Even though marine science and geology have passed it by, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is still a gripping episodic adventure through a strange, hidden world of marvels.
Captain Nemo is compelling and mysterious as ever, if the passengers are rather broadly drawn (at least all three of them are distinct) and the crew is more or less faceless. (Aside from Nemo, the crew doesnât speak to the passengers, so theyâre never able to pick up the Nautilusâ private language.)
And Verne has really thought things through. Like, how did Nemo get something of this scale built without someone noticing? He farmed out different parts and systems to different factories scattered across the world. Ocean-based textiles, undersea mines, an isolated source of fuel that no surface-based ship will find.
Even the parts where he made up oceanography out of whole cloth, like the deeper outflow throgh Gibraltar (which as it turns out does exist, but not for the reasons Nemo suggests, which have since been found to be incorrect) or the open sea at the south pole (which doesnât) â or Atlantis, for that matter, with the Canaries as the remnants of the sunken peaks â have at least some logic beyond the rule of cool.
I read an abridged version years ago, when I was in my early teens, and Iâve been meaning to read the whole thing ever since. Iâm glad I finally got around to it! Though I suspect a lot of the abridgment had to do with the frequent (and lengthy) lists of fish.
Now I need to finally read The Mysterious IslandâŠ
Finding this Translation
The edition I read felt more modern than I expected. It turns out Frederick Paul Walter wrote his complete, unabridged translation in the 1990s and donated it to Project Gutenberg. From the license at the end of the book:
This particular work is one of the few individual works protected by copyright law in the United States and most of the remainder of the world, included in the Project Gutenberg collection with the permission of the copyright holder.
Older versions of the file didnât clarify that it wasnât legally in the public domain, and Standard Ebooks produced a nicely-formatted book from it somewhere along the line. Thatâs the version I downloaded and eventually read. The Project Gutenberg edition now contains a copyright notice, and Standard Ebooks has taken down their edition. They havenât replaced it with another translation, stating that âthe only public domain translations of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas are ones widely considered to be slapdash.â
Iâve been using LibreOffice, specifically the Writer and Calc parts of it, for years. It does everything I need a word processor or spreadsheet to do, and it doesnât get in my way with nagware, or making sure I have enough licenses for all the familyâs computers, or trying to monetize my data or convince me to move files to a cloud service.
There are probably a few Word and Excel features they donât support, but none that Iâve noticed for a long time.
Back in the days before LibreOffice split off from OpenOffice, there were more problems with opening Microsoft file formats. I used to make sure we had at least one Microsoft Office installation on a Windows partition, just in case. That hasnât been necessary for years.
I used to sometimes write in AbiWord and use Gnumeric for spreadsheets on Linux. Theyâre both faster and lighter than LibreOffice, but thatâs also less important than it used to be, except on older or low-spec devices.
The only real trouble Iâve had recently is getting it to switch properly into dark mode on Linux. I can get it to show a dark document in a light window, or a light document in a dark window, or a light document in a light window, but I canât reliably get it to show a dark document in a dark window. Iâm not a total dark-mode fanatic, but I do prefer it in low-light situations.
LibreOffice also has presentation, database, and vector drawing applications. Iâve never had to use them for my home or hobbyist projects, though, so I canât really say how Impress, Draw and Base compare to PowerPoint, Visio and Access.
If you include its predecessors OpenOffice and Star Office, Iâve been using it regularly for decades on Linux, years on Windows, and occasionally on macOS.
Most Linux distros include LibreOffice in their package repositories, or you can use the Snap, Flatpak (on Flathub) or AppImage. You can get it on the Microsoft and Apple app stores for a small charge. Free installers are available on their website for Windows, macOS and Linux.
Mobile
The core office suite doesnât have a mobile version (unless you count the viewer for Android, which you canât use for editing), but Collabora Office is built on LibreOffice. Their mobile app will open files on your phone, or on any storage service registered on your phone. If you have Nextcloud or Dropbox installed, it can seamlessly open, edit and save those files. Spreadsheets are a bit janky on my phone, but then itâs an older phone.
Online/Offline and Collaboration
The best part is: it still runs on my computer, even when offline. With a cloud-based app you have to trust that Google or Microsoft wonât be using your docs to train AI or something. With an app that runs directly on your machine, you know.
The downside is that it only runs directly on my computer. Which does make it hard to do online collaboration. But formats are compatible enough these days that you can usually open a file in something that does handle collaborative features when you need them.
