Printed books seem to be slowly but surely giving ground to electronic readers. We suspect that they’ll never be replaced entirely though, because a paper book has a familiar and comforting look and feel that simply cannot be replaced by electronic wizardry.
Nevertheless, people increasingly read a wide range of material directly from their smart phones and tablet devices. These are compact and can store literally thousands of volumes, so it’s like carrying a library around in your pocket. It’s a concept we’ve become used to – we’re already happy to carry hundreds of music CDs around on our iPod, so why not do the same with books?
Flexible screen technology from Plastic Logic and other companies is advancing apace to create completely flexible screens for a range of devices. E-readers aren’t bendable yet, but the number of Android eBook reader apps available increases by the day to deliver flexibility in the actual reading experience that satisfies most folks’ needs.
eBook Optimiser
This handy little app optimises an eBook application and reduces its size, so that more space can be freed up on your device’s SD card.
Kobo
Kobo is available for most of the more popular Android smart phones. From the phone you can directly browse or search for books to download and read. With a gallery of well in excess of two million volumes for purchase and thousands more available at no charge, Kobo satisfies most reading demands no matter how ravenous they may be!
WordPlayer
With WordPlayer you can either load books in from your SD card or else download them. The app performs especially well when it comes to bookmarking and navigation, and there are lots of customisable settings included.
Wattpad
Wattpad allows access to a vast gallery of eBooks and enables global location and sharing of free articles and books. It supports a range of different eBook formats.
Google Play Books
This is one of the fancier Android eReader apps around. It has access to over three million different titles and comes with a range of advanced functions. Its ability to sync across various devices means that you can start reading on a tablet and continue on a phone or computer as convenience and your mood takes you.
Aldiko
Aldiko has a particularly attractive and intuitive interface as well as access to more books than you could read in several lifetimes. Download them to your phone or other device from inside the app and customise the various settings for fonts, background colour, margins and suchlike quickly and easily.
Moon+
Download thousands of books from online libraries with the Moon+ reader. This app has extremely useful options for day and night reading and realistic page turning effects. Zoom, lock and adjust the brightness at will.
Mantano Lite
This is good for reading and annotating pdf and epub eBooks. Compatible with Adobe DRM, Mantano is one of the most powerful eBook reader apps on the market, and with the Lite version you lose little in the way of functionality. You can also import books manually using its integrated file explorer.
Zinio
This app is great for magazine reading on any Android device. It comes with rich media and interactive features and is one of the most popular apps around for accessing magazine content.
Kindle
The popular Kindle app reproduces the experience you get with the regular device from Amazon on your Android kit.
Author Bio
Verena blogs about gadgets and technology, covering everything from the latest mobile advancements to display technology. When she’s not online Verena enjoys swimming, cycling and travelling the world. Find out more about Plastic Logic.