Why buy a Kindle when you could buy an iPhone or iPod Touch?

Instead of being forced to the Amazon Whispernet, stuck with black & white and a simple web browser/rss reader - why not simply modify your iPhone or iPod Touch. The screen is color and clear, you already pay that monthly service fee, you can play media, you have the whole internet as your library to find eBooks and... it's a Phone!

It comes Down to Useability

A purpose built bit of hardware that is designed for reading eBooks. That is what a eBook Reader is! It has a large screen so you can fit the equivalent A4 page of text onto it, it holds on to tradition with the dimensions much similar to a book, and the screen itself usually has no backlight due to a variety of e-paper technology - helping your eyes avoid strain over reading periods running into the hours.

iPhone and iPod Touch eBook Reader Applications

1. BookShelfLT

• Price: Free
• Formats Supported: Text, HTML, fb2, Plucker, PalmDoc (Aportis), and many non-DRM (non-encrypted) Mobi files.
• Download

A few books in your pocket, free of charge. The ebook reading features of BookShelf in a free, ad-supported package. Users of BookShelf LT may cary up to 10 books at one time. Delete some files and download others as often as you like.

Access thousands of free books -- from the classics of literature to the newest Creative Commons licensed SciFi. BookShelf downloads free books from FeedBooks.com right on your iPhone. Access your purchased WebScription.net books or choose from the Baen library of dozens of free SciFi titles. Load many types of files from your own computer over your WiFi network.

BookShelf supports ebooks in plain-text, HTML, Palm (see below), FB2, and several other formats (see the website for an up-to-date list). Using the included ShelfServer, e-books with pictures and clickable links are transferred from your Mac, Windows, or Linux computer over WiFi. Books are automatically compressed and optimized for best display on the iPhone's small screen. Even large, multi-megabyte e-text files open and display in seconds. Create named bookmarks to keep your place in any file type, and customize font and color themes for maximum comfort. Navigate through links in files and open website and email links in Safari or Mail.

Also available in the AppStore is an ad-free version of BookShelf with additional features including book cover art, ability to show full size images, downloading of books directly from the web without a server, and other enhancements.

2. eReader

• Price: Free
• Formats Supported: eReader
• Download

eReader is one of the best known eBook formats, in use for over a decade and with hundreds of thousands of customers, and available for iPhone and iPod touch. eReader remembers what page you are on in each eBook, and allows direct wireless transfer of your content to the device's internal storage for offline reading. eReader supports landscape reading, multiple font styles and sizes, table of contents, footnotes, sidebars, dictionary integration (load a dictionary, then look up the meaning of a word in any eBook you're reading) and other advanced features.

3. Free iPhone eBooks

Free iPhone eBooks has a limited selection of classics.

Download

4. Libris

Price: $2.99

Released: 10/11/2008

Formats Supported: Plain text, PalmDoc, non-secure eReader files, non-secure MobiPocket files, Libris

Download

Latest Updated: 19/08/2009

With the integration of Feedbooks support you now have access to thousands of free books! Quickly find great free reading material organized by title, author, language, etc. or use the search feature to find content. The updated version includes improved UI responsiveness, support for unencrypted Mobipocket books, improved text formating, and improved dictionary lookup.

Libris Key Features

• book open and close animations
• configurable page turn animations and sound effects
• book cover and internal illustrations
• book cover zoom
• lookup words using dictionary, wikipedia, google
• full book text search
• table of contents
• direct page entry (touch page number to activate)
• book marks with animation
• customizable text size, text color, and page color
• easy access to a growing collection of thousands of free books
• load multiformat books you have purchased from Fictionwise.com directly from your iPhone or iPod Touch
• import books from your personal computer
• supports plain text, PalmDoc, non-secure eReader, non-secure Mobipocket and Libris formats
• other formats can be easily converted with free tools

5. Libris Lite

6. Penguin Group USA

Price: Free

Formats Supported: N/A

Download

Notes: Provides podcasts, interviews, essays, and more related to Penguin books and authors. Penguin has also announced record profits for online ebook publishing in 2009 and Enriched eBooks classics series.

