There are gazillions of free books out there, but other than the classics, not necessarily a lot you’d necessarily want to read. So you’re probably going to want to do business with one of the readers that accesses one of the bigger stores: Amazon, B&N, Fictionwise/eReader (now owned by B&N), etc.

I love Stanza as a reader for iPhone, because there are lots of customization features (font, size, color, background color, etc.) and it accesses a ton of online stores (not Amazon, and not sure about B&N). I even like it better than the eReader reader because it has more options and still accesses my eReader store library.

But I find I prefer using Kindle for iPhone for two simple reasons. The books tend to be a little cheaper than eReader or B&N, and it is easier to get the books into the app once purchased. Ease of purchase is key! It would be great, however, if they updated the app so you could both purchase material from within the app (a feature available to developers within iPhone OS 3.0), and if you could purchase magazines & newspapers like you can on the Kindle.

I’ve played some with B&N’s new reader. They bought Fictionwise/eReader some time ago, including the eReader app (and maybe Stanza, too?). And even though the new B&N ebook reader is a lot like the eReader app (both the iPhone & Mac/PC versions), there are some serious oversights in it’s design. You cannot access your eReader store library (only your B&N library). Also there is no syncing between your desktop reader & your iPhone reader. So if you are reading on both devices, you have to spend time figuring out how far you read on the other device…

I’m considering buying a Kindle for the larger screen, but an not sure what I think about dragging along yet another device (but I like what I’ve seen of the screen & like the idea that it will sync back & forth). But it sounds like Apple might have a new Pad computer in the next couple months and that might better meet both my reading & computing needs…