Books and Comics have provided some of the best times of our childhood.
Nowadays, your tablet and smartphones can become a portable collection of novels and books thanks to ebooks and reading apps. They allow you to access all your favourite books and childhood memories in seconds from your device and have a wide variety of novels and other books. Furthermore, many of the best eBook reader apps don’t cost anything to download either. Here is our list of some of the best ebook reader apps to download and read online or offline without any hassle.
1. Amazon Kindle – Overall Best Reading App
Download: Android, iPad/iPhone
Kindle is the best e-reader for aspiring bookworms. The Amazon Kindles are lightweight, durable, and fireproof, which makes them perfect for daily use. The Kindle app lets you read eBooks on any device, and the users can download the app from the Google Play Store for Android or iOS App Store. The app puts millions of eBooks, including textbooks and comics in English and several Indian languages, at your fingertips.
Features:
- There is an in-built recommendation system for the mobile book app.
- The app has special high-contrast screens which allow reading even in bright sunshine with no glare.
- It features adjustable text size, and you can choose over multiple fonts and page styles.
2. Google Play Books – Best Android Reading App
Download: Android
Google Play Books is a free download that gives you unlimited access to over a billion books from the library of Google. It offers access to millions of eBooks in your favourite genres – fiction, history, thriller, comedy, and children’s books. With the new Google Play Books app, you can read all your books online on Android or your web browser and even save them for when you’re reading offline.
Features:
- This user-friendly storefront and e-reader keep things easy and intuitive, from browsing to bookmarking.
- This app has convenient features such as google translate and customizable display options like “Night Light” and font.
- Easy-to-find free reads and book previews help you read economically.
3. Apple Books – Best iOS Reading App
Download: iPad/iPhone
The Apple books app is the most recommended app for readers. When it comes to the content, you will read, this is a great book reader available only on iOS devices — iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and iPod Touch. Using the Apple books app can increase reading speed by about 120 pages a day, or about 1,200 pages per year.
Features:
- Free samples of eBooks can be downloaded before they’re available anywhere else.
- Reading experience can be customized by choosing over multiple fonts, adjusting screen brightness, and enabling scrolling view.
- Organize books into a personal collection and access bookmarks, highlights, and notes on all devices
4. Audible – Best Reading App for Audio Books
Download: Android, iPad/iPhone
If you’re looking for an exciting way to relax, listen to a book or podcast, and boost your e-reading skills, Audible is a great option. Audible brings best-selling fiction, sci-fi, and crime to celebrity biographies, kids’ books, and self-help audiobooks to help build a library to listen to for years.
The team behind the Audible app says that they are looking to fill a gap in the market occupied by the lack of available choices for listeners who find themselves struggling to commit to reading a book.
Features:
- Audible offers high-quality sound and allows to manage the narration speed.
- Audible lets you listen to all downloaded audiobooks in offline mode.
- Syncs all audiobooks to the account connected to all devices.
5. Blinkist – Best Reading App for Quick Summaries
Download: Android, iPad/iPhone
Blinkist is a fantastic reading app that takes the best insights and essential info from thousands of non-fiction books and condenses them into around 15-minute chunks. Read or listen to audio summaries in a wide variety of categories ranging from business finance, parenting, self-help, philosophy. It has some fantastic pieces such as “How to Speak Machine” and “The AI Economy”, and it also has whole audiobooks for premium subscribers.
Features:
- Short 15-minute insights on books and audiobooks
- Remarkable collection from finance to philosophy
- Syncs across all platforms
6. Wattpad – Best Reading App for Indie Authors
Download: Android, iPad/iPhone
Wattpad is a highly rated and fashionable app for reading eBooks, magazines, and other things. The Wattpad app offers millions of stories, novels, poems, books in English, and several languages at your fingertips for book lovers.
Wattpad Studios discovers untapped, unsigned, and talented writers on Wattpad and connects them to global multi-media entertainment companies.
