Best configuration for reading ebooks

Question

What is the best toolset (harware + software) for reading ebooks on a computer?

I am thinking about these features:

• good rendering of fonts
• colors (no black and white little screens)
• no keyboard needed
• highlighting, bookmarking, annotating allowed and browsable
• support for pdf without need for conversions
• usb support
• less important: light weight

I am thinking about something like Microsoft Reader, which provides many of these features, but it almost only reads .lit files and it seems not much supported recently.

Thanks :)

Answer 1

The Kindle Application for the iPhone has been my reader of choice.

• Variable text size
• White, Black, and Sepia fonts
• Support rotation
• Bookmarking
• Free with iPhone

I've found it to be the best reader when outdoors or at night when I want to read with the light out. Can't beat the white font on black background with low brightness for drifting off to sleep while reading a good book. More details from Amazon here.

Answer 2

For those thinking about using iPhone or iPod Touch as a book reader here is nice summary of available apps

• The iPhone e-book readers' guide

and a review of a newcomer to that group that is not listed in the summary Eucalyptus

Answer 3

Ybook looks pretty good for software for a computer.

If you're in the US, the Kindle sounds like a great piece of hardware if you like books.

Personally, I prefer using Eucalyptus on the iPhone, but there are several other readers available in the app store, including some free ones like Stanza.

Answer 4

Printing of these books. Because human reading on computer screen is 20% slower.

or some device for ebooks

• Amazon Kindle

Answer 5

Another free option is Calibre a python-based app.

Answer 6

I realy like the Mobipocker Reader application, it's free and has a tool to create new books from html pages or oeb files.

The nicest thing about it is it has support for a lot of different operating such as Windows, Windows Mobile, Blackbary, Palm, Nokia, E-ink readers. And it synchronizes your progress in the book as well.

Clicking on the sides of the page is used for navigation, very nice.

Answer 7

Stanza

Answer 8

I have a sony reader and I use calibre as pointed out earlier with it.

Answer 9

My personal favourite is FBReader. It has excellent font rendering, default colour scheme that suits me (so I don't have to do much tweaking), available on Linux, Windows and supports many popular formats. Unfortunately, pdf is not one of them, but I still would recommend you to at least check it out - there is a visual tour on their site.

And my favourite hardware/software combination is my Nokia N810 with FBReader.

Answer 10

It depends on your e-book source. If you want to access Amazon, you need the Kindle application. If you want Barnes and Noble, they recently released their own software. Mobi is a decent third party, but the supply of book is limited. This is true of most third party software platforms. An exception if public Domain works such as project Gutenberg. For PD works, I'd recommend getting them in PDF and using the PDF reader of your choice.