B
Brad Ward
Guest
One of my favorite things about smartphones and tablets is the ability to take a library of books with you wherever you go. Not only are eBooks cheaper than the physical alternative, but there’s no need to pack five or six books with you when travelings — it’s all on your tablet!
Amazon Kindle
Most will be familiar with this option largely because almost everyone uses Amazon. However, they’ve put together one of the best apps for reading books. Paired with just the right font, brightness levels, and background or “paper” color, the Kindle app makes electronic reading easy on the eyes.
Amazon is aiming to make electronic reading more convenient than with a physical book, and thus far they’ve done that and far more. While Amazon has designed Kindle with what is the best user interface in the industry, what makes or breaks an e-reader is its availability of books. And with Amazon being a leading retailer in the book industry, there’s no shortage of having access to the latest and greatest or even old classics.
One of the most convenient parts of Amazon’s Kindle reader is its syncing capabilities. If you read a few chapters on an iPhone during lunch break at work, as long as you’re logged into your Amazon account, you can pick up right where you left off on your Android tablet at home. It’s seamless and makes reading a breeze.
It also has your usual features that’re included in an app for reading books: highlighting, bookmarking, a built-in dictionary, brightness, font selections, and a bevy of a text customization.
Aldiko Book Reader
The Aldiko Book Reader is an excellent second option for those not a fan of Amazon Kindle. Aldiko has a massive library, featuring many of the latest books, classic, and more. Similar to Kindle, it has a great user interface making for easy reading.
But what makes this application particularly unique is its advanced library management system, allowing users to easily import their own EPUB or PDF files to read on the go. Users can also customize their reading experience to the fullest extent — font sizes, font type, font and background colors, margins, line spacing, and much more. This allows each user to adapt Aldiko Book Reader to their individual preferences, truly making it one of a kind.
Google Play Books
Google Play Books was fairly crummy when it first started out, but it’s gone through some major improvements making it a much more optimal reading experience. It has offline reading (which many apps don’t), elegant 3D page turns resembling a physical book, varying reading modes (day, night, sepia), and the usual bevy of text and background customization.
The great thing about Play Books is how seamless it works with textbooks. Physical textbooks can be extremely expensive, however, many are discounted on Google Play Books, allowing you to save yourself quite a penny.
Play Books is particularly enjoyable due to how hard it tries to resemble the experience of holding a physical book in your hand. It’s most certainly one of the better options available with a constantly expanding library!
Universal Book Reader
Universal Book Reader is an elegant application thanks to its robust library management. It keeps everything neatly organized through Bookcase, your digital library resembling that of an actual bookshelf. It has an integrated file browser, allowing you to quickly grab and import your EPUB and PDF files into Universal Book Reader.
The app has some of the most seamless and fluid page flipping animations out there. Additionally, the application is very smooth, even after loading almost thirty books into it. On the downside, it’s plagued with ads, which disappear if you purchase the premium version. With the premium version, you get some neat additional features, such as text-to-speech, the ability to create shortcuts to books on your home screen, and more.
Overall, it’s a great free application for book reading although ads can get frustrating quickly.
Audible
Some people aren’t a fan of reading, whether it be an electronic or physical book. Fortunately, Audible is available for those that would rather listen to a good book. Of course, audiobooks are significantly pricier than electronic books, but can be perfect for the morning commute, someone who drives truck, or a person who simply prefers listening to a book!
Audible is owned by Amazon, and they’re sporting a library of over 180,000 audiobooks. And if you own a Kindle, you can easily switch between listening and reading with Audible through Amazon’s Whispersync. Convenience at it’s best!
Wrap Up
These are five of the best reading apps available for Android, all of which give its users an excellent user interface while providing a reading experience resembling that of a physical book. There are plenty of other options on the Play Store, but none that seem betteer than what’s listed here.
What’s your favorite app for reading books? Be sure to let us know in the comments below!
Come comment on this article: Best apps for reading books [2015]
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