by Steve Gregory

Created on: November 10, 2010   Last Updated: December 06, 2010

Reading a book on your computer or e-reader is now a mainstream activity.  Odds are in favor of you at some point in time reading a book on your computer or e-reader (if you haven’t done so already).  There are plenty of free sites for electronic books (Project Gutenberg [www.gutenberg.org and gutenberg.net.au in Australia], ManyBooks.net, Memoware.com, etc.), but if you want current best-sellers, top authors, and up-and-coming voices, you’ll need to spend a little money.  The following list gives you an idea of where the best sites are, how good their selection is, what sort of price you can expect to pay, and file compatibility.

1.  BarnesandNoble.com

* Selection: One of the best.  B&N boasts more than a million available books.
* Price: $ (their free books are kind of iffy on quality, but the price for other books is in line with the other top sites)
* Compatibility: Protected EPUB files, but can be read on most e-readers, including Nook, Kindle, Kobo eReader, Sony Reader

While I hate to say one giant company is better than another, this is really your best place to start.  Their prices are comparable to prices on Amazon (most are identical, some lower, and some higher), and purchasing is easy.  Books can then be downloaded and read on any compatible device (computer, Nook, smartphone, iPhone, iPad).  Barnes & Noble also keeps a personal library for you of what you’ve purchased, so even if something terrible happens, you can go back to the site and re-download your purchases.  You can also lend books to other Nook owners for up to two weeks, allowing you to share libraries.

2.  Google eBooks (books.google.com/ebooks)

* Selection: One of the best, including best-sellers and new voices (over 3 million books)
* Price: $ (compatible with most top retailers, but also with a lot of independents so some prices are very good for unknown authors)
* Compatibility: Adobe Digital Editions protected EPUB and PDF (in other words, forget it if you own a Kindle)

Launched in December 2010, Google eBooks boasts the largest collection on online ebooks on the Internet.  Google not only has its extensive collection of free ebooks (a claim still in litigation as of this writing), but now has relationships with several major publishers as well as numerous independents.  This would have been a top choice except for their format.  Adobe Digital Editions and the Amazon Kindle don’t work together,

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