I’ve been testing quite a few recently, so I thought I’d show you how I got on. These are the free ones, because a) I’m a cheapskate and b) Why pay for something when you can get it legitimately for free?
So you won’t find Mantano in this list, because I haven’t taken the plunge yet. And I haven’t included the apps like Wattpad, which are primarily to obtain and read online content, although this category has been growing recently and will be worth perusing in a while. I’ve included Nook and Kindle apps, because you can read books on your device as well as online, and it’s primarily as a reader of internal content that I’ve reviewed them here.
These readers are for my rooted Nook Color. Now I love the basic Nook reader dearly, but rooting it (I use the CM7 mod method – basically you are rooting through your SD card and leaving the nook firmware well alone. It’s superb, but this post isn’t about that) means I don’t get regular access to the Nook program. Still, getting Angry Birds, solitaire, Dolphin Browser and all the wonderful things you can get on the Android market makes rooting well worth it. If I lived in the US and I had access to the Barnes and Noble store, I might think differently.
This is what I’ve discovered about the apps. I would love it if you’d discovered more apps or more ways of using the apps, because I daresay I’ve missed something in my wander around the Market to discover the ideal reader.
What I’d like in an ideal reader –
The ability to:
1. Set my own fonts. I prefer to read with serif fonts, and some of them look better than others on the Nook, so I like to be able to change them. I’m not including altering the size of the font, because I haven’t found a reader yet that doesn’t do this.
2. Set my own margins – I like almost edge-to-edge reading. Why waste all that space?
3. Make notes – I do a lot of reviewing, and it’s much easier to make notes on the NC, as I can on my Kindle, and then call up the list when I’m done.
4. Open the reader and be right at the page where I left off.
5. Flip animation. It’s fun, okay? But it’s not essential.
6. A nice bookshelf. I like a book cover and a blurb to tell you what it is. It’s a nice way to browse.
7. CSS reading. This means that the book is rendered as it is supposed to be by the publisher. While they then dictate fonts, it does mean that you get to see the italics, bolds and chapter headings, as well as scene breaks, etc. This is most important to me when there are italics. I read a fair amount of paranormals, and it’s much, much easier to see telepathic speech if it’s italicized. Italics can also be a part of an author’s voice, and when it’s missing, it can jar a bit. Failing the CSS thing, then the rendering of bolds, italics etc. I want my italics.
8. A way of reordering the bookshelves by at least title and author. I’d prefer options to sort by tag, read or not read, date published and date added to the device, but, well, a girl can dream. And a way of creating bookshelves of my own and categorizing them, as I can in my Kindle.
9. Reading books from the internal device of the NC, so you can read offline. I keep my books in the NC itself, not on the SD card, so porting to the SD card is a bit of a pain, and then you have to keep it up to date. Since I still occasionally read using the original Nook firmware and the lovely reader there, the books have to be in the internal memory.
10. The ability to dim the screen in the dark, especially by swiping the left hand side of the screen vertically (means I don’t have to leave the book to do it).
11. A progress bar that tells me how much I’ve read and how far I have to go.
What I don’t care about:
1. Fancy backgrounds and day/night modes. I always read black on white and dim the screen for night reading. And I don’t want to pretend that my Nook Color is an ancient tome.
2. Syncing between devices. I have a Blackberry phone, a Kindle, a Kobo and a Nook Color which I’ve rooted to full Android. I don’t own an ithing. Well I do, but iTunes is a nightmare on a PC, so I don’t use them. None of these devices sync particularly easily, apart from the Kindle, so I don’t bother. I keep a central library on my PC and then port to the devices as I need them. I use Calibre with an extra column added for books I’ve read. I have Calibre installed on every computer I own and port my settings across, then plug in the devices and add new books and take read ones off it. Works for me. But for some people, syncing is a big deal.
So here’s what I’ve tried so far:
Aldiko Reader –
It has – 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11
It renders really well, that is, the print is nice and clear. Its bookshelf is pretty, and I believe you can categorise it, though I’ve never worked out how. It’s fairly fast. The two big downsides for me are that you can’t make notes, although you can share, using Evernote or Facebook (but I don’t want to share, and I’m not always online. If it could link to an internal notetaking program, that would work for me). And you have to import all your books to the SD card if you want to see them on your bookshelves. That is a major inconvenience for me. However, it does render books properly, with italics and bolds, and I usually use it as a backup, if a book goes a bit daft on me in another program. Or if I just want to read for pleasure.
