/reader

The problem I’ve begun to have with the devices is the size. Six inches is just not large enough. Sure, it makes for a great device that will fit in a grown man’s pocket, but when I find myself lying in bed at night reading, I feel like I’m tapping the screen every few seconds. This is partially because I’ve increased the size of the font as my ever-aging eyes begin to fail me.

About two years ago, I began opening my .epubs in Apple Books on my iPad and found the experience to be wonderful. I love the font choices, the spacing, the syncing between devices, and of course, the size of the screen. Now, I read my books primarily on my iPad, while on occasion booting up my Kobo or flipping through a physical book.

The only real complaint I have with my iPad (besides not being e-ink) is the size is MAYBE too big. I find myself slightly frustrated as I roll back and forth, flipping through The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy and I think to myself, there has to be a better option. Would a lighter e-ink reader be better? Or maybe something in between the Kobo and the iPad. You know, true first world problems.

Of course, e-ink readers are still pricey and the larger you go, the pricier it gets. I just don’t have the money to make that sort of upgrade right now, and I’m still not sure a ten inch is the right way to go. I’d love to try an iPad Mini, but again, the price is a deterrent, even more so when I already own an iPad that I love.

A few days ago, Woot had some refurbished Kindles on sale for cheap, and one of those was a 2022 model Kindle Fire 8. I never owned an eight-inch tablet before, and while a Kindle tablet is probably the last tablet I would normally choose, I couldn’t pass up the dirt-cheap price for something to tinker with. Ultimately, this $35 investment was to help me figure out if an eight-inch tablet is best to read on. I figured if I enjoyed it, maybe down the road I could save up for an iPad Mini or purchase a cheap eight-inch Android tablet.

My Kindle arrived yesterday. It was clearly pre-owned, and the back was rather scratched and there were a few minor scratches on the screen. That was about what I was expecting. Having not touched a Kindle Fire since the first one, I came away with similar feelings that I had with the last one. It is a serviceable, cheap piece of tech. Not something I’d buy, but if I had kids or needed to take tablet somewhere I was concerned about it being damaged, it would work in a pinch.

Around 2021-2022, Amazon made it difficult to completely do away with FireOS. I knew that going in, and I knew my options were to download .apks and install the Google Play store or utilize Fire Toolbox and make bigger changes. Since my main use for this tablet will be reading, I just wanted to download Moon Reader+, which is available on the Amazon App Store. However, I bought a copy of the pro version years ago on Google Play, and it took less than five minutes to get the Play Store on the tablet, so I quickly installed Google Play.

Since you cannot disable all of the Amazon apps and the work Fire Toolbox can do is limited, I realized I’d spend more time tinkering with that than would probably be useful. So, I logged into my Kindle account, installed Moon Reader+ and uploaded some books to my Google Drive to download.

I did take a peek to see if Apple Books was available on Google Play, and as I figured, it was not.

After tweaking the settings in Moon Reader+, I was set for reading. It’s been at least five years since I’ve used the app, and I still found it to be a very enjoyable experience. I love all the customization options, and while it’s not the most modern and polished app, it’s just great at what it does.

Last night, I laid down and opened up Stayin' Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working Class, which is absolutely terrible reading before bed, I made it through a couple of chapters, and I found the whole experience quite enjoyable. My theory about the size was right. An eight-inch tablet is perfect for me as an e-reader. It’s not too cumbersome, yet I can make the font big enough to read and enjoy.

I did a quick search for 8-inch e-ink readers, and the options are limited, and the price is way too high. I’m assuming there is not a large enough demand, which is a shame.

Boox Nova Air 2 -$339.99
PocketBook InkPad - $299.00
Kobo Sage - $269.00
Kobo Forma - Discontinued?
Meebook - $259.00

So, for me, I’m going to play around with this Fire a bit more. I’m going to download the rest of my books from Calibre, maybe see if Fire Toolbox makes the device less annoying, and then put it in airplane mode and use it strictly as an e-reader. Maybe down the road I’ll look into an eight-inch Android tablet and install some games for the cats to play on the Kindle Fire.

My eyes got wide and I lit up. “A grilled cheese factory! That’s awesome!” She laughed, and I spent the next ten years thinking my mom actually worked in a grilled cheese factory before I was born.

I remember sitting in study hall, scribbling random notes in my notebook when I thought about how good a grilled cheese sandwich sounded. Then I thought about my mom’s grilled cheese, and then I thought about the grilled cheese sandwich factory. At that moment it clicked, there’s no such thing as a grilled cheese sandwich factory!

I called my mom after school and admitted I just realized there was no such thing as a grilled cheese sandwich factory. She laughed and laughed, and even now, twenty-five years later, it’s still an ongoing joke in our family.

Of course, maybe ten years ago, frozen grilled cheese sandwiches showed up in the freezer section and a grilled cheese sandwich factories became a real thing. I’ve been curious about what a factory-made grilled cheese would taste like, and so when my local grocery store clearance out the Lunchables brand grilled cheese sandwiches, I decided to pick up a box.

Making a grilled cheese is very easy, you just slap some butter on a couple of pieces of bread, a piece of cheese or two in the middle, and cook on medium. It takes maybe five minutes, but I assume for a busy parent a frozen grilled cheese, that only takes one minute to microwave, might be worth buying. But how do you do it, and how does it taste?

I can best describe the process as similar to a Hot Pocket. The grilled cheese comes in a little container to help it crisp up, and you basically take off the plastic and then stick the container on a paper towel in the microwave. Set the timer for a minute and out comes a grilled cheese.

I will say, I was expecting it to taste terrible, but it really wasn’t bad at all. The bread was a bit chewy around the crust, but it reminded me of a grilled cheese you might get at a cafeteria or restaurant. It wasn’t anything wonderful, but it was very clearly a grilled cheese sandwich.

So, three decades, I finally tasted a true factory-made grilled cheese. My mom really underestimated her ability, because her grilled cheese was much better.