For people who love to read, there was only one option until a decade ago, i.e. physical books. Physical books do have a charm of their own, some like their smell, some love to have a record of what they have read, etc. Things began to change after the ebook was created. Digitalization has revolutionized the way we read books. Readers have increasingly started to read their favorite titles online. There are a lot of advantages ebooks have over printed books. Let’s review some of those advantages here: 1. Easy to carry Unlike physical books, ebooks are easy to carry and you can read them wherever you want. You can download it instantly, unlike printed books where you have to go to the store and purchase them. 2. Storage One single ebook reader can hold thousands of ebooks which is amazing because you don’t need to worry about a storage limit. It allows a reader to store plenty of books which is very useful to students as they don’t need to carry heavy bags. 3. Easy to update Since these are mostly cloud-based, authors can always update any information they wish without the need to reprint everything. 4. Easy to share An ebook can be shared easily provided it is allowed. If someone is far away and wants to read it, you simply share and they have it instantly versus having to mail it out. 5. Easy to read eReaders have a lot of features nowadays wherein you can change the font sizes, color, brightness, etc. You can choose features which do not cause strain to your eyes. 6. Environment Friendly Millions of trees are cut down to enable paper printing. These can be completely avoided if physical books are replaced by ebooks. 7. More interactive: eBooks can be embedded with video and audio files. There are several other interactive features which makes reading a more joyful experience. 8. Affordable: eBooks are much cheaper than physical ones. You can save money by buying ebooks rather than printed copies. Now let’s take a look at some of the best apps now available in the market for book lovers. Amazon Kindle This is a popular app that is free to download and has many features such as X-ray and Whispersync. It is an app which has a lot of breadths and has a well-designed marketplace where Kindle Unlimited and Amazon Prime members can select and download ebooks directly in the app. Certain disadvantages are it needs a keyboard to navigate and also there is no Epub support. EPUB is an open file standard for e-books used by public libraries and online free book libraries. Goodreads This is another popular app owned by Amazon. You can rate and review books, add books to “want to read shelf” and you can enter into discussions with your friends and know what they are reading. Basically, it’s a social networking site for writers, readers, and anyone who loves books. It also recommends books based on your rating and choices. The disadvantage of this app according to certain readers is that the recommendations are way off the mark. Readers are sometimes recommended books in genres that they have never read, simply because two books share a word in the title. Blinkist This is a book summarizing subscription service. This app is basically for nonfiction readers and people who do not like to read the whole book. It breaks down the key takeaways from non-fiction books and gives you content that’s around 15 minutes of audio or text. This way the reader can get the major key points of a particular book quickly. The drawbacks of this app are there is no fiction category and you may miss out on the humor and story of the book. Libby By Overdrive This is a library app wherein you can access books from your public library by just entering your library card information. This app allows you to sign into multiple libraries and download or read books. You can also listen to books offline and sample any books. It is like having the entire library online. The drawback is being a library app the database is restricted to what your library holds and there is also a time limit. Wattpad This is an app for both readers and writers. On this platform, readers can connect with the writers and vice versa. There are certain features which no other app offers such as readers can leave comments by individual lines and paragraphs. This is a great app for first-time writers. The cons readers find in Wattpad is most of the books in Wattpad are not serious books according to sections of readers and also you will find a lot of unfinished books. If you would like to have a more customized and specific app that will help you as a writer, reader, or publisher, you can create an app of your own. We at SDI have developed highly customized and very unique apps for businesses of all kinds. Get in touch with us and we will run you through all the options and pricing. Call 408.621.8481 or email us at team@sdi.la and we will help you out.