Amazon Kindle –
2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11
I use this solely to read my Amazon books on because it uses a proprietary format, and everything else I use is epub. Amazon uses a locked form of mobipocket so it doesn’t play with other devices. However, you can read from your device without connecting, and you can download from your Amazon store to read offline. What you can’t do is read your NetGalley ARCs, if you’re a reviewer, because NetGalley only sends to your first device (not Kindle’s fault). I haven’t found a way of reordering the bookshelves, but they are nice. You can’t choose your own font, but it’s actually a pretty nice font so I don’t mind that so much. It’s smooth and it works, and I wish it read epub.
Anyview –
Not a clue. The interface is nice, but I’ve never been able to open a book in it.
Nook (the android one)
2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11
Very much like the reader software, except it has flip animation, yay! The margins are too wide for me, and there’s no way I’ve discovered of making them narrower. And the cover art doesn’t show on my bookshelves, even if I do the Calibre thing (if you don’t now what I’m talking about, you re-convert within Calibre and that often solves the problem). Nook Color has to have the books in its own folder, which is irritating. The list of fonts you can use isn’t a full one, but it includes Georgia, so I’m good. But it renders really well, and I do use it sometimes. You can’t add shelves of your own, which is a pity.
Blio –
3, 5, 6, 7, 6, 9, 10, 11
This has some nice features and is worth considering. The shelf shows the book cover larger than most readers, so it’s very clear. I like the footer with the basic information and the extended footer, which you call up with a screen press. The options are limited, though, and you can’t set your own font and the default font is sans serif. And it leaves a space between paragraphs, which I really don’t like.
Bluefire reader –
I’ve just downloaded this one and I love the shelves on it, but I haven’t really played with it enough to comment significantly. I’d have to read a book or two on it before I can make up my mind.
Cool Reader –
1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
If it will take it, this is my reader of choice. It renders italics and bold properly. It has a reasonable, though not pretty, bookshelf that you can reorder by several things, including tags, and it reads books from the internal memory of the Nook, so I don’t have to faff about importing. It can be temperamental with one or two books, I have no idea why, and that’s when I read on another app. It’s fast and smooth and it has so many options you could spend all your time playing with them. If you put a few ttf (true type fonts) on the SD card, it will let you choose the font you want. It renders well. It even has a battery indicator in the top bar.
I’d like a nicer bookshelf, the opportunity to create shelves of my own (so that I could, for instance, put the books I’ve read there, put the ARCs I really should be reading soon on their own shelf, etc.) and a real flip animation would be nice, too. But I’m sure they’ll come in time.
DNL reader –
I’ve only just started playing with this one, so I really don’t know what it can do yet. Anyone?
FBReader –
1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10,11
One of the oldest apps, and still a good one. Its big downfall, to me, is the inability to read italics and bolds. It really makes a difference. But the interface is smooth, it reads off your internal memory and you can at least make bookmarks. Some readers love this one because you can sort any which way, and that is pretty awesome. I would love it if it would just render the italics and get the note taking sorted out. The flip animation is the most fun you’ll have with a book without actually reading it. The way you can set different taps on different areas to do different things is cool, too.
Kobo –
I’ve only just downloaded this one. Anyone have any comments?
Moon+ Reader –
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
You can get this in a free version or a paid version, which has text to speech. This one is immensely frustrating, because it doesn’t render italics and bolds. The notetaking is great, the shelves really nice, and it reads from your internal memory. However, in the latest version, you can opt to go to publisher defaults, and voila, there are your italics and bolds! But the font is mandatory, and it’s hideous. And on publisher defaults it scrolls rather than page turns. It will read from internal memory, although if you want to see your books on the pretty bookshelves, covers and all, you have to import them to Moon’s shelves. This one is so close. Importing the books isn’t too bad, because once you’ve done it to the internal memory, there’s an import button on the shelf page, and it will update. Get that CSS rendering right, and this is the one for me. As it stands, Cool Reader does it better right now. Oh yes, and it loads each chapter separately, which means you have to wait for a second when you turn the page for it to load the chapter. Irritating, unless you have a device with limited memory, in which case it would be a positive asset. Another irritation is the touch screen. It’s not as accurate as other readers, at least not on the Nook Color it isn’t, and attempts to go back to the author file, for instance, will find you turning back a page or a chapter. I don’t use a stylus and I don’t particularly want to.
In conclusion – right now, Cool Reader does most of what I want in an ebook reader, but I’m always looking for something better!