There are a couple of online suites built on LibreOffice:
Collabora Online is mainly aimed at businesses, but you can self-host their developer edition (a.k.a. CODE) of the web app for free.
Nextcloud Office combines Collabora with Nextcloud, which makes it a lot easier to install if you already have Nextcloud. Iâve been experimenting with it a bit, and it works, but I may need to throw more memory at my self-hosted server for it to run well.
Neither works as easily as Google Docs when it comes to multiple authors, comments, and sharing permissions, unfortunately.
Google Workspace includes a fast, cloud-based office suite. It runs in most web browsers, the collaboration features are dead simple, and the mobile apps are decent. It auto-saves as you go and keeps a record of changes, so you can easily go back to an older version. Docs, Sheets and Slides are far less complete than Word, Excel or PowerPoint (or their LibreOffice counterparts), but theyâre sufficient for most purposes. Itâs the only online office suite Iâve used that allows you to share a document with comment-only permissions, which is kind of surprising.
Unfortunately it only runs in the cloud. (Even if you use the offline extension for Chrome, itâs still syncing to Google Drive when you go online.) And I donât trust Googleâs services any more than Microsoftâs these days. Back in the day I trusted that they wouldnât use my writing for targeted advertising. Now I wouldnât be surprised if they trained their LLMs on it even if they claimed otherwise, and itâs not at all clear in their privacy policy
I used it a lot during the 2010s, but Iâve switched back to using regular files and my own cloud sync when needed. Mostly plain text, Markdown and LibreOffice, except when I really need live sharing features.
Iâve been happy with the Boox Poke3 as my main eReader for almost five years, but itâs been showing its age. It was time to replace it with a newer, faster model. Preferably with physical page-turning buttons, possibly with color.
Boox specializes in Android-based e-ink tablets ranging from pocket size to full sketchpad. I like the idea of the phone-sized device, and I really like the idea of the convertible e-ink tablet/laptop, but I donât need either of those as much as I could use a new paperback-sized multi-source eBook reader.
First Impressions
The Go 7 Color is slightly larger than the Poke3 (which is roughly the size of a Kindle Paperwhite or Kobo Clara), and does indeed have physical page-flip buttons! (Judging by photos, itâs comparable to the Kobo Libra or Sage.)
The screen is the size of the old device, edges included, and of course this one adds a wider edge for the buttons. I canât fit it in my jacket pocket anymore, but itâs still light enough to hold directly above me while reading in bed.
Itâs also a lot faster than the previous device, and it can run apps like Wallabag and Bookshop.org that the Poke3 struggled with.
Its touchscreen handles gestures and taps well. I no longer feel like I need to press hard on the screen to get it to react. Itâs still not fast enough for typing comfortably (and besides, itâs too small for ârealâ typing and too big for two-thumbs phone typing), but itâs good enough for search terms, passwords etc. I suspect it would be decent for sketching or note-taking with a stylus. And itâs responsive enough that I donât really need the physical buttons most of the time.
The battery seems to run out a little faster than the Poke3, but it still lasts a lot longer than most phones and tablets. Especially if you keep it set to power off completely when itâs not being used. Iâve only had to charge it a couple of times in the month Iâve been using it.
Display
The black ink is still sharp for letters and line art, and the size isnât bad for black-and-white manga.
Colors are very pastel, lower resolution than the black ink, and noticably dithered. You wouldnât want to use it for photos or even color comics unless it was all you had available, but itâs good for diagrams, and helps immensely with displaying websites legibly.
The e-ink is easily visible in bright sunlight, and an adjustable front light takes care of indoor and dimmer lighting.
The built-in apps are well optimized for the display. General apps, not so much, but the fact that itâs color (and faster) makes this a lot less of a problem than on the older model.
You can still customize the style, input and refresh modes on a per-app basis. Iâve found that it helps to enable high-contrast mode on all the eBook readers apps, but havenât had to change too much otherwise.
Some third-party apps still have trouble with button color schemes that end up being a totally illegible solid black or solid white. Setting the app to use outlined text usually makes it possible to read these buttons, and usually doesnât affect the normal text in the app.
I still wouldnât use it for games or video, though! Refresh and input are both way too slow for that.
Speaking of media, the Go 7 also has a speaker. Itâs not a very good speaker, so Iâd rather not use it for music, but itâll do for audiobooks and podcasts. Or you can just pair it with bluetooth headphones.
