Editorial > The Ultimate Guide to e-Book Explorations
The Ultimate Guide to e-Book Explorations
Dais Editorial | 30/09/2020 12:12 PM
At home, around a cup of coffee and a book in your hand that has kept you hooked for the past couple of hours – sounded like the ideal weekend to someone until a few months ago. And we did try. With the pandemic striking earlier this year, and work-from-home forcefully accepted by organizations, more and more of us stayed indoors thinking THIS is our chance! Our chance to vacation while we work, to read on weekdays, to wake up late after a whole night of bingeing on our favourite paperback.
But Coronavirus had other plans. While the virus spread was persistent outside, we kept on spending more hours inside, than usual, performing chores that we had hired help for thus far and running errands to grab necessities at the slightest chance to escape crowds and lockdown rules. How we wondered if prolonged vacations were more like this than we had dreamt of...
Nonetheless, there were those rare times where we were off the hook and started searching for something to stimulate that bookworm in our head. While the earlier reading consisted of what we already had on our bookshelves, unfinished or read a long time ago – by now we are sure you are out of ideas on what to pick up next. And more importantly, where to pick it up from?
The most common queries frequently up on web-search reads somewhat like this . .
Is it worth buying an eBook Reader? Are e-books worth it?
What is better eBooks or paper books? What is the best way to read eBooks?
Where are the best free ebooks ? Which is the best ebook site?
The common run down to the local bookstore or the old library shop is no more the choice. And you have to rely on soft copies of your favourite author’s works. And god forbid if you have to browse through titles to choose something else you might like. The abundance of choices more often tires you out than making you feel spoilt, failing the original purpose. But fear not, we went through the same stress, encountering the end of time with the last book we finished reading at home. Eventually, we went on a hunt to find the best online bookstores to pick up our next read.
Just with one more filter in our minds – Could there be some free ones to read too?
Satiating one’s hunger for reading does not have to come at a heavy price. There are libraries online that provide free readings, of material that has been acquired through reliable methods. There are applications that facilitate the discovery of books and lesser-known authors, that provide readings in English or regional languages, classics as well royalty-free work, that give free access to part of their collections or whatever they have decided to keep in the open.
Like the idea already? The variety is endless and Dais brings the ultimate e-book exploration guide of today. Read on for all the information you need. Go crazy, let binge reading come back!
E-Book Search 3.0 - Android and iOS
Imagine an attic full of books that just does not get over and keeps refilling itself. Or a library that keeps growing toward the sky?
Ebook Search 3.0 application that provides an almost unlimited offer of free e-books. It gives access to more than 8 million e-books from Feedbooks, Project Gutenberg, Smashwords. There is access to more than 8 million e-books across subjects ranging from Classics to Thriller, Fantasies to Science Fiction.You can choose to read on your mobile, kindle, nook, mega reader or your tablet. And that too without a library card!
Kindle - Android and iOS
Unlimited reading. Any device - talk about marketing in 4 words and these sum up what Amazon's Kindle is capable of doing for you. Literature, romance, health, children - there is no limit to what Kindle could bring to your Palmtop.
If you are feeling rich and tantrummy, you could order your books onto an exclusive device called “Kindle” that they say is purpose-built for reading. But if you are one of us, a phone or a tab with iOS or Android installed would just be fine – since the same e-books are available in the Kindle App.
The Kindle application allows its users to read Kindle books in a simple and easy-to-use interface. In it, you will have access to more than 1.5 million books from the Kindle store and more than 1,400 free ebooks. You can synchronize your books with all your devices and get free book fragments (read a free chapter). It allows the personalization of the reading (text size, background color, screen brightness), consult words, searches inside the book.
The Kindle actually allows you to synchronise your books with all your devices to pick it up where you left off on your device. It allows the personalisation of the reading (text size, background colour, screen brightness), consult words, searches inside the book so you feel like a digital assistant is helping you up your knowledge quotient today.
Wattpad - Android and iOS
You do read JK Rowling and Amitav Ghosh. But you also like to be the curator from time to time and read fresh-off-the-oven material? Then Wattpad could be your place to live for some of your reading days. Wattpad connects a global community of 80 million readers and writers through the power of storytelling on one platform.When you join Wattpad, you become a member of an international community of story-lovers. Connect with other passionate readers & writers, comment directly in stories as you read them, and support writers as they create and share their original stories. You can even read together and share your library or create reading lists so your friends always know what you’re reading.
There are more than 10 million books and stories to read, you can get updates from the authors directly about their next publishing, read your saved stories offline just like you would a paperback and customize the interface of the app for your liking when you read. Wattpad also helps its writers cultivate their fanbase and share their unique, unpublished work to a world full of keen readers. Cosy writings, LGBTQ meet-cutes, technothriller and cyberpunk fairy tales – it is rare that you can’t find a thing on Wattpad.
Worldreader - Android only
426 Publishers, 52 languages and 12713 books – this is the constitution of the WorldReader library. Lesser compared to Wattpad and Kindle, you may say? Volume-wise – sure but these are handpicked and read-through before being brought out to you. It is like saying a Junior assistant read all the material and gave you only the best ones to read. They are also the ones for meaningful reading – the aim is to make an impact on world communities and not just read for leisure. Education, economic opportunity, gender equality, health, political science – their topics will make you rethink your priorities as a reader, as a world citizen. So be conscious of your purpose when you pick this one.
