Mobipocket - Freeware eBook reader

Posted on June 27, 2008 at 5:32 am

Looking for a free eBook reader software? This wasn’t the post I had planned to write today, but I had a last minute change of mind, due to the fact I found a very cool free application yesterday that I want to share with you.

My previous posts indicate that I am a big fan of the EEE PC, which I am. I am planning on making another motorcycle tour of Thailand at the end of the year and had decided to just carry my EEE PC with me this time, instead of a full blown laptop and every other kind of gadget known to man. My quest has been to find free software that I can run on my EEE PC to replace a lot of the gadgets I usually take along, such as a PDA, Smartphone, GPS navigation device and a whole host of other things it seems I cannot live without.

I like to read a lot, but carrying a few books along on a motorcycle journey is always painful due to their size and weight, previously I solved this problem by taking a Palm TX PDA along loaded with eBooks in various formats, this is one device I want to leave behind this time. So I went in search of a good PC eBook reader and found something far more useful.

What I came up with was MobiPocket Reader, which is a free eBook reader deigned as a front end to the MobiPocket eBook store. At first I thought here we go, a lame application that is used to sell even lamer eBooks.

But no, I was wrong, the software offers some exceptional features, and the easy access to the MobiPocket eBook store is an added bonus, as they have a decent range of books at a good price. Commercial aspects aside, let’s talk about why I like this software.

I have a lot of documents sitting on my PC, in many different formats, most of them were or are used as a basis for my research in my freelance writing tasks. I keep losing them, or forgetting which is which, but not anymore!

This eBook reader is actually a suite for building an entire digital library. When you install the software it creates a My eBooks folder within My Documents, and all eBooks are placed into it, anything you drag in will automatically be added to your library, but the hands down coolest feature is the import utility. Just click the import button and you can import and convert a whole range of formats as shown below.

This means all of my reference documents are now sitting inside my own personal library, and can be read from within the reader, I can even annotate them and place markers, all very useful stuff. I love this software, I really do, it’s not often I find something that blows me away as much as this, I hope you give it a try and see the clear benefits of keeping all of your reference documents and books in one place.

The reader itself is easy to use, the font and colour scheme can be changed, and in full screen mode it is perfectly comfortable to read on my tiny 7″ EEE PC screen. Download it and give it a try, I think it is a killer app, one that I am going to be using for an awful lot of things in the coming future.