About e-readers

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I read a lot on my tablet. I also have a Kindle, but the tablet is always with me, and carrying two devices makes no sense at all. So, over time, the tablet became my main tool for reading (in addition to its other important functions). I mostly read books in PDF (some books require layout preservation) or, for the most part, in EPUB/FB2. These are two formats that are quite similar in terms of their philosophy.

I’ve tried a ton of different reading apps, and I’ve purchased at least five in addition to the native iBooks. But I still haven’t found the perfect option for myself. That’s why I periodically switch between different apps.

The closest to ideal for me is KyBook. In fact, I liked the first version more than the current KyBook 2. The new version, in my opinion, is overloaded, which affects basic functionality, requiring too many extra steps. However, the first version had occasional rendering glitches, and now the author is no longer developing it. Nevertheless, it still has its undeniable advantages:

  1. It’s almost universal: it supports all the formats I need—PDF, EPUB, and FB2.
  2. It displays pages when viewing the table of contents (which helps me gauge the length of chapters).
  3. It can show footnotes on the same page, meaning the footnote text pops up above the main text instead of redirecting to the end of the book, as most readers do. This is incredibly convenient because you don’t lose your place and can see the context immediately. However, it seems to only work for FB2.
  4. It natively supports an English-Russian dictionary (which is sometimes very useful), with translations popping up in the same way above the text. And it works in all three formats.
  5. Although a bit clunky, it keeps a history of the last few books (which is handy since I often read several books in parallel).
  6. It allows you to create a folder structure for better organization of your library (though I have to admit, the new version makes this very inconvenient. The old version did it better because the new one introduced the concepts of “Books” and “Files.” Folders only work for files, while some other functions only work for books. It’s incredibly frustrating).
  7. It displays the current progress, the number of pages in the book, and the remaining pages in the chapter. Although it only shows progress as a percentage on the “recently read” tab, it’s not a big deal since I don’t need that feature often.
  8. It allows for scrolling through PDFs (not just page flipping) and provides zooming options. Plus, it can convert PDFs to sepia.

There are other features, but they’re less essential.

Unfortunately, the program has its downsides. Rendering glitches occur from time to time, where all the paragraphs merge together, including the headings. Sadly, I haven’t been able to fix this. And this leads to the second downside: the developer, who used to be very responsive, has recently been slower to reply to user questions, often redirecting people to the FAQ, which, by the way, is very superficial and doesn’t answer more complex questions. Plus, it often seems like the developer takes many questions personally, which makes for an overall unpleasant experience. I can understand that on a human level sometimes, but after all, it’s the customers and buyers asking.

The second contender is Marvin. An excellent reader. I bought both the second and third versions (both had free versions, but there are also premium ones). When compared to KyBook, here are the differences:

  1. It only supports EPUB.
  2. It doesn’t display page numbers in the table of contents (or I couldn’t find this feature).
  3. It supports either system dictionaries, transferring to Lingvo (which requires purchasing the dictionaries separately), or using a web lookup. However, this is still inconvenient since it can’t display an English-Russian translation directly above the text, and jumping to another app is less comfortable (the web option isn’t ideal either: it’s inconvenient and requires internet, which isn’t always available).
  4. It can’t show in-text footnotes. But to be fair, I haven’t seen any other reader, including foreign ones, that does this either.

And then there’s the third option: the native iBooks. In terms of features, it’s the most limited. It displays PDFs only in the original color scheme, with no scrolling (just page-by-page flipping). Most of KyBook’s advantages for EPUB are also missing.

There are other apps, but they’re also quite limited or outdated. So, I mostly stick with KyBook, but when its minor flaws or the interface issues in the new version become too annoying, I switch to Marvin or iBooks.

What do you use for reading? What features are essential to you when reading?

Darren Todd “Pirate Nation”

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This book isn’t entirely about digital piracy. It delves into many aspects of copyright law as a whole, as well as its application in the modern world. So-called “digital piracy” is just one facet of the topic. The author attempts to look at the issues from various perspectives, though it’s clear that they have less affection for copyright lobbyists, as they highlight how outdated this law has become and how it largely benefits corporations more than creators and authors themselves.

I would recommend this book to anyone looking to deepen their understanding of what lies behind modern concepts in this field—how much “pirates” are truly pirates, what drives both sides, etc. This knowledge will help you better adapt to the evolving world instead of holding onto outdated notions.

