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- Audiobook reader software, free download helps users to load any audio book onto the software and listen to it. Audiobook reader for windows and audiobook reader for PC are also available as it is easy to use like the audiobook reader online, free.
- Best-selling authors. New release titles. Classics and crowd-pleasers. Your local public library’s digital collection has it all.
Ebooks are a great way to enjoy literature – they’re cheaper than print books due to the lack of print and distribution costs (and completely free if the work is in the public domain), and you start reading seconds after buying one.
You don’t need a specialist device like a Kindle either thanks to the many free ebook readers available for your desktop. These are particularly good for students who want to reference texts in their work, add annotations, or refer to online resources.
So what makes a good ebook reader? For general use, a clear layout and the ability to sync your bookshelf across multiple devices are essential; for students, note-taking and bookmarks are essential; and for anyone who sometimes struggles with their eyesight, text-to-speech and one-click font customization are welcome additions.
- Thinking of buying a Kindle? Find the right one for you
1. Kindle for PC
The best free ebook reader, whether you use Amazon or not
Amazon’s official Kindle app for Windows (as well as Mac and mobile devices) is smart and stylish, and although it tempts you with reading suggestions from the Kindle store, the sales pitch isn’t too in-your-face.
There’s no setup necessary if you already have an Amazon account. Just log in with your usual username and password and your virtual shelves will be populated automatically (though you’ll have to click a book’s cover to download it, so bear this in mind if you’re planning some offline reading). Notes and bookmarks are synced across devices automatically, as are flashcards – an extremely useful addition for students using digital textbooks for revision.
Kindle for Windows also includes text-to-speech function, and changing font sizes and color schemes is as simple as clicking or tapping a button.
2. Freda
Premium features for free – Freda is a real rival to Amazon’s crown
Freda (from the delightfully-named Turnipsoft) is a superb ebook reader that integrates with Project Gutenberg, giving you access to thousands of free ebooks, and Smashwords, where you can find works from independent authors and publishers. Importing your own ebooks is a piece of cake too, with support for all the most popular formats. You can even connect Freda to your Dropbox account enabling you to access books from multiple devices.
Freda supports bookmarks, annotations and highlighting, making it a good choice for students. There’s also text-to-speech for anyone who has trouble with text on screens, as well as auto-scroll and speed-read – a tool that works much like Spritz, displaying words in quick succession so you can read without moving your eyes.
Freda is funded by ads, but these are discreet and are only visible on the bookshelf screen; they won’t interrupt your reading.
3. Calibre
An open source ebook reader that’s a great choice for students
Calibre is an open source ebook reader and manager that’s lightweight and lightning-fast. Unlike many free ebook readers, Calibre supports Amazon’s AWZ format (though it won’t open DRM-protected files) as well as all the other popular ebook file types, and if any metadata is missing (such as genre or cover art), you can add it yourself using the bookshelf’s options menu.
One of Calibre’s best features is Reference Mode, which displays the current chapter and paragraph number in the top left – ideal if you need to cite references in an essay. We also like Flow Mode, where text is shown as a continuous scrolling stream without page breaks; not as pleasant as simulated page-turning for recreational reading, but a handy time-saver to avoid flicking backwards and forwards through a textbook.
4. Sumatra PDF
A PDF, ebook and comic reader that's ideal for multiple PCs
Despite its name, Sumatra PDF is a great little ebook reader, capable of displaying books in EPUB and MOBI format, as well as comic books in CBZ and CBR comic books.
Sumatra PDF is a portable app, so you can save it to a USB stick or cloud storage service and use it on any PC. You can save your ebooks in the same place too, eliminating the need to sync your library.
It’s easy to adjust basic settings like font size, but Sumatra PDF’s advanced options can only be edited by opening a text file and typing in new values. If you want to change the page color, for example, you’ll need to find the hex code for your preferred shade and enter it on the appropriate line. It’s not difficult, but we’d prefer a graphical interface.
There’s no way to add notes or highlights, but the convenience of carrying your ebook library and reader anywhere might outweigh those drawbacks for you.
5. Icecream Ebook Reader
A stylish free ebook reader, but lacking advanced features
Icecream specializes in smart, no-frills software, and Icecream Ebook Reader is no exception. It supports EPUB, MOBI, PDF and FB2 ebook formats, and once you’ve imported your books they’re arranged in a neat bookshelf with a choice of viewing options. One particularly handy feature is the ability to archive and export your ebooks; ideal if you use more than one PC and don’t want the hassle of importing your books twice. There’s no cloud syncing though.
The reader itself is similar to the Kindle app in appearance, with one-click (or tap) buttons for changing font size, color theme (day, night, or sepia), and viewing the table of contents.
Unfortunately, some of the options you can see in the menus are only available if you hand over US$19.95 (about £15, AU$25) for the Pro version. Premium features include importing multiple ebooks simultaneously, adding notes, editing metadata, and copying text.
The free version of Icecream Ebook Reader is quick and very easy to use, but only really suitable for recreational reading. Students will find the lack of note-taking and copying frustrating.
- Want to write your own ebook? Check out the best free software for writers
Take your love for literature to a new level! With the best audiobook apps for iPhone and iPad in 2019, you will be able to listen to your favorite books whenever and wherever you want.
If you love audiobooks, then you very well know that it can be an enthralling way to keep you occupied during extended travels or long road trips. Once you go with a suitable audiobook app, your iPhone can become your mobile library, and you don’t have to miss out on an interesting book ever again.
