eBook readers and free eBooks.

I have been reading about 80% on my iPad lately, and although I prefer the iBooks application to others, there are advantages out there to all of the major apps.  I prefer the layout in iBooks, but I also like the visual feel of the Nook reader.  I prefer both to the Kindle reader.  I don't really understand why, however, in landscape in the Nook app, with a small font size, I get two columns and with a slightly larger font size I only get one.  I would like two columns no matter my font size.

I like the progress bars in both iBooks and Nook better than Kindle as well.  I love that the iBooks app tells you at the bottom how many pages you have left in any particular chapter, so you don't have to flip ahead to see whether you should quit now or if you can finish the chapter before you go to sleep.  But I really like in the Nook app that the page numbers are related to the print pages, not the screen pages, which makes it easier to really know where you are in the book, in a reference that we can all relate to.  I also like to know how long my book REALLY is. 

However, the Nook sync between devices does not work as easily as either the Kindle or iBooks.  On both Kindle and iBooks, this works seamlessly, but in Nook, my book never seems to sync between my phone and my iPad even though it's supposed to.  

One of my favorite features of the Nook is that you can "loan out" books, which is an advantage if you have a friend or husband to share your reading with.  You just send your friend an email, and they will have two weeks with the book.  Most people I know can read most books in that time.  This is a feature that you don't find in either Kindle or iBooks but which makes Nook much more appealing for purchasing.

The major problem with iBooks, since I really do love the layout, is not that it can't loan out books, but simply that the iBookstore does not have nearly the selection of the other two.  I keep reading this in the press as a failing of the iPad, but that clearly not the case, as all the other readers are available.   This is a failing of the iBookstore.  I finished my book a couple days ago and went to buy a new book.  Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, not in iBooks.  The Finkler Question, not in iBooks.  Three or four more that were on my list - not in iBooks.  Ok, time to look someplace else.  All of these were available from Amazon and Nook, so someone else gets my money.

Another benefit of eBooks are the occasional freebies.  Here, again, the advantage goes to Kindle and Nook over iBooks.  IBooks has freebies from the Gutenberg project, but both Kindle and Nook have a variety of other promotional freebies, which change quite regularly.  A lot of these are cheesy romances -- lots and lots of cheesy harlequin style romances -- and science fiction, but there are a couple each week which are popular, well-reviewed and well regarded.  This is what I found this week:

On Kindle:  Fireflies in December.  This was the book club selection for the book club that many of my friends belong to a couple of weeks ago.  They all thought very highly of it.  It's next on my list after The Finkler Question, which I did buy.

On Nook, Reckless by Cornelia Funke.  Funke is one of my favorite authors of kids books, from the illustrated to the advanced chapter.  She wrote Inkheart, The Thief Lord, and The Princess Knight, amongst others.  This is a brand new book of a brand new series by her, and free right now for the Nook.