Love for reading new books every day often inspires readers to buy, rent, or borrow books from various sources. Avid readers are in a habit of reading books before sleeping, in the morning with tea, on the go, and whenever they want to calm their minds. However, bookworms often realize purchasing books (even if they are second-hand) often gets expensive as many titles don’t have a repeat value. Today when the internet has made everything available online, there are several applications that offer books for free or at nominal charges.
While reading books on your devices doesn’t offer the feel of paper in hand, these apps come in handy when you are traveling on a long route and can’t carry books with you. Online apps have not only made books accessible but also affordable as many of these platforms don’t charge a single penny for the library of books they have. All one needs to do is download the app on their Android or iOS device and start reading.
Here in this article, we are listing some of the best online apps that offer books for reading.
1. Amazon Kindle
Type- Paid version available
Available on- Android and iOS stores
About the app– The Amazon Kindle app is an entity of the Amazon India platform. The app has millions of eBooks that not only include novels, but also self-help books, textbooks, and more. The app allows a limited selection of books to be available for free for Amazon Prime members. Other than that, one will need to buy a subscription to access all the other books on the app.
You can read whatever you want anywhere, anytime on the go. Avid readers can explore new releases, best reads, best sellers, and titles across a plethora of genres like romance, sci-fi, children’s books, self-development, religion, drama, comedy, etc. Books are available in five Indian languages-Tamil, Malayalam, Marathi, Gujarati, and Hindi other than English. It allows you to go paperless and you can turn your smartphone, tablet, or any other device into a book. There are options to track reading progress, chapter time left, actual reading speed, and more. The subscription plan starts at Rs. 199 per month.
Click here to Download- Android | iOS
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2. Wattpad
Type- Mostly free, some content is paid
Available on- Android and iOS stores
About the app- Wattpad is an online book-reading app that has stories written by fans of shows and movies. It includes short stories, full-length novels, romance stories, fanfictions and more. Readers can read stories in their language anytime anywhere on this e-story application. It is not only a book-reading app, but also an online community of over 90 million readers and writers. All you need to do is download any story to start reading it.
Joining Wattpad is easy as all you need to do is sign up to join the community. The app allows free reading of most stories, however some content has to be paid for. Stories can be read together and you can share your libraries to create reading lists to let your friends know what you are reading. Wattpad offers a platform to the writer inside you, as you can weave your own stories and write for free on the app. Browsing across genres and building your library is fairly simple as well. Turn on notifications to get alerts about when the next chapter of your favorite story is updated. Stories inspired by Netflix blockbusters like The Kissing Booth, and Bridgerton are also available on Wattpad.
Click here to Download- Android | iOS
3. Kobo
Type- Purchase available
Available on- Android & iOS
About the app- Kobo Books app is one one-stop app for all eBooks and audiobooks needs. The app has over 5 million book titles to choose from, so there is something for every avid reader. Audiobooks are also available on the app, for those who don’t like to read but want to listen to books. Audiobooks are available for purchase at discounted prices and the reader earns Kobo Super Points for every purchase. You can browse through graphic novels, best eBooks, audiobooks, children’s books, and more. Searches can be narrowed by author, title, genre, and topics as well. There is a free section of eBooks as well. The trending and popular book lists are updated every hour and the app also allows customizing the books you read. There is a recommendations section as well and you can start reading a book on one device and continue on other devices. The app allows you to share your favorite quotes, notes, etc on social media platforms and you can rate and review books however you like.
Books are available in English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Dutch and other languages.
Click here to Download- Android | iOS
4. Cantook by Aldiko
Type- Free
Available on- Android & iOS
About the app- Cantook by Aldiko is a free app to bring eBooks, audiobooks, and comics under the same roof. It is a free app for bookworms wherein they can read their favorite titles on their Android or iOS devices. The app has built-in support for public libraries, and you can browse your library’s catalog to borrow books. Books can be imported as EPUB, CBZ, or PDF files and you can also add your catalogs. There is support for dark mode and various themes and fonts to choose from. Your bookshelf can be organized the way you want and the app has many more user-friendly features as well.
Click here to Download- Android | iOS
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5. Google Play Books
Type- Limited free content, rest paid
Available on- Android and iOS
About the app- Google’s entity Google Play Books is a comprehensive app for all the eBooks, audiobooks, comics, and manga you need. Readers can choose from millions of best-selling textbooks, audiobooks, and more and download books to read on the go. Some books are available for free while others have to be purchased. There is no subscription needed, so you can buy whatever you want to, whenever you want to. If you aren’t sure about a title, read the preview before buying it and there are extra discounts available on select bundles. When you start using this app, you get notifications about the latest launched books and more. With every purchase, the user gets a Google Play credit that can be used to buy further books. Avid readers can browse through books across genres like sci-fi, mystery, thriller, self-help, and more. Options to track your reading progress, organize the library into shelves, save books to SD card, bubble zoom, get translations, look for definitions, etc. are also available.
Click here to Download- Android | iOS
6. Goodreads
Type- Free
Available on- Android and iOS
About the app-Goodreads is a way to find, get, and share books with friends and millions of readers. It is one of the largest online libraries in the world with over 75 million members and 2.2 billion books. Bookworms can scan book covers to instantly read reviews and save the book on your want-to-read shelf. Readers can get personalized recommendations, browse books across genres, see what their friends are reading, and borrow books with links. They can look for any book, rate it, and review it, along with the capability to add status updates for books you are now reading.
Click here to Download- Android | iOS
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7. Project Gutenberg
Type- Free
Available on- Android and iOS
About the app- Project Gutenberg is an app exclusively meant for reading pre-20th century books. You can access it via the website and don’t need the app or account to access classic books. You can read books by text or listen to audio and the categories are easy to filter with over 70,000 titles available. The books cover genres like sci-fi, romance, mystery, regency and more. Authors like Shakespeare, Jane Austen, and George Orwell can be read on the app offline as well as online. You can build your own library, connect with fellow readers, and get access to all these titles for free.
Click here to Download- Android | iOS
8. Inkitt
Type-Free
Available on- Android & iOS
About the app– Inkitt is a free app that offers unlimited books and novels to read. The platform has a library of thousands of books that can be read anytime, anywhere for free. These include fantasy, thriller, horror, mystery, romance, and more books. The books have been hand-picked from all genres to support aspiring authors take their first step towards publication. Books can be downloaded for offline reading, and you also get personalized reading recommendations based on the genres you choose. Readers can customize background colors and fonts and when they want to start reading, they have to tap and hold to autoscroll.
Inkitt has over 700,000 readers at the moment and the main agenda behind the app is sharing the love for books with everyone.
Click here to Download- Android | iOS
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