The Nine Best iPhone Apps for Readers

The iPhone is one of the most versatile phones on the planet. With thousands upon thousands of apps available, why not turn it into an ebook reader? The slightly larger than usual phone screen and its touch feature make this idea a possibility. The following iPhone apps make it a reality.

Stanza: Developed by Lexcycle, Stanza is one of the finest iPhone ebook readers available. With well over 50,000 titles available for purchase at Fictionwise.com and 50,000 available for free from various online resources like Project Gutenberg, Stanza will keep you entertained for a very long time. Some of the world's best selling authors' books are available for purchase like King, Meyer, Patterson and more. And best of all? The app is free.

Kindle: Amazon's answer to the iPhone ebook. This also free app allows you to purchase books from Amazon and transfer them to your iPhone. Text size is adjustable, book purchases already made are easily transferred for free onto your phone. Most every contemporary novel is available for purchase. An added bonus called Whispersync allows you to "keep your place" when you need to move out of the application.

Clickwheel Comic Reader: Not your usual ebook reader, this application by Clickwheel Ltd brings a huge variety of comics right to your iPhone including the popular Judge Dredd and 2000AD. The application is free.

eReader: This ebook app by Fictionwise is also free and is probably the most popular ebook reader available for the iPhone. With over 100,000 available titles, there are few complaints from users with the ability to customize and auto scroll, plus the format the eReader uses has been used for over a decade.

InstaPaper: This application by Marco Arment is designed to allow people to read content offline. Perhaps you come across a long article or blog post that you don't have time to finish, by using Instapaper you can bookmark the page and read it offline where you might not have an internet connection, like waiting in a line or in the lobby of a doctor's office. What I like about this is it's actually easier to read then the website itself. Instapaper saves the page in text format only, with a slightly larger font size than the original.

Classics: Just as the name of this application implies, Classics, designed by Andrew Kaz and Phill Ryu gives its user access to hundreds of classic books like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Paradise Lost, The Time Machine and so many more. What's nice about this 99 cent app is that it even though you are holding an iPhone in your hand, you have the real sensation of holding and reading a book. The app is elegant and life-like, with pages that turn with your finger.

150 Great Books for 10 Bucks: by BeamItDown Software is very similar to Classics, and is half price at the time of this publication. It is a collection of 170 classic books such as Little Women, The Call of the Wild, Beyond Good and Evil, and more - all in the download. You might think that would take up tons of space but they claim it only takes up .5% of an 8 GB memory. Now if that's the case there really is no reason not to read the classics.

SnapTell: This app created by SnapTell, Inc., is unique in that it allows you to snap a picture of a book, dvd or video game and "instantly" the application will identify the title/artist/author and link you up with ratings, price comparisons and descriptions. The user can keep track of their "snaps" and email snaps and links.

iBookShelf: This application developed by Josh Pressnell is a must have for any book lover. It is not an eReader, it's a catalog of your own personal library. You can also view the covers on your iPhone. There are ways to keep track of the books you've loaned to people and to rate how much you enjoyed a book. At $1.99, it's easier and more fun than an excel file or card catalogue!