From the moment that Apple announced the iPad I knew it was going to be a great alternative to the traditional ‘eReaders’ on the market. While the iPad can do a great many things I’m going to focus here on how it functions for reading things (obviously given the theme of this site). For some time I’d been reading books on my netbook and while it worked fine the size of the netbook limited where I could read stuff. The netbook was just too bulky to carry around with me. When the Kindle hit the market I was interested, the idea of being able to wirelessly grab books wherever I was was very appealing, however it suffered the same drawback I saw with every other reader on the market: no backlight!

What? Reading on a lit screen will hurt your eyes? You can’t read long term on a screen? ePaper is just better? I disagree. ePaper is great, it’s readability is wonderful, however much of my reading is done at bed time, after my wife has started snoring so being able to read in the dark is a must and book lights just never cut it. The iPad solved all these problems. The screen is lit, the form factor is small enough to cart around, and it does all the cool stuff and more that the Kindle does.

When it comes to reading novels on the iPad there are several choices open to the end user. First and foremost the iPad comes with iBooks, Apple’s own book reader and store. However, you  can install apps from Amazon (Kindle), Kobo, Barnes & Nobel (Nook) and several other standalone readers such as Stanza, in addition to many, many, single books built as apps. While they all offer slightly different reading experiences they all do basically the same thing, present words on a digital page.

My personal favorite has been iBooks for a few reasons. Firstly, since it’s an app built by Apple itself it has access to things that none of the others have, namely a brightness control that can change the actual brightness of the screen. The other apps can achieve something similar but what they’re really doing is darkening the page not turning down the light emitted by the device. Secondly, many of the eBooks I have come in various formats (pdf, lit, mobi etc) and while converting isn’t an simple task I find it easier to convert to iBooks ePub format as there are more tools out there to do so. Third, iBooks has a built in dictionary, I highlight a word and I can get a detailed definition right at my fingertips, it’s beautiful! Lastly I get a kick out of the page turning animations that iBooks presents, it’s cheesy and unnecessary but I enjoy it, makes me feel more like I’m reading a real book.

The iBooks app comes attached to the iBookstore, this is where it all starts to break down. The functionality for browsing the bookstore and downloading/buying books is fine, it’s all tied into iTunes so it works alright. However, the Canadian version of the iBookstore doesn’t have anything in it other then the ‘free’ books (books that are out of copyright and everyone can offer, Pride & Prejudice etc etc.) so there’s really not point in even browsing around there. This makes finding new books hard and when I run out of books I already own I may have to relegate myself to using the Kindle or Kobo apps. I may buy my future books from the Kobo store because my wife already has an account and the books are already in ePub format.

Overall reading novels on the iPad is a very enjoyable experience. With the connectivity options and the various apps and bookstores it makes obtaining and consuming written media a joy.

The other reading I’ve been doing on the iPad is comic books. As a teenager I was really into comics, I had a pretty good sized collection and more then a few still reside in my basement to this day. However, it’s been some time since I picked one up so when I tried a free sample on the iPad I found the experience to be the most happy surprise I’ve had as an iPad owner. This device almost seems like it was designed with the sole purpose in mind to read comic books on. The form factor is almost identical (if a lot heavier) to a standard comic book and the high resolution and incredible clarity of the screen make the images in a comic book or graphic novel really pop. Pair this with apps like Comics and the Marvel app (Comics repackaged to only offer Marvel titles) and you have a glorious device with a comic shop right at your finger tips.

Overall I have to give the iPad a solid ‘A’. That said, it’s much more then just a reader and while the reading experience is a good one if all you want is something to read books on (and don’t care about the lack of a backlight) check out the Kobo review posted earlier but if you’re looking for more full featured device you can’t really go wrong with an iPad.