the library collection that I wanted because they only had a certain number of copies. I didn’t expect this, as it was a digital book I thought there wouldn’t be any limits. But you can put a hold on any book and when it’s available it sends you an email and you have to go to the Overdrive or Libby website and borrow it within a certain time period. I’ve found that they do become available to borrow much quicker than printed books.
Ebooks from the library also have a maximum borrowing time of 21 days. This took me a bit to adjust to as I am a slowish reader, and I was used to 28 days for printed books from the library. You can always request to borrow the book again a few days before it expires if no one else has it on hold. If it does have a hold, then you have to put a hold on it, and wait until it’s your turn again.
4. Increase Font Size
My eyesight has started to get worse over the last few years and reading the fine print on medicine labels, and some books has been getting harder and harder. I did eventually bite the bullet and get some glasses but I love the fact that I can increase the size of the font on the Kobo to a comfortable level.
Each ebook comes with it’s own settings for font type, font size and spacing, as provided by the publisher. So a new book usually requires an adjustment to these settings, which is fairly easy to do.
5. Reading at Night
The Kobo uses ComfortLight PRO technology that changes the screen colour depending on the time of day. Set your bedtime in the settings and the Kobo adjusts the colour temperature to be more orange, and less blue as it gets closer bedtime. Cutting out those blue lights helps you get to sleep.
There is also a brightness level setting that can be changed. At night I usually have it set to around 6%, but during the day I sometimes need to increase it for more contrast.
The biggest advantage though is that I can read at anytime of night in bed without disturbing my husband, which is a win on those sleepless nights.
6. Highlight and Export Text
This is my most loved feature – being able to highlight text and later export it to my computer. This is especially useful when I’m learning about something new and I want to remember it for later.
As I’m reading I drag my finger over a passage to select it and hey-presto it’s saved. Those highlights can be viewed in one long list on the Kobo, or what I prefer to do, export them to a .txt file on the Kobo, connect the Kobo to my computer and copy it across to the computer. I then copy the contents of the .txt file to a new note in Evernote where I clean it up, adding dot points, removing any words that were highlighted by accident, etc. This can then be referenced later.
Kobo for the whole family
Seeing how much I loved my Kobo it wasn’t long before my husband bought one and then we bought one for our son. We all enjoy reading and being able to keep our Kobo’s close by whenever we want is so convenient. It hasn’t stopped us from reading paper books, especially those with lots of images, but those are in the minority these days.
To see what books I’ve read you can check out my list of books on GoodReads.
Have you made the switch to an E-Reader yet?
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