Thursday, September 09, 2010

The Good the Bad, and the Kobo

For the last year I have been using my iPhone to read books. It was kind of a strange process really, because what I had wanted was a Kindle, and like so many good things, you couldn't buy one in Canada. Add to that the fact that we lived in a shoe box with no room for hardcover books, I knew something had to give. But to say I wanted to move to reading electronic books for just their space saving properties is not the full truth, I also wanted to pay a lot less for my books, a lot less.

But what are you going to do when you can't buy a Kindle (at the time it was the only eReader on the market, fast forward a year and suddenly everyone makes them (figures), and I was unwilling to shell out almost $400 for the Sony eReader. I started thinking about my iPhone. I mean didn't I already watch TV and Movies on the damn thing? Surf the net, email, text, and play games? And as Apple had been repeatedly telling me - there's an app for that - and guess what, there was! A number in fact. Most apps were however, focused on free books, those that had been out sooooo long that they were no longer subject to copyright. Which is not a bad thing, if you haven't read most of the classics, or have a desire to read the classics, or books written in 1916 about spy's who don't use gadgets or sleep with sexy agents who are not cleverly named - like, not at all. But it's not just that, there seems to be this whole subculture of snobs out there who feel that classics are the only thing worth reading. Sort of like those people who tell you they only listen to CBC. Right.

But luckily, for those of us who cherish reading trash, Barnes and Nobel had put out an eReader app. I fell in love and started downloading and reading like crazy on my iPhone. I can't tell you how much I love sitting on my couch and downloading a new book and then settling down to read. Now I have 3 eReaders on my phone and my favorite is Kobo from Chapters / Indigo. I have to tell you this surprises me, because it was pretty shitty when they first released it. It didn't have any of the bells and whistles I loved about Barnes and Nobles's eReader, but over the past 6 months or so they have worked steadily to improve it. Suddenly, they also seem to have the biggest selection of eBooks available as well. The last 5 books I have downloaded I have check all three of my eReader apps (the third being iBooks from Apple) and only Kobo has had them.

So when I decided I need to read Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games series, they were the go to store. Honestly, there selection is amazing when you consider this triology is Young Adult. Then I downloaded two Alison Weir books (historical biography) and Tongues of Serpents (fantasy), and they again they were the only store that had them. Now this week they have released a desktop app so you can read your ebooks on your computer or iPhone. If you are thinking about getting an eBook app, this one is lacking a few fancy functions, but the book selection is the best.

Check it out here.

Posted via email from Completely Barking Mad

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