What is currently the best ebook app for Android?

December 29, 2014 12:06 PM

Are there any ebook reading apps for Android that approach the level of polish that iBooks on iOS has? Ideally ones that have a continuous-scroll mode and which allow easy font customization?

I read a lot of books on my phone, a Galaxy Note 3. (I'd love a dedicated device or a tablet for this, but money is way too tight right now for such frivolities.) I use the FBReader app, which seems to be the best one I've found but which has never really been great. Attempts to research alternatives quickly devolve into a trawl through a morass of automatically-generated SEO spam and Android enthusiast fora, and have yielded little fruit. Does anybody know of a reading app that is better, with a level of polish closer to that afforded by iBooks?

I'm looking for an app that supports epub and mobi, has a continuous-scroll mode, makes custom fonts relatively straightforward to install or at least offers a selection of some decent reading typefaces, and which has a consistent, non-buggy interface and a UI that hopefully isn't a hideous collage of fake wood plastered in "special offers". I don't want to have to make an account to use it, and I want to be able to load files easily from device storage. Social networking features are irrelevant, except inasmuch as I don't want them to be in the way.

Does anyone know of anything like this for Android? I would definitely be willing to drop a few bucks, if the app is good enough. Thanks very much.

posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The to Technology (5 answers total)

I use Cool Reader. It can do everything you asked for and a lot more. It does, however, have an ugly, fake wood ui. No ads, though. No log in. Books can be added from internal memory or sd.

I don't use social features or bookstores so I don't know how that all works but if you're just looking to read books you already have this may work for you. I know I prefer it to FBreader by a mile.
posted by irisclara at 1:17 PM on December 29, 2014

Best answer: Moon+ Reader has a free version with ads, but there is a pro version that you can pay for. It used to have a horrible faux-wood interface but they seem to have gotten rid of that. It is not quite as nice as iBooks (TBH a lot of the polish of iBooks is the font and typesetting), but it does share some of the nicer design features (like page-turn animations). It has continuous scroll. I don't know about custom fonts.
posted by vogon_poet at 1:53 PM on December 29, 2014

Best answer: Moon+ is the way to go. They just redesigned their interface, and it's gorgeous. It has continuous scroll, nice animations if you're into that, and supports custom (ttf) fonts, though possibly only in the pro version. I'm an Android-only person who works in epublishing, and in my experience, Moon+ is far and away the best option out there. It's on sale through January 4 for 50% off--at under three bucks, it's a steal.
posted by MeghanC at 2:03 PM on December 29, 2014

Best answer: Nthing Moon+, and it's a steal at full price, let alone as it is on sale right now. I bought it years ago and it's had a steady stream of updates since. How they make money I have no idea.
posted by Runes at 2:40 PM on December 29, 2014

Response by poster: Well, Moon+ seems to do the trick! I'd tried it a while back but didn't take to it; this time though I like it a lot, maybe because of the redesign. Either way, I dig it. Thanks, Hivemind!
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 3:27 PM on December 29, 2014