Reader Apps
Like the Poke 3, the Go 7 ships with Neo Reader, which handles every DRM-free book Iâve thrown at it.
In addition to side-loading books over USB-C, thereâs a cloud service, Onyx, that I still havenât used after five years with the older reader!
Of course what sets Booxâs devices apart is that you can install any third-party eBook reader that supports Android. Google Play is included, and I had no problem installing F-Droid alongside it.
Kobo, Kindle, Bookshop, eBooks.com, B&N Nook, Hoopla and Libby all work well so far. Bookshop and recent versions of Kobo have been struggling on the Poke3, and I have a lot of stuff still to read in my Kobo library, so having that work reliably again is a relief. (I mean, we still have the Clara, but itâs nice to have everything on one device.)
Hoopla still has the additional quirk where you need to customize it using the Boox dot to âStay active in the background.â (The usual Android app setting doesnât do it in this case.)
Page-Flipping Buttons
The buttons work out-of-the-box with Neo Reader and some other apps. For the rest, the major eBook apps all have the option to flip pages with the volume buttons (which these map to), but you need to configure the apps one by one.
And yes, the buttons adjust when you rotate the screen. So whether you hold it left-handed or right-handed, theyâll still jump down/forward and up/back.
I havenât found a way to reverse them, though, which seems like it might be helpful depending on how you grip the tablet.
Other Apps
Boox devices ship with Neo Browser, a fairly simple Chromium web browser. It runs a lot better than it did on the older device. Plus, you know, color. I suspect Iâll be using it more often than I used to, though I want to avoid getting too distracted. (I am not putting any social media apps on here!)
Iâve also been using:
KeePass2Android for password management, synced over Nextcloud. The only problem so far is that I had to use the outlined-text trick to make some of the buttons visible.
Nextcloud News as a feed reader, also synced over Nextcloud. It was a bit slow on the Poke3, so I didnât use it much on there, but runs well on the Go 7.
Wallabag is a read-it-later app for articles, synced over its own service. This is another one that the old tablet could barely handle, but that runs smoothly now.
Bottom Line
I liked the Poke3 a lot, and I considered getting the Go 6, which appears to be the current equivalent. But Iâm glad I paid the extra for this model. Itâs such a drastic upgrade.
â â â â â The Bookshop.org website is great for buying print books online and still supporting indie bookstores. When you buy books, they contribute part of your purchase to a local bookshop of your choice.
Iâve been using them for pre-orders for several years now. The prices can be slightly higher than Amazon, but the selectionâs good, and I like being able to credit a local (or previously local) bookstore even when I donât actually get out to shop in person.
EBooks
â â â â â They launched eBook sales early in 2025, providing another alternative to Kindle. The books are in ePub format, making them a lot more portable than Amazonâs, especially the ones from publishers that donât insist on locking access with DRM. You can just download from the website and put them on whatever reader you want. Off the top of my head, Tor publishes most of their books DRM-Free, and Bookshop has a deal to include Standard Ebooksâ catalog of free public-domain books.
For books that do have DRM, you can read them on the website, or with Adobe Digital Editions, or using Bookshop.orgâs mobile app. Similar to Kobo or eBooks.com, really.
Reader App
â â â â â Bookshopâs mobile app has improved since launch. Initially I rated it 3, but itâs a 4 now.
The app still complains when youâre offline, popping up first an alert (âLooks like youâre offline. Time to do some reading.â with a mismatched sad-looking book, slouching under a rain cloud) and then popping up an error message about how it couldnât load your library. But after you dismiss both alerts, you can get at the books youâve already downloaded now.
Itâs also just a little bit slower than other apps Iâve used, which isnât a problem on most devices, but made it completely unusable on the Boox Poke3 I was using as my main reader at the time they launched. The Go 7 I eventually replaced it with handles the app fine.
On larger displays it can do a 2-page landscape layout, but only for books, not for the home screen.
Like Kobo, the app tries to sell you more books. But this one directs you to their website for making purchases. (Apple and Google take 30% of all in-app purchases on their platforms.) It does, however, let you add a book to your wishlist, so itâll be there the next time you open the website.
Bottom Line
Iâm happy to keep buying new physical books from here! (Though I try to check Better World Books first on anything thatâs been out for a while.)
As for eBooks, I went back to eBooks.com just because because I could use it on the Poke3. Though I have continued to buy the occasional DRM-free book from Bookshop and just read it in a faster app. Now that I have hardware that can handle Bookshopâs app, itâs a closer call.
