Recently, I posted an article also about the top 5 free eBook readers for Android which I have been reviewing for about a week so, you might also want to take a look at this one as well. Let me now tell you about the results I have come with, after evaluating a lot of eReaders on my Windows machine.
1. Calibre for eBook Management
This is absolutely the number one eReader on my list, I recommend this for any person that love to read eBooks, because this great software will not only let you read, but it will also offer you a wide range of options and possibilities. Actually, it's not just an eReader, Calibre is the most admired eBook Management Tool on almost any desktop environment including Microsoft Windows.
It can read any type of eBook you could think about, it's your typical eBook library manager that you can have on your desktop. It was developed by users of eBooks like you, I don't think there is anybody that can understand your eBook needs more than its community. I don't have any doubts that Calibre will satisfy your needs and desires, and it will surely have any feature you want to manage your eBooks.
I have been supporting this powerful open source software for a long time and I have many articles and tutorials written here on my blog about using it to maximize your benefits. You can read everything regarding Calibre at any time, please take a look at the categories up there for more topics.
2. Sumatra PDF
Sumatra is an open source eReader, which is developed to work on Windows platform only. This program supports formats like: Open XML Paper Specification, DjVu, EPUB, XPS, CHM, CB7 CBR CBT CBZ, MOBI and PRC. One great thing about sumrta is its portability, you can even carry it with on your flash USB drive and it's so lightweight.
Despite its size, Sumatra packs many features, for example, when you're re-opening an eBook it will remember the rotation, window size, zoom, page and other things that you have used last time and recover them back. It's really nice, when you're reading an eBook and you want to stop and continue reading later, it will be opened at the same page you was reading.
There are many other reasons why it's listed as number two eReader on my list, Sumatra has attracted acclaim for its speed and simplicity, you can make use of handy keyboard shortcuts which can enhance your reading experience.
3. Cool Reader
This eReader is just another awesome software for your Windows machine, which is open source like Calibre and Sumatra, it supports quite good amount of eBook formats like epub, fb2, txt, rtf, html, chm, tcr, doc, pdb. It has got some nice features also like pages and scroll view, table of contents and bookmarks as well as a complete FB2 format support: styles, tables, footnotes.
Cool Reader is also considered as one of the best eBook readers for android, so you can benefit from it being installed on your mobile phone and your PC at the same time. There are many features that I didn't mention here, I can't cover everything in one article, you can find them by yourself if you download it.
4. FBReader
FBReader is an open source software as well, it works on many platforms including Windows, it support various eBook formats like: EPUB, FictionBook, HTML, plucker, PalmDoc, zTxt, TCR, CHM, RTF, OEB, mobipocket (mobi) without DRM, and plain-text. It has some interesting plugins that let you for example get free eBooka or connect to some other bookshops to import content.
FBReader offers also unique features like its support for configurable parameters including: font styles, colors, hyphenation, margins, bookmarks and scrolling options. The desktop version seem to be the only eReader that can correctly parse a plain text file's TOC and break a multi-chapter eBook from a single HTML up into the chapters it had before.
5. Adobe Digital Editions eReader
Adobe is an inveterate and majestic company, Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) is undoubtedly one of the best eBook readers for Windows, the reason why it's number five on my list is simply because of DRM restrictions, closed source and its limited support for eBook formats. Obviously, ADE only supports PDF as it was developed by Adobe, and luckily it does offer support for ePub format as well.
Adobe Digital Editions has its own unique and clean user interface which makes it more comfortable for you to use. You can connect devices such as nook and kobo to manage all your books from there, so it works great as a eBook library manager, but in my opinion, it's not as good and open as Calibre for sure
