There is something special about reading real books. I just wish my life was more stable. Over the years I’ve lost my huge physical book collection that I started as a kid due to a combo of lots of moving and limited space to keep them.
The convenience of digital means I don’t have to suffer that particular loss anymore.
This is the way.
That’s step 2. - They want to get into reading.
Step 1 is to do it the cheapest way possible. Which means either real books or on a device they already have.
Then if they find they enjoy it they can/should start spending some money on hardware/software to enhance the experience.
But there’s no reason for them to spend any money on tech until they know reading recreationally is for them.
When I use/d my phone for reading I always go high contrast - Black background and bright orange text.
Whether LCD or OLED I find that color combo works great for legibility while keeping screen brightness low in the dark (to reduce eye strain) and not having to set brightness as high during the day outdoors (preventing the screen from eating the battery as quickly.)
I’ve used moon+ reader pro for years. Maybe even since it’s release. (Admittedly I don’t use it as much anymore as I prefer eink devices for reading but am stuck with a kindle for now)
The tons of customization options was my biggest draw. plenty of font/layout and color options to help find what works best for you and your device.
I also love and use calibre, but I’m not sure it’s needed by OP at this time. It doesn’t sound like they’ve got a large collection of books so I think it would just be overkill and depending on their tech level might turn them off.
Any disposable I’ve bought that doesnt have a recharge port the battery was dead with at least 20% ejuice remaining.
That’s why I love and have used moon+ reader for years. Lots and lots of options to help fix screwed up formatting. Especially back in the day it seemed like for every 3 “good” books, at least 1 would be janky and I’d need to make adjustments for it to display well on whatever phone I had at the time