7. Readdle BookReader

Price: $4.99

Project Guttenberg is supported

Download

BookReader can open TXT, FB2, RTF, EPUB, HTML, and PDF files without DRM protection. You can user either WiFi or EDGE/3G network to copy the e-book to iPhone or iPod Touch. Once you connected to BookReader from any Mac OS X, Windows XP and Windows Vista computer, just drag and drop a book to save it to your device.eReader, iSilo, MobiPocket, Kindle, Plucker e-books are not supported.

• Enjoy Reading at Its Best
  • Read in the dark using night mode.
  • Lock BookReader orientation to prevent it from rotating the book.
  • Adjust text size and font to fit your preferences.
  • Focus on reading thanks to BookReader intuitive interface .
• Transfer Books in the Number of Ways
  • Upload your books to free Readdle Storage account using regular Internet connection and instantly access them from BookReader via EDGE or 3G.
  • Mount Books as a shared network drive over Wi-Fi network to any computer and copy e-books to the iPhone. No additional software required.
  • Download free e-books from Project Guttenberg collection. You can even find Kamasutra of Vatsaiana there.
• Easily Navigate Through the Book
  • Bookmark any page in the book.
  • Find any necessary phrase or a word using full text search.
  • Use fast scroll slider to quickly open any position.

8. Safari Books Online

Price: Free

Formats Supported: Safari Books

Download

Release Date: 16/09/2008

Updated: 26/12/2008

Safari Books Online is an on-demand digital library that delivers thousands of the best technology and business books online for one subscription fee.  As part of some subscription levels, users can download PDF versions of books and chapters.  Safari Bookbag enables subscribers to sync their favorite Safari Books Online downloads to your iPhone and iPod Touch!  It's easy to use.  Just sign in and Bookbag will load the PDFs from your account directly to your device.  Read your Safari PDFs anywhere you'd like!

Requirements:

• A valid Safari Books Online subscription with the ability to download content.
• A connection to a wireless network

9. Scrollbox

Released: 2007

Status: Does not seem to be updated

Download

Price: Free

Scrollbox has a large public library and allows uses to upload their own content.

1. Read books on your mobile device regardless of network connectivity.
2. It’s about books, not about a website. The interface gets out of your way and lets you read!
3. Access to your existing books. Upload your ebooks and have access to them from any browser.
4. Designed primarily for the iPhone but should work well with other mobile browsers. No advertisements or images to slow you down.
5. It’s free. Access is free, and the source code is free.

ShortBook

Price: $4.99

Formats Supported: fb2

Last Updated: 13/10/2009

Download

Supports night-mode and bookmarking

10. Stanza

Price: Free

Formats Supported: including Amazon Kindle, Mobipocket, Microsoft LIT, PalmDoc, Microsoft Word, Rich Text Format, HTML, and PDF

Download

Stanza has a massive library of 50,000 titles for sale from Fictionwise; 40,000 free downloads via Project Gutenber. Also, Lexcycle's Online Library including classic novels such as 1984, Romeo & Juliet etc that you can be downloaded directly to the iPhone. Stanza hooks up to Feedbooks, which offers public domain and Creative Commons texts to download for nothing. You can search the whole catalog from your iPhone and directly download eBooks free.

When you download it it comes with H.G. Wells - The Time Machine.

It has a very intuitive interface:

• To turn a page swipe with finger or touch edges of screen
• To jump to a chapter tap the screen once to bring up the inline options. (Stanza automatically bookmarks where you left off)
• You can search

Stanza is a high quality app and is the best solution to converting your iPhone to an Ebook Reader device.

I've Tried It and I'm Still Not Convinced

Screen too small? Eyes hurt? Sick of scrolling? Thumb has RSI? Get an dedicated eBook Reader. Luckily you are on a site which helps you find the cheapest eBook Reader deals on the planet so start Bargain Hunting now!

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