So you’ve set up a complete home theater system ready to be experienced in its surround-sound, high-def glory. You’ve calibrated and perfected your home audio, too – and chosen the perfect video-on-demand service for your home entertainment center. You’ve also hooked up all the components of a hardcore gaming system. As for your iPad or Android device – well, you’ve downloaded all the essential apps as well.
But what if you just wanted to curl up in bed and read? Go simple instead of sophisticated? Shut down for a while and relax with the latest New York Times bestseller or award-winning novel? In that respect, have you got yourself covered?
If not, then you might find this list pretty useful. It’s a selection of today’s best and most trusted e-book (electronic book) stores, retailers, and services.
Kobo Books
Kobo is a global retailer of ebooks, supporting the free and open EPUB (electronic publication) format that’s used as a standard for e-readers and other electronic reading devices like tablets and smartphones. Kobo has over 2.3 million books (over 2,800 of which are free), and you can read them using whichever device you choose: the Wi-Fi-enabled Kobo eReader, Mac, PC, iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Sony Reader, Nook (Barnes and Noble), and laptop, among many others. Kobo also has device-specific apps so you can read, shop, and transfer books from the Kobo store.
iBooks
iBooks is a built-in iPad app designed with a beautiful bookshelf display and page-turning animation. It also comes with instant access to the iBookStore, Apple’s own e-book sales and delivery system, which works with publishers such as Hachette Book Group USA, Macmillan Publishers, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, and Penguin Books, among others, to deliver “tens of thousands of books”. (No magazines yet, though.) The app itself, iBooks, supports EPUB, but Apple applies FairPlay DRM to books, such that you can’t read books you buy from iBookStore on non-Apple devices.
eBooks.com
Launched in 2000, eBooks.com is one of the first players in the ebook industry. It has over 200,000 titles to choose from – in PDF, EPUB, LIT, and Mobipocket formats (MOBI/PRC) – and even has a selection of academic e-books, professional monographs, and digital textbooks. Books purchased from the store are compatible with a number of devices, including iPhone, iPad, PC, Mac, Kobo (app/ reader), Nook, and Sony Reader.
Sony Reader Store
Sony actually has its own e-reader, but you don’t have to have that to buy e-books (available in EPUB and ACS4 formats) from their store: you can use your Nook, Android smartphone, iRex devices, PC, and Mac. The Sony Reader Store also works with Google Books, OverDrive, Library Finder, Romantic Reads, and Indie Reads to provide a wide selection of books, newspapers, and magazines.
NOOK Book Store
The NOOK Book Store is Barnes and Noble’s electronic-book store, designed to work best with the company’s own e-reading device, the Nook. It has a large selection, with over 2 million ebooks, magazines, and newspapers. The NOOK Book Store also features a pretty fast search engine for finding the titles you are looking for; compatibility with other devices, such as iPhone, iPad, Android, PC, and Mac; and the ability to sample all books free before you buy.
Google eBooks
Google is able to offer a million free books – including first run editions and most classics – because it supports the free and open EPUB format as well as PDF. Its cloud-based approach lets you save your purchased titles in your own Google account, accessible from any device with an Internet browser.
Kindle (Amazon)
Like Barnes and Noble, Amazon has its own e-reading device – the Kindle – and it created a complete store on Amazon for delivering e-books, magazines, and newspaper subscriptions to the Kindle. Over 950,000 titles are available, in Amazon’s own proprietary format, AZW. Apart from the Kindle, AZW books can be read using an iPad, iPhone, PC, Mac, Android device, Blackberry, and iPod Touch – just download the Kindle software for free. There are, however, no EPUB titles. If you’re a regular Amazon shopper, you’ll be pleased that the Kindle store integrates with the rest of Amazon’s shopping site; all you have to do is click and buy.
Harlequin
Harlequin, a Toronto-based publisher of books for women, releases 110 titles a month in 31 languages in 111 international markets on six continents. Its e-book store is equally impressive, with a wide selection of best-sellers, romance series, imprints, exclusive e-books, fiction, non-fiction, erotic literature, fantasy, and other kinds of subscriptions.
Zinio
Zinio is a service that offers popular print magazines in digital format – same content, same design. With over 1,500 titles to choose from, Zinio is one of the few dedicated e-magazine providers today. It also offers digital textbooks, non-fiction, and guides. Zinio is compatible with devices that have the Zinio Reader software, with a dedicated iPhone app coming soon.
