During a hike, I crushed the screen of my Kobo Aura HD, a device which I've used and loved for many years. It's never been connected to the Internet, and it's never given me any grief about it.<p>I want a new device but I'm afraid to simply buy a device in 2024 and expect it to work without access to the Internet.<p>I don't want, not even once, to have to connect the device to the Internet.<p>Can anyone recommend an ebook reader that will work without ever being put online ?<p>It must have e-ink screen and be suitable primarily for reading books.
Get any Kobo and immediately install koreader:<p><a href="http://koreader.rocks/" rel="nofollow">http://koreader.rocks/</a>
I'm the same as you wrt expecting my e-reader to work offline, and got a Pocketbook Verse (~$115 on Amazon in the US) that I've been happy with. It supports Wifi but I've never needed to connect it to the Internet and it works totally fine. No accounts, and has an SD card slot so you can just dump all your books on a microsd, slot it in, and the reader will automatically index them and make them available in the default reader app. The web browser and "store" (not sure if it's an app store or a book store - never tried to use it) don't work offline, obviously.<p>I was about to recommend it to you with no shortcomings, but I just turned it on to check the model, and it greeted me with a popup letting me know that "Pocketbook works better on WiFi! Connect to WiFi to make the most of your device!". I've never seen that popup before in the months I've been using this thing, it was easily dismissable, and everything that you'd expect to work still works fine offline, but that did just sour me on its offline story a little.
You can bypass Kobo registration by connecting it to a PC over USB and modifying the SQLite database on it.<p>Then you can use calibre to transfer ebooks to it.
I use kindle. Have wifi turned off, and just load the books over usb using calibre. When you buy the kindle books off of amazon, you can download them to your computer to then put them on the device, theres some DRM in there so only your devices will be able to read them.<p>You still need to register the kindle with your account, but after that, it can be an offline device
I am using Tolino readers completely offline. They show up as mass storage device, and cloud/shop/library connectivity is completely optional. I do connect them to wifi periodically for software updates, but that doesn't require any registration either.
I’m curious - what is the motivation for the “offline only” requirement? Where are the boundaries of what’s negotiable and what’s not?
For example, is it ok if it can connect to the internet but doesn’t? Or is the existence of a TCP/IP stack or a wifi chip a dealbreaker? How about a 1 time software update on first boot? etc
I have a Kobo Libre 2 which I use purely offline. To transfer files, I drag and drop via a USB cable. It's a comfortable size, has good typeface options, and has two physical buttons for turning the pages. It's a pretty simple setup that I would recommend.
Kindle Scribe works offline (i have the wifi turned off all the time). I think you can upload books and the like offline as well using an App (i usually send books over email, though)
i use FBReader on my phone. I realized that I only find time to read suddenly, and I never plan, so my e-reader would lie idle, and my phone is always with me.