iPad impressions: Book reading options (iBooks vs. Kindle)

I snagged an iPad on Saturday and have been getting it loaded with my favorite apps and tweaks. Over the next few weeks I’ll try to get into the nitty gritty of what I’m doing with my iPad and share my thoughts here. Up first, since several people have asked me about it, are some initial thoughts on two e-book options available for the iPad: Apple’s iBooks software, and Amazon’s Kindle for iPad software.

iBooks

Apple’s iBooks software is free, but must be installed separately through the App Store. It’s very pretty, with clear text and customizable fonts. I don’t care about the page flip animation, but combined with flipping your finger across the touchscreen, it does feel a little more like you’re reading a regular book. The World of Winnie-the-Pooh is loaded on the device by default. I also download some programming books I have access to in ePub format, and they look great. Not only is the text crisp and readable, but screen shots and illustrations are very clear.

Within a book in iBooks, you can adjust the font, font size, and screen brightness. You can also quickly jump to the table of contents and any pages you’ve bookmarked. I haven’t found any other ways to annotate text, but anticipate that in a future release of the software. One navigational aid I really like is the number of pages left in a chapter, shown in the bottom right corner of the screen.

If you’ve ever bought music or an app from iTunes, you know how to buy books through iBooks. There aren’t a whole lot of titles there yet, but it looks like plenty of new releases and bestsellers are there. If you’re like me and have books in the requisite ePub format already, you can sync these to your iPad by dragging them into iTunes.

Update: I figured out how to highlight text in iBooks. It’s actually quite easy–just double-tap, then mark the text you want to highlight, and select “bookmark.”

Kindle for iPad

Amazon’s Kindle software is also available for free download through the App Store. If you’ve already purchased books in Kindle format (either for an actual Kindle device or Kindle software on a phone or computer) you can download these titles quickly. One nice feature of the Kindle platform is the ability to keep your place in a book across all these devices–so you could start reading a book on a Kindle, then switch to your iPhone, iPad, or computer and pick up right where you left off. Kindle doesn’t do the fancy page flip animation as you make your way through a book, but that wasn’t a big deal for me.

Kindle lets you customize font size and background color, including the option for white text on a black background (good for some visual impairments and reading outside). Navigation within a book isn’t as clear to me as it is in iBooks. If you’ve annotated a book on a Kindle device, your highlights and notes are accessible on the iPad version, though I can’t figure out how to add annotations on the iPad. Overall, I liked navigating my Kindle books on the iPad than on my first generation Kindle device (which may be going to a new home soon, as I don’t see myself using it much anymore).

Purchasing new books in the Kindle format requires going to Amazon’s website. This is different from the built-in purchasing of the hardware Kindle or the store feature of iBooks.

Takeaway

I don’t have a strong opinion either way on these two titles. iBooks is prettier, but Kindle is perfectly fine for reading books on an iPad. With both Apple and Amazon tussling with publishers to determine prices for e-books, consumers may win (at least in the short term). If you don’t mind switching between two apps for book reading, check both stores to see who will have the better price.

Related posts:

1. 5 tips for reading books in iBooks on the iPad
2. Built-in reading supports in iBooks, the iPad e-book reader
3. iBooks 1.2 is out! Organize your e-books and print or e-mail book notes from your iPad
4. 4 places to find free e-book classics for your Kindle or iPad
5. First impressions of iBooks Textbooks and iBooks Author: What’s cool and what needs work

Aaron Sumner

Aaron Sumner is the Director of Technology for Research and Development at the University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning. He has worked in web development and instructional technology since 1994.