My rating: 4/5

Anna Starobinets “Look at Him”

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A very poignant, very honest… and very heavy book. Especially for those whose family has experienced something similar—the loss of an unborn child. At the same time, it’s a very necessary book. Necessary for everyone to understand the nightmare it is and how it continues to be perpetuated by modern medicine in the post-Soviet space. And especially necessary for those who have gone through it. We, as husbands (and sometimes as parents), can never truly understand a mother who has lost a child, but such a heartfelt story about this pain can help us come closer to our families and cope with the loss together. Not the loss of a “fetus,” as the doctors call it, but our child. Who will always remain our child.

My rating: 5/5

Elle Luna “The Crossroads of Should and Must. Find and Follow Your Passion”

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A very strange book. Judging by the ratings, most readers consider it almost a revelation, although, in truth, its entire message can be summed up in one phrase: “Find what interests you and do it without fear.” And that’s it. At times, the author seems more interested in drawing illustrations and quoting famous people than in trying to build something coherent.

My rating: 1/5

Lawrence Durrell “Bitter Lemons of Cyprus”

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You can’t always trust book blurbs. The book is essentially the author’s account of a couple of years spent in Cyprus in 1953-54. These were likely the last years when the island could still be called both unified and peaceful. At first, you can clearly sense the author’s condescending attitude toward the locals, even though he calls them his friends. Gradually, this tone fades, giving way to reflections on the difficult political situation on the island, which led to tragic and bloody consequences. Had the British made the right and, most importantly, timely decisions back then, we might not have had the bloody history and forty years of division and intercommunal hatred that still exist on the island today. Sadly, history doesn’t deal with hypotheticals.

As for the writing itself, the book is uneven, sometimes slipping into dull recollections of meetings with friends whose names mean nothing to most readers, then shifting to colorful descriptions of the local lifestyle or detailed analyses of the events of those years.

Bruce Tulgan “It’s Okay to Be the Boss: The Step-by-Step Guide to Becoming the Manager Your Employees Need”

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The book doesn’t provide any groundbreaking insights into management, and, in my opinion, it’s more focused on the experience of managing lower-level employees (at least, most of the examples are about that). If you’re expecting to find a real plan for how to suddenly become a great manager, it’s not here. The advice is quite general and vague. However, the book is still very useful as a kind of checklist, allowing you to periodically self-assess and ask yourself, “Am I doing this or that?”

Book: Jeff Grubb “Liberty’s Crusade”

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Blizzard has given me countless hours of enjoyment through its games. WarCraft and StarCraft were captivating not only because of their engaging gameplay but also due to the well-thought-out worlds behind them. The creators went beyond the typical “good vs. bad” battle. Even the seemingly evil orcs had their own goals and code of honor. Blizzard meticulously crafted the lore, and the later novelizations of these games were written under the company’s close supervision. Incidentally, their official website explicitly states that writing fan fiction about these game worlds is strictly prohibited.

When I learned about the release of books based on these beloved worlds, I was eager to buy and read them. However, none of these books had ever been published in Russian up to that point. So, without hesitation, I bought the original English versions of the novels. I must admit, I had little experience reading fiction in English before that.

Jeff Grubb’s novel Liberty’s Crusade is the first of three books set in the StarCraft universe to be published in print. The main character, reporter Michael Liberty, is not someone players would be familiar with from the game. By a twist of fate, he finds himself on the front lines of the war between humans and the mysterious Protoss and Zerg. To survive, he has no choice but to take up arms.

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Book: Nick Perumov “The Empire Above All”

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I read the first novel of Nick Perumov’s The Empire Above All dilogy as soon as it was released, but had to wait for the second part. By the time it came out, I could barely remember the plot of the first book. So, I decided to reread the entire dilogy, starting from the beginning.

The events of the dilogy take place in a future roughly two centuries behind our current time. However, the people of that time are almost no different from us. The differences lie not in the people, but in their place of residence—various planets. Even in terms of technology, civilization hasn’t progressed much.

In this world, the largest power is the Empire. It controls nearly all human-inhabited planets, though there are always those who are discontented. The main character of the book, Ruslan Fateev, is Russian, hailing from the Russian planet New Crimea. The inhabitants of this planet fiercely hate the Empire and long for independence, and with that goal in mind, Ruslan joins the Imperial assault forces—to undermine the enemy from within. Naturally, everyone around him, including his beloved, considers him a traitor.

For reasons unexplained, the Empire also calls itself the Fourth Reich, with its army bearing the insignia and unit names of the infamous Third Reich. It’s hard not to hate them for that.

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