The perfect page-turner

May 08, 2017 06:12 pm | Updated 06:12 pm IST

E-reading apps offer unmatched convenience on the go

E-reading apps offer unmatched convenience on the go

Summer’s in full swing and so are vacations. With trips having been planned and long train or flight journeys on the cards, I find one of the best ways to kill time is with a good book. Well, actually a good book is a great option any day; long journey or not. Being the finicky reader that I am, I usually oscillate between titles until I find one that has me hooked. This usually means I travel with a couple of books in my already bursting-at-its-seams handbag. Get an e-reader, I was told. But I wasn’t convinced. For me, it’s the whole touch and feel of a physical book that holds half the charm: the cover, the smell of a brand-new book, or for that matter of a lovely stained old one, notes left behind by other readers and what not.

I gave in, however, when I realised that an e-reader made so much more sense at least when I was travelling. Since I didn’t want to invest in one, I decided to do the next best thing—download an app for it. The Kindle e-reader app, which I have on both my phone and tab, is a dream to use. With an easy-to-use interface and range of books, I can now travel with a selection of titles. I especially love how I can access my books across devices, thanks to the cloud feature, and not to forget the online shopping sprees I find myself going on every time I’m looking for a new book to read.

While I swear by the Kindle app, there are quite a few out there that are worth a shot too.

Bookari

Earlier known as Mantano Reader, this app supports books in PDF and EPUB formats. The app also offers a variety of features, such as reader themes, night mode, search, pinnable navigation for easy jumping between chapters and bookmark pages. The paid version of the app though, has additional features with cloud support that lets you sync your account across devices.

Google Play Books

The search giant’s e-reader app is a great option if you want to quickly load a few good titles on your smartphone. It lets you shop for books easily within the app, though the iOS version requires you to shop in the browser. It also lets you customise your reading experience by altering the font size, line spacing, typeface, highlight segments of the chapters and has a built-in dictionary as well as maps. Apart from shopping from Google Play Books, you can also upload PDF and EPUB files.

Cool Reader

A free app, this one is a great option if you are looking for something that supports several different formats, such as EPUB, Doc, RTF, HTML, MOBI among others. The app also has a fairly clean user interface, with a charming yellowed paper look with some good animations to pep up the experience.

Ebook Reader

As the name suggests, the app lets you read your favourite books even while you’re on the move. It has a pretty extensive collection of titles spanning genres, and supports EPUB format. You can create collections for easy browsing, and turn pages with either a tap or a swipe. Like most other e-reader apps, this one lets you customise typeface to suit your preference. One can either shop from within the app’s collection or import from third-party vendors, including New York Times bestsellers.

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