Stanza Stands Out As The iPhone's Best eBook Reader

Stanza is the most robust eBook reader for the iPhone, and it's free. Other options include eReader, but none are as polished and feature-rich as Stanza.

It's primary asset is a large library of fully available and free eBooks. We immediately went the download section of this App and downloaded 22 great classic novels, such as 1984, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, The Jungle Book, etc.

Each page of the book is viewed separately and you flick through them just like leafing through a book with your finger. If you double tap the screen you get some options at the bottom of the screen. There are options for changing the font display, size, etc. You can get back to the main menu, use a scroll bar to navigate the book and you can even search for specific text.

Another feature that makes Stanza stand out is that you can import your own eBooks into Stanza using a computer based program currently in beta testing for Mac or Windows that is available from LexCycle. eBooks created in this fashion are shared wirelessly between your iPhone (iPod Touch) and computer.

According to the LexCycle website, "The eBooks themselves are stored as RTFs, but you can import multiple formats like PDFs. Stanza features built-in support for HTML, PDF, Microsoft Word and Rich Text Format reading, as well as all the major eBook standards: unprotected Amazon Kindle and Mobipocket, Microsoft LIT, Palm doc and the International Digital Publishing Forum's new epub Open eBook standard. In addition to supporting a plethora of formats, Stanza features an open API that allows developers to implement support for their own document formats. Stanza is more than just a reader: it is a reading platform! "