I have an iPad Air theoretically coming soon (ordered like a month ago… estimate delivery was any time from two days ago to July 6 ) and was thinking about doing some reading on it. Interested in purchasing books, but especially comics.
I’m sitting around thinking about and waffling whether I’m interested in using Kindle, Apple Books, or something else to read stuff. It’s been kind of fun to obsess over, but I’m curious about everyone’s thoughts here.
Seems like Apple Books, while beautiful to look at, is very barebones and content is more expensive. Kindle is pretty ugly, but seems to have a lot of cool features.
I use Apple Books and Kindle. I don’t like kindle but have to use it with library books. Actually the Amazon prices are almost always the same as the books in Apple Books. Little bit of price fixing going on there… probably.
I used to use Apple Books a lot, but switched to a Kindle paper white for a few reasons. 1) I have a 13-inch iPad, so it is a bit heavy to read in bed at the end of the day. 2) The kindle doesn’t tempt me with any notifications or other distractions. 3) Exporting notes and highlights from Kindle is better than from Apple Books. 4) I like the Kindle community highlight feature. 5) I have no problem bringing the Kindle with me to the beach. I never bring my iPad to the beach.
I was kinda forced onto Kindle by Amazon’s clever pricing schemes. I try to avoid it and often pay a few dollars more for a hard copy of a book I need. I don’t know how Apple books are but Kindle is still very poor regarding illustrations and diagrams. I have a biochemistry book on Kindle that I had to buy a hard copy of anyway because the rendering of diagrams is so bad, comics I think would not be very good on Kindle.
However I am now tied into it really, to my anger, with maybe 200 + books on it that are professional for want of a better word. I never read fiction now.
I really don’t know Apple Books very well as a consequence. I don’t remember being impressed by it initially but I haven’t looked at it for some time and I don’t really even know how it works.
I purchased a few books from Apple when the bookstore opened but switched to Kindle shortly thereafter. Today I use the Books app as a temporary PDF reader for statements, etc. that I don’t want to store as a standard file in the cloud.
Historically I tried both Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nook so I have a library on each. Wish I had just stuck to one source, probably Kindle.
I use Apple Books only for reading EPUB and PDF books that I am able to purchase without DRM (Digital Rights Management) from sources like Baen, Tor, Take Control, and (in the old days) O’Reilly.
I use it for cross platform sync. I tend to buy my eBooks from Amazon and then use the magic of Calibre and plugins to allow me to convert them to ePub. I then drop them in to Books on my Mac and can then read them on my iPad.
However, I recently purchased a Kobo Libra and have been doing a fair amount of reading on that, rather than my beloved iPad Mini - in part as others have said, because it’s less distracting. However, I think after some use, I’ll continue to read non-fiction on Apple Books because the notes sync between devices easier and I can make the notes easier. Using the eInk screen for it is a bit of a pain.
Lack of portability between stores drives me crazy. I think Kindle might be the better place to build a library if buying a lot of ebooks. I do use Books to read public domain epubs, some PDFs and a few purchases from Apple.
I use Books to read and sync a bunch of EPUBs and PDFs I have. I’ve noticed Apple’s book selection isn’t as large as Amazon’s, and sometimes they have the audiobook but not the text version
I get my books from a variety of sources and do exactly the same thing so I can read epubs using my beloved Marvin app on my iPhone and iPad. I’m on the hunt for a decent epub reader for my Mac that isn’t Apple books, which just don’t like at all. The reading experience is fine, but it’s too focussed on its store, doesn’t have tags, and doesn’t allow any editing of metadata and the like. (I’m currently flipflopping between Clearview, Clearview X, and Yomu, none of which have everything I need.) I use PDF Expert for PDFs on both my Mac and my iPad.
In my fantasy life, Marvin isn’t abandonware; has both iOS and macOS versions; handles epubs, PDFs, and comics; with bookmarks, highlights, and notes for every format. That or the long promised Readwise Reader emerges from beta.
I use Apple Books for technical books and epubs that I bought outside the store. I know it’s cheaper to buy from Kindle and Amazon but I try to avoid them as much as I can. We don’t have Apple Books online store here so it’s mostly (except for free Classic books) purchased outside.
Plus I love reading hardbound books and I also have a Scribd account so I have audiobooks and digital books covered.
I have tried several apps for ebooks. Most were good but required a bit of work to get media in them. Some were good at syncing and some not so much. I have settled on Apple Books for my app of choice. Quick to add media, good syncing, good organization. I’d say it’s free, but that’s not really much of a consideration since most of the better apps aren’t that expensive. It does come on all Apple platforms so, if you are all Apple (as I am), it’s really seamless.
The exception is for PDFs that I want to annotate. I’ll use Notability for that.
Now that I said that I could make a case for using Notabiity for all PDFs and keeping Apple Books just for ePubs. On the other hand, Books will send PDFs to Preview, which has some pretty darn good annotation features in its own right and you can use the organization of Books.
OK. I’ve just confused myself. Thought I was happy with the method I’m using, but will have to reevaluate.
Anyway, Books is still a really good app, and one I will definitely stay with for ePubs.
Thanks for sharing everyone! I’m noticing Apple Books seems hard to navigate for comics and there also seems to be random issues or books missing here or there. On the flip side, it is my understanding that the Comixology absorption into Kindle hasn’t gone so great either.
) and was thinking about doing some reading on it. Interested in purchasing books, but especially comics.
Books and Kindle. I don’t like kindle but have to use it with library books. Actually the Amazon prices are almost always the same as the books in Apple Books. Little bit of price fixing going on there… probably.
