Best Android Apps as eBook Reader for your Android Phone

Your Android phone is your best companion many a times. It would be hard to narrow down the cases where it becomes a life saver but getting to read favorite eBook on the go really makes it a prominent example. No? So, we just thought it would be a great idea to present a list of some one-of-the-best eBook readers available on the android market.

Taking it forward, we complied a list of best android apps that promise an excellent eBook time by letting you download eBooks for free totally on the Go. We must say we are really impressed with the quality of the apps in the android market as also with their capabilities, in terms of functions these apps had and services they served so painlessly.

Laputa Book Reader (FREE)

Laputa Book Reader lets you download eBooks for free from two sources: Blazer and Feedbooks. The notable feature of Laputa is the ‘flip effect’ of the pages when turned either way (yeah.. like the iPad). You can use auto-scroll function for hands free reading, bookmark your pages (with a preview too), read in landscape/portrait mode within day/night mode, make personal categories of collection, adjust font size for convenience, etc. You will get a starting guide in the form of an eBook titled ‘Directions for Use’, browse through it and you will know all you need to, except one thing, which we have discussed just below.

How to import books on Laputa?

Since the import facility was added only recently in the updates, it is very much an unexplored function and many still don’t know about this. And among those who know about the function, most don’t know how to import. Here is a guide to get it done. First of all, paste the eBook you want to import in the sdcard folder: /sdcard/LaputaBooks/Import. Then, head to my library in the app and hit options to get the ‘Import’ tab. Clicking it will import your eBooks.

Market Link

Aldiko Book Reader (FREE)

It is debatable as to why we placed Aldiko book reader below Laputa since both of them deserve a first place for many android users. Let’s say Laputa came to our mind first due to its better overall aesthetics but that by no stretch of imagination means that Aldiko is inferior to Laputa. With Aldiko also, you get a vast collection of eBooks to download for free and all the functions (some may vary) that Laputa offered except the so called ‘flip effect’. Reading is a bit different than Laputa since it uses traditional white-in-black and black-in-white text background combination for reading in day / night mode respectively, whereas Laputa uses brown color as text (with different shade) in both modes. There is a premium version available to buy to support developers and show your love to Aldiko but it doesn’t offer anything extra since everything you need is right there in the free version itself(including easy to use import facility).

Market Link

FBReader (FREE)

You want customizations, then FBReader is your best bet. No eBook reader offers as many options to configure as FBReader and it may very well become cumbersome if you don’t exercise caution under the tab ‘settings (more)’ tab. You can customize every inch of space on the screen, may it be first line indent, paragraph line spacing, margins, etc to name a few. Paste you eBooks into the folder: /sdcard/Books and the app will find import all eBooks (even in sub-directories). Yes, its easy and also, it supports wider variety of formats viz epub, oeb and fb2(.zip). You can also download eBooks from 5 sources for free while an additonal list is provided at the official page for downloading eBooks in various languages.

Market Link

Reveal Reader (FREE)

Very frankly, if you have downloaded and tried the first two apps, you will not feel any need whatsoever to try any other app as far as eBook reading goes. But here we are, with some more apps to fill any gap (whatsoever!) that was left. The Reveal eBook reader android app is compatible with YanceyWare eBooks and also lets you download LDS, Mormon, KJV Bible, Christian eBooks, Scriptures and other open books. You would have known by now that it’s meant for spiritual mood, but under the last category named other open books, we did find some eBooks that were available in the library of the Laputa and Aldiko also. Import of eBooks downloaded on PC is also supported.

Market Link

iReader (FREE)

If Laputa and Aldiko were all about the epub format of eBooks, iReader is the best available out there if you are looking to read books in TXT, CHM, UMD and Palm pdb formats. It is highly customizable and even lets you set the milliseconds for auto scrolling of a page (something that even users Laputa miss badly). Visit this link to get the full list of features/formats supported and in line for updates, both in free and paid version of the app. You will need paid version for full support of mobipocket and eReader books.

Market Link

Palmbookreader (New) (FREE)

For fans of PDB format, Palmbookreader is the best deal. Although, it supports only unprotected pdb file and says NO to iSilo files also. But if you got a pdb file, it’s your friend in need.  It also supports TXT format. You just need to put all your PDB and TXT files in eBooks folder in sdcard and select sync from the options of the app to get the eBooks on board. Set the Charset and you’re done. The app’s description itself provides links to websites that offer eBooks in pdb format, visit this link to get there.

Market Link

These were the six apps that are the best out there providing you free eBooks while not costing a penny themselves. But there is a price for that, you don’t get the latest of the books in trend today. Although free eBooks will surely be a good time pass to an average reader (which most of android users are, including me, ahem….), but those die hard bookworms, they would want the latest in the season.

For such crazy-about-books kinda android users, we think the apps listed below should do good. We hope they don’t mind their pocket getting lighter with each sets of clicks. And yes we know it’s very unlikely, given the craze.

Kindle for Android (FREE)

It promises availability of as many as 630,000 android books (with an asterisk sign, ugh!) and thousands of free eBooks, although the latter were very hard to find when we tried our luck with kindle store. So be prepared to spend some dollars if you are on kindle since after you are onto this app, it will be hard to resist the collection available, both in terms of quality and quantity. It auto synchronizes your devices with Amazon whispersync to enable smooth transition and letting you resume resume reading an eBook, from where you left on Kindle. Options menu lets you adjust text size, color mode and brightness. It is in fact a good substitute for Amazon Kindle. Oh! if you are a non-US customer, it’s said that book availability may vary, while UK stores are said to be coming up from August 27. Good luck!

Market Link

eBooks by Kobo (FREE)

Kobo is a book store like Amazon and offers eBooks, paid and free. It claims a 2 million figure for books available thereat along with thousands of FREE classic books. Although Kobo’s UI isn’t much praised by its users, it is overall an decent app, deserved to be mentioned here. Browse through the app to download free eBooks or purchase paid ones anytime anywhere.

Market Link

That is it.

Let us know which one is your favorite eBook reader among the above as also the favorite eBook. Moreover, we would glad to hear from you about the apps you would like us to cover here. So, be sure to feed us with that.

Comments are open!