I have just bought a new ebook reader – it can read my Kindle books of course. But it is just as happy with titles for the Nook, Epub formats for the Sony and it opens Adobe’s ebook format without any problem. It can even cope with Microsoft contribution to the eformat. It will also handle Google Editions when they fill the cloud with ebooks.

As well as coping with every eformat, it has a colour display and a battery that lasts all day. Plus it gets my email, allows me to browse the web and plays my music.

You’ve probably guessed that I am not talking about one of the dedicated ereaders, such as the Kindle, but about my Netbook PC. It is just an ordinary computer, with a few bits of downloaded software to turn it into a universal ebook reader. 

It is twice the size of a Kindle, twice the weight of an iPad. But in exchange, I have a bigger screen than most ereaders and much more functionality. I will of course, not be lying back in the bath with my computer but I don’t risk my Kindle when having a soak. In bed, on the train or slumped in my reading seat, my Netbook has a built-in bookstand allowing me to read hands-free (i.e. It is the normal clam-shape design of other laptops).

The downside is that I can’t slip it into a jacket pocket, but two encounters with pick-pockets mean that I keep my electronics in a holdall. And the epaper for Kindle, Nook and Sony readers is wonderfully clear and easy on the eye. So my Netbook will not stop me using my Kindle – it just offers me more options.

So, if you want to turn your computer into an ebook reader, there are free-to-download applications to allow you to have your own ereader right now. To turn a computer into a flexible ebook, all I have to do is download the various pc or mac versions of the readers. Details of how to do this are below.

There are still four main flavours available at present:

(There is also VitalBook (.vbk) – an interactive format used for educational material.)

All of these can be downloaded free of charge. Most sites also have some free content that you can also download. (I have finally read 'A Wealth of Nations').

To recap and explain a few bits of jargon, ebook-files come in different flavours and so you need the right readers to open them. It is not too complicated as there is EPUB format and the rest. Among ‘the rest’, the Kindle format is the major player. There are more formats and but most readers can manage to read quite an assortment of file-formats.

The other techie idea you need to know about is that most files have a Digital Rights Management system (DRM) sets to limit how the file can be read and moved between devices. Some let you print bits of text but, at the moment, publishers are being fairly restrictive in what they let you do with your ebook.

Just a single word of warning: There is no guarantee that a book you have bought for your PC can be transferred to another device. The ebook is where iTunes was 3 years ago: you risked losing all your music if your computer crashed, or you even wanted to update your iPod, because you were not allowed to make any copies. This will sort itself out when customers start to make a fuss. But just be careful if you are parting with any serious money for ebooks that you will be able to move your copy between devices.

So this is what you have to do:

The reader-software is all free and is easy to find and download.

Amazon’s Kindle

The Kindle reader is downloaded from Amazon. You set up a PC (or MAC) based account which Amazon will recognise whenever you log in. After you sign up for an account, ‘buy’ one of their free books and in five minutes you will have it all downloaded and installed.

Adobe Editions

Unlike Acrobat, Adobe’s PDF Reader, Adobe Digital Editions is a ‘light’ application, just a 4MB download on Windows. But it allows you to organize and read e-books in PDF and Epub format.

Epub is the format used by the Kobo eReader, Apple iPad, Barnes and Noble Nook, Sony Reader, Lexcycle Stanza, WordPlayer on Android and the Mozilla Firefox add-on EPUBReader. I have moved DRM-protected e-books to many of these other mobile devices from my PC.

Adobe Digital Editions (version 1.7.2 (at the time of writing) http://www.adobe.com/products/digitaleditions/ (There are some PDF ebooks around which you can read using Acrobat, and the chances are you will already have it on your computer. Acrobat has a Read Out Loud feature - a computer-generated voice can read the text to you. Sadly, this feature is not available inside Digital Editions.

Microsoft Reader

Microsoft Reader has a fully featured ereader ( with different versions for the various Windows platforms including their Tablet and Pocket PC).  The downside is that the system can only read .lit files although there are some converters provided to make them into HTML files to use on your browser. However, some .lit files can be used on mobile devices running Stanza. But it exists in a bit of an e-ghetto, which is a shame, as the MS Reader has much to offer.

http://www.microsoft.com/READER/

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