11 Bestselling Book Apps For Adults And Kids

When you go to the app store, look for the best books. Yes, instead of searching for Twitter, Facebook, a navigational or weather app for your iPad, iPhone or Droid, go to the app store to buy book apps.

What's a book app? They usually have have multi-media features, frequent--sometimes daily--updates and all kinds of web and social media functionality you wouldn't find in a straight up eBook. They live on your mobile device and are becoming more popular every day. Let us know which of the apps you'd download by voting in the slideshow below.

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The Elements: A Visual Exploration

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One of the hottest book apps right now, "The Elements" brings the periodic table to life through text and 3-D images. It explores a whole new way of learning.

The Queen and the U.S.A.: The Future of the Special Relationship

8 Ways Humans Could Cause Our Own Extinction

The Origins Of 7 Popular Slang Words

Self-Diagnosis Book: 11 Nasty Ailments You Might Have (PHOTOS)

What Are The Most Well-Read Cities In America?

Eating Badly: 7 Consequences Of Fast Food

One of the hottest book apps right now, "The Elements" brings the periodic table to life through text and 3-D images. It explores a whole new way of learning.

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This Book App

Rank #2  |  Average: 4

Skipping it Gotta download!

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Top 5 Book Apps

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Comments

[brettrobbins]

03:16 AM on 06/22/2010

The "clever" Alice "book" (slide 8 out of 12 above) is the future of "reading": rather than let the imagination generate the images represented by the words on the page, the images are going to be provided for us along side the words to keep us interested enough in the "literature" to prevent us from getting bored, putting it down, and moving onto something else more sensationalistic, like TV or video games. Goodbye imagination, hello prefabricated substitutes for verbal imagery to compensate for the death of the imagination.

[scodavis1]

01:31 PM on 06/24/2010

I just read 'Alice in Wonderland' for the first time in my life and it was delightful, as were the now world-famous illustrations by John Tenniel.

Children's books have often included illustrations and this seems to be a natural extension of that tradition.

I'm afraid you are about 150 years too late with your disapproval.

[brettrobbins]

02:49 PM on 06/24/2010

Unless children's books from 150 years ago feature "animations, and interactive pictures that move around when you tilt or jiggle" the books they illustrate, your analogy is flawed. Tenniel's pictures are just that: pictures, STILL pictures, which, like the text, require the imagination to bring them alive for the reader.

[garyd63]

07:50 PM on 06/25/2010

Exactly right.

When are ebook enthusiasts going to admit that readers of ten, twenty, forty years ago are not the same as the non-readers reared on iPhones and video games? Those gaga over books on screen grew up readers of traditional print sources. They stacked up a nice vault full of print on the page reading capital; acquired the skills of concentration, self-motivated imagination, and patience. This is what our children will be missing as books on screen blur and destabilize reading practices. (See Mary Anne Wolf's “Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain.”) And what will be there instead? Gone or severely compromised will be what readers of print on the page eagerly searched for and expected while reading a great book. All lost and/or diminished as screen readers dash to the next, and then the next, surface stimulus. Readers in the past sought comprehension and meaning; readers of screens surf and skim. And what should we expect from a generation raised on twittering?

[brettrobbins]

11:59 PM on 06/25/2010

Exactly right, as well. Thanks for the reference--will definitely take a look at it--as soon as they come up with the eBook amusement-park-for-the-eyes version, of course. :]

[Oxonian2001]

01:18 PM on 06/21/2010

Apologies for this dumb question, but I'm a thorough Luddite:

I usually try to find rare 18th- and 19th-century books on Google before I search for them on interlibrary loan. (Actually, many are not even available for loan since they are "rare" books.) Stuff like John Mitchel's History of Ireland from the Treaty of Limerick... Trouble is, it can be a pain sitting at the computer reading them all day. Is it possible to get books from Google on an e-reader? What's the best e-reader for this?

[MenderofRoads]

10:18 PM on 06/21/2010

Is it possible? Definitely.

How do you do it? No idea.

I have a kindle, but the only books I've read were ones I downloaded from Amazon (some were free). I know you can download files from other websites, and I believe they have to be a certain type of file.