There are different types of audiobook apps. It’s hard to classify one particular app as the best as the choice mostly depends on what exactly you’re looking for. The subscription services take different approaches to their functioning. Some offer unlimited online streaming while some give you a limited number of downloads every month and letting you own the downloaded books.
Best iPhone Audio Book Apps of 2019
#1. Audible
The Audible app is arguably the biggest and most popular among the audiobook apps available in the market. Audible offers fantastic audiobook file management by segregating audiobooks into two types, the audible direct downloads, and the iPod library content. This app also translates and shows most of the iTunes meta-data such as chapter, summary, and categories thus helping you organize your library more efficiently.
Audible offers you the usual player controls such as play-pause, R-F, chapter navigation, bookmarking options, scrubbing and speed of narration. Audible’s best feature by far is the option to directly download the audio books from audible.com for offline listening.
Price: Free
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#2. Audio Books
Audio books by audiobooks.com is a cloud-based platform that provides a good audiobook app for both the iOS and Android users. As a subscriber, you can pick from a collection of about 50,000 audiobooks encompassing almost every genre.
You can use the search feature to discover new audiobooks and then can either stream these audio books or download them for offline listening. The app gives you the necessary controls like playback speed, auto bookmarking and other such features. It also lets you sync across devices letting you continue listening to the audiobook on whichever device you are using.
Price: Free
Download
#3. Overdrive
The Overdrive Media Console app offers you mp3 audiobooks that can be downloaded to the iDevice library. Presently, this app only allows direct library downloads using Safari. You may find the downloading process slightly awkward at first.
The app also needs a valid library card for downloads as it works as a gateway to the public libraries’ collections. Using the “Get Books” feature in the app, you can locate close by libraries and add them to the app. The one not so likable aspect of this app is the download limit of 3 imposed on the user. The app gives you a standard audiobook player with all the usual features and a useful file management system including selective file downloads and rapid file deletion.
Price: Free
Download
#4. Scribd Audio Books
Scribd is a popular platform hosting a ton of e-books that can be read online. Now, it is offering audiobooks as part of its on-demand service letting users stream or download an unlimited number of audiobooks from its 30,000 title collection. You can get this for a monthly fee of $8.99 along with access to Scribd’s vast e-book collection. After finding the book you want from Scribd’s library, you can add it to your library, and can even download it if you wish to read it offline.
At the price point, it’s offered at, Scribd’s new audiobook service is certainly enticing enough to try out.
Price: Free
Download
#5. LibriVox Audio Books
If you are one of those audio bookworms who are not after the most recent bestselling books, then LibriVox can be a pretty good audio books app for you. This app gives you access to more than 15,000 free titles predominantly filled with public domain works including classics and out of print books.
You can search by the book’s title, author or genre. On finding the right book, you can save it and listen to multiple books as you desire. You can also have limitless bookmarks along with a sleep timer. You may find the narration standards to fluctuate, but for the cost of nothing, you can get access to great audiobooks.
Price: Free
Download
#6. Audio Books 15000+
As the name itself suggests, this app offers you a selection of over 15,000 audiobooks for your listening pleasure.
Once you download the app, simply search through the different titles in varying genres like classical, fantasy, children, etc. Just select the one you want and download it for listening to it anytime offline.
All the books have proper descriptions and also the option to be played back in split tracks. You get the usual audiobook playback controls. Best of all, this app is completely free yet provides you decent audiobook collections.
Price: Free
Download
#7. Bookmobile Audiobook and Podcast Player
The Bookmobile app is designed particularly for reading out audio books which mean that it’s optimized for spoken voice and therefore delivers a clean, can output. This app provides an excellent audiobook player that’s easy to use while loaded with playback adequate features.
This app lets you import content from your iTunes library, the Internet and even from RSS feeds. The app functions very smoothly with both DRM-enabled content and non-DRM-enabled content. In fact, you can download non-DRM audio directly into the App.
Price: Free
Download
#8. Audiobooks Now
What has caught my attention in this app is the gigantic collection of over 85,000 audiobooks. You can browse through the entire library and download your favorite books to listen. And yes, once you have downloaded the books, you don’t need an Internet connection to listen to them.
The app provides audio playback speed control, and there is also a manual bookmark and labeling feature. You will be able to skip books within a track list. Using cloud service, you can sync your books across your devices.
Price: Free
Download
#9. SmartBook
“SmartBook” is a fully-featured audiobook app for iOS, which lets you download and listen up to 11,000 books for free! You can import and play any book. The app is able to remember where you stopped listening so you can start off where you left the last time. Besides, it lets you keep a tab on your status as well.
You can adjust the playback speed and also shorten the silences. It has the support of multiple files including MP3 files, M4B and M4A files. Moreover, you can use the sleep timer to set the app to automatically stop once you have listened to your fav book at night.
Price: Free
Download
#10. vBookz – Free Audiobooks
vBookz is a great audiobook app for kids learning how to speak and read or for people with visual impairments. It offers a unique read along male or female voice synthesizer, which can be enabled or disabled. Even if you do not like voice synthesizers, the app provides a great collection of e-books to keep you hooked.
The app gives you the facilities to bookmark, choose and resize fonts, opting between night and day reading, a pretty good search feature and animated page turning. If you are a German, French or Spanish speaker, then the app offers some book versions in these languages.
Epub Reader For Mac
Price: $4.99
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That’s all, folks!
What’s your favorite?
Ten to one, you have picked out some of the audio books from this list to enhance your listening experience. May I know their names and the features you have appreciated in them?
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