Using a smart phone as an eBook reader

I personally love having eBooks on my phone so at any moment I can have a good book at my fingertips.  I read books on my phone in all those places that I find myself waiting such as doctor's offices or waiting to pick someone up at the airport.  So it's important to me to find a decent eReader App to use on my phone.

I recently had my beloved BlackBerry Bold 9930 die on me.  Actually I killed it by getting the keyboard wet.  I dried it out for several weeks, but alas, it never fully recovered.  The Documents to Go App on the Bold did a wonderful job displaying PDF's.  Many of the books I purchase from independent authors/publishers are in the PDF format so it worked out well to simply copy these files from my computer to my phone.  Voila!  I had portable books at my fingertips.

I also use the desktop program calibre, http://calibre-ebook.com, developed by Kovid Goyal to reformat PDF's into ePub or mobi formats.  The program is free and it comes in handy if you buy from independent sellers and need to switch formats to work with your App.  I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to turn a PDF into an eBook format.

When my BlackBerry Bold died, I switched to my hubby's old iPhone 4 for a month or so.  A few days into being part of the iPhone world I knew I had to find a good eBook reader to get me by.  The iPhone 4 is far from current issue so many of the Apps offered on Apple's website don't work.  I did find an App I really liked - NeoSoarBook.  I got books (ePub format) to my phone by syncing with iTunes.  Adobe's PDF Reader is also available for the iPhone 4.

But I REALLY missed the physical keyboard of my old BlackBerry along with the fact that the BlackBerry acts like a flash drive so moving files is as easy as drag-and-drop.

I couldn't resist the siren call to return to BlackBerry so I purchased a new Blackberry Classic.  I downloaded two Apps for my eBooks: PlayepubBook and Bonfire Reader.  Both of these Apps are available on BlackBerry World.  I didn't venture into the Android Apps which will now work on BlackBerrys.  Of the two Apps, I prefer Bonfire Reader, but both are excellent and it was easy to get titles from my computer to my phone.  Bonfire Reader uses a book file folder so it is super easy to just drag-and-drop a title into the folder while my phone is linked to my computer via USB cable.

I refused to have any dealings with Apps that required an upload of a title to the company's server to sync with my phone.  That could lead to serious copyright infringement!  If I buy a eBook is stays on MY devices.

I hope this information is useful to any of my readers who are looking for eBook readers for their smart phones.