[scodavis1]

01:42 PM on 06/24/2010

If you have any of the iThings, you can download the STANZA app for free.

You can then download any of the books at the Gutenberg project absolutely free from the app. It reads the ePub format and there is a free program named Calibre that will convert from other formats to ePub.

With the most recent update to the Istuffs' software, you can now upload your books directly through iTunes.

I just found this app 3 days ago and have already read two books. I was convinced I wouldn't like reading on a screen, but my iTouch is just the right size to fit in my hand while my thumb turns pages, and you don't even need a light on in the room for late night reading. :)

There is also the option of going with one of the single purpose ebook readers, but I'm happy to have my browser, music, movies and video, notepad and books all in one place. You sacrifice battery life for this convenience as the iStuff usually has about an 8 hour battery life, while I believe the Kindle, Nook and those sorts of readers have a much longer battery life.

If I'm down for a long read, I just plug in for a bit every once in a while.

http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page for more info on the Gutenberg project, probably a good source of books for you.

[Oxonian2001]

02:20 PM on 06/24/2010

Thanks! I've been going around to Barnes and Best Buy and few of the sales associates know anything about the relative advantages/disadvantages.

I'm trying to decide whether I want my movies, music, video, books, browser all in one. (As it is, I'm reading right at my computer right now and I keep getting distracted by Huffpo, LOL.)

The Gutenberg project and it's handy especially when I want to cut and paste passages for lectures rather than having to retype them from scratch.

[garyd63]

11:13 AM on 06/21/2010

Book app! What does this stand for: All Purpose Profligacy?

[scodavis1]

02:03 PM on 06/24/2010

Ever since the printing press was invented there have been people who thought that the 'masses' shouldn't be reading.

I believe reading is good for you, whether you prefer ebooks or paper books. There really isn't a downside unless you are an old dried up cynic who abhors change.

[garyd63]

12:03 AM on 06/25/2010

What if "change" denudes the reader of comprehension, concentration and empathy. Now there's a result that will create narcissistic young cynics right and left. Read "The Shallows" and then check back in.

[inkongirl]

09:36 AM on 06/21/2010

Call me old fashioned but I prefer actual books, not book "apps". And what's wrong with going to the library?

[scodavis1]

01:59 PM on 06/24/2010

Absolutely NOTHING is wrong with the library, especially if you have easy access.

Here's what I like about my new found book app reading obsession:

1. You can hold it in one hand and operate the page turn with your thumb.
2. You can annotate as you go.
3. Tap a word, get a definition. I used to read with a Dictionary at my side. Yes, I'm one of those.
4. My wife loves that I no longer need a reading light, I use an iTouch so it's already lighted!
5. I can carry hundreds of books with me anywhere I go. If I get a little bored with something heavy, I just switch to something lighter for a while. The reader keeps track of where I am and automatically opens any book to the last page I read.

I am very old fashioned, or I guess I should say I was very old fashioned until I actually tried the free STANZA app. I could never read a book on a computer screen, I'm quite certain of that, but holding a small device in one hand or propped up against a pillow at night is quite like reading a small paperback book.

It has also exposed me to thousands of new titles I would normally not buy or check out of the Library. I'm starting 'Wuthering Heights' now which I somehow missed growing up and 'The Count of Monte Cristo' is patiently waiting for me to finish up.

[Pyegar]

09:08 AM on 06/21/2010

Toy Story 3 Read Along : $8.99. Looks great, but not free.

[pinkibus]

08:38 AM on 06/21/2010

How about going to the library and getting out a few books and sitting in the hammock or reading to a child. It is such a cozy, peaceful thing to do. Apps. They are good on the bus or while waiting for a bus. I like to walk in the woods and there ain't no app which can be real like that or real like a book.

[scodavis1]

02:06 PM on 06/24/2010

You're wrong. Reading is a conversation between the writer's words and your brain. It is completely immaterial how those words get to your eyes.

These new devices are real. They are not magic or witchcraft or ESP. The 'real' part of books are the words. The paper is just one kind of media to print those words on.

I lay in the hammock up at the lake and read books all the time. REAL books on my iTouch.