Features:
- A simple app to read, write, share, and connect over stories.
- User-authored stories and community participation are the backbones of this free reading app.
- You can share your library with others.
- You can create reading lists to let your friends know what you’re reading.
7. Kobo Books – Best Reading App for Multiple Languages
Download: Android, iPad/iPhone
Kobo Books is a fantastic reading app for users who want books in multiple languages. It supports more than 11 languages, and you can find books in all formats. The User Interface is also clean and simple and provides an innovative take on promoting various books from different cultures, languages and indie writers. You can download and try the app from the links above, and the cherry on the cake is that many ebooks are free to download and can be saved offline for future use.
Features:
- Has a point system for rewards
- It comes with a night mode setting
- Can work with audiobooks
- Has timer support built-in
- Automatically syncs across all your devices
8. Scribd – Best Ad-Free Reading App
Download: Android, iPad/iPhone
Scribd is an entirely ad-free reading app that works flawlessly and provides a unique reading experience. It comes with a trial feature for new users and has support for millions of ebooks ranging from various genres. It also has built-in support for many publicly released official documents and can even download them for offline reading. So, you should definitely give it a shot and try out the unique features that it presents.
Features:
- Has customizable narration settings for audiobooks
- Can download ebooks and use offline
- Has support for documents, case studies and government reports
- Has an intuitive notes and bookmark process
9. ComiXology – Best Reading App for Comics
Download: Android, iPad/iPhone
Do you love reading comics and having your childhood filled with the beautiful world of superheroes and fantasy. Well, then ComiXology is the app for you. It has a wide variety of free to read comics and can help you bring back the nostalgia of your childhood. In addition, it brings Marvel, DC, Image and other popular comics and indie writers straight into one place for easier management and reading.
Features:
- Has more than 100,000 comics available for reading
- It can be synced across all your devices
- It can be used offline and download comics
10. Crunchyroll Manga – Best Reading App for Manga
Download: Android, iPad/iPhone
Crunchyroll is famous for anime and cartoons. However, it also has a manga app filled to the brim with amazing translated Japanese mangas and light novels. It also brings indie creations that can be downloaded and saved offline for future reading sessions. You can download and try Crunchyroll Manga with a free one month trial and get access to all your favourite series.
Features:
- Has classics and new light novels and manga
- It has an offline downloading feature
- Supports a lot of indie creators and writers
- Syncs across devices with a cloud storage function
Best Reading App for Kids: Libby
Download: Android, iPad/iPhone
Libby is a clean and kids friendly reading app that can be customized and restricted for kids. It has a wide variety of content available and has some of the best children stories listed. It also supports libraries worldwide, making it one of the best ebook-reading apps available for children and parents alike. You can also use it to download books for offline reading, and it also has a narration feature built-in.
Features:
- Has a wishlist and like tab for all your favourite books
- It has a clean interface friendly for kids and easier to navigate
- It can also be used to borrow books for a specific time
Final Verdict
With the new technology we can bring back the joy that reading brings. We don’t need to carry our books everywhere we go, we can read on our smartphone, tablets, iPads or buy a dedicated ebook reader.
eBook apps are here to make reading mainstream again. eBook apps give us quick access to almost every available book in the world.
As once one smart person said: a mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone. Check out these reading apps and keep on reading.
FAQs
Are any books on Kindle free?
Many books can be downloaded for free on the Kindle, but the premium subscription brings a lot of extra features and paid books for offline reading. It also has a wonderful trial period for new users and can help you decide on the purchase.
Which app is best for reading books on iPad?
Apple Books is the best reading app for the iPad as Apple natively builds it, and it supports many features. It also has some great free books that can be downloaded or saved for offline reading, and it also has a robust bookmark feature.
What is the best app for reading books for free?
Google Play Books and Kindle have some great books available for free. However, if you’re looking for comics or manga, you can also download ComiXology and Crunchyroll Manga, as they have many indie books and comics listed for free.
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