Worldreader gives you access to an enormous digital library with thousands of free carefully curated ebooks from around the world. You can find the best free romance, sports, educational, religious, fiction, and nonfiction books to add your bookshelf on the Worldreader app.You can now download books, read them offline, and take them anywhere. Simply choose a digital book, download it via the book details screen, and have it appear in your offline reading library.
Kobo - Android and iOS
Giants of the Monsoon Forest, Artemis Fowl, His Mistress with two secrets and the Science of Conjecture – oh, we browsed and browsed how! Spoilt for choice and eager to pick one up. Yesterday’s classics to today’s bestsellers, Rakuten Kobo or Kobo as it is fondly known gives you an endless catalogue of over 5 million titles to choose from. You could choose to go shelf less with Kobo’s reading device or just download the app on your phone and get busy with your favourite author’s work. Even the free ones have some immense reads like The Haunting of the Sunshine House and Wanderer’s Odyssey.
The app synchronizes the reading point where you strayed, your bookmarks and notes, and the highlights. You can also add books to your library from the mail, the web or Dropbox and post it on your social media for your friends to know what you’re reading this week.
24symbols- Android and iOS
Are you the no-commitment types who loves to gain new experiences but may not want a lifetime of it? So, buying a device or a full-year library subscription may not be how you function? 24symbols seems to be just the solution for your type. With topics ranging from romance to crime, fiction to biographies, the list is endless to choose from. They charge only a monthly fee to open the digital door to their library. And once opened, a whole world of more than 1 million titles opens up to you like the Hogwarts Great Hall of Harry Potter.
The reading of the books is through streaming, so you will not have problems with incompatibilities or formats. So, go right ahead and find that book you’ve been looking for. With 24symbols you can access a large number of free (5,000) or premium books (more than 500,000). With this service, you can read digital books of thousands of genres in several languages. The reading of the books is through streaming, so you will not have problems with incompatibilities or formats. From the application, you can create shelves, organize and place your ebooks.
Media 365 - Free eBooks - Android and iOS
Media365 is an online service for great eBooks from all genres and categories that you can enjoy reading for FREE. Discover and read stories in 17 languages from writers around the world! - English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, German, Dutch, Hindi, Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, Bulgarian, Russian, Czech, Indonesian, Turkish and Vietnamese. Search across genres like thriller, romance, science fiction and fantasy - read any book for Free. Great stories in just one sitting.
Inkitt - Android and iOS
Inkitt is an application to read books and novels in English on your smartphone or tablet, specially designed for avid readers who love to read novels by new authors. There are books of fantasy, science fiction, love, fear, suspense, mystery, action, adventure, and drama.Get free access to amazing pre-published novels from all genres, be the first to scout talented writers, and get mentioned inside the novel once your story is published
500000 novels, fiction from every category (Romance, fantasy, Thriller, Action) and 2 million readers and writers – Inkitt sure is making a splash as Wattpad gets older. Of course, the primary idea is to give budding indie authors an audience and exposure. So, the app is free and lets you discover as much as you’d like without shelling out a penny. A recommended past-time for the lockdown weekends!
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cribd – Android only
Scribd is almost synonymous with book reading for the library going types.
At a minimal fee every month, cancellable at any time, Scribd gives the much-needed freedom on a much larger platform. Magazines, audiobooks, source documents and of course traditional paperbacks in digital form promise to make you the smartest person in the room – ha-ha, or at least that’s what their tagline promises. The website interestingly allows the reader to browse books across interests which are well-titled too – Career and Money, politics and current affairs, science and tech and so on. So, the reader knows exactly which digital aisle to wade through.
Apple Books - iOS
Ahh, how could there be a list without an exclusive something for the Apple users. The iPhone and iPad wallahs always have something done differently for them. And so has Apple Books. Known as the digital nightstand, apple books offers a stay-at-home collection of books and audiobooks for adults and children across various genres. Apple offering something for free, though rare but is always a welcome gesture. And mind you, there is some good stuff like Jane Austen and Lewis Carroll’s works to read from.
The dark mode on the Apple devices definitely make this one a 24hour companion.
Last but not the least, this actually stands popular with a huge block of crowd - The National Digital Library of India. Free National Digital Library with 1.70 cr books opened in 2014. To access the NDLI, a user is required to register on its website. To enable people to access the digital library on their mobile phones and other Android-based devices, the NDL team has developed an application which can be downloaded from Google Play Store and other platforms.
So many options to choose from and so little time?
Let us give you a Headstart in the eBook world.
You think you’d like to read well-read and famous works of known authors and are ok to shell out some bucks – Absolutely go for the Amazon Kindle. The device works fantastically for the bookworms who can devour up an entire bundle in a couple of hours. But the app is wonderful and glitch-free too.
And if you are feeling adventurous from time-to-time – pickup a Wattpad story and let your imaginations do the talking. Who knows, you could get inspired and start writing too!
Reading is dreaming with open eyes. - Anissa Trisdianty | Happy reading !
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