The experience of browsing Apple’s iBookstore is certainly pleasurable when you're using your iPad. Apple makes it a cinch to search for iBooks you want to read, and even lets you peruse a sample prior to parting with your hard-earned dollars. To enter the store from your iPad, tap the Store button in the upper-left corner of your virtual bookshelf or your library List view.
Here is how to find and purchase e-books (iBooks) for your iPad. Assuming that the book meets or exceeds your standards, and you’re ready to purchase it, here’s how to do so:
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Tap the price shown in the gray button on the book’s information page.
Upon doing so, the dollar amount disappears, and the button becomes green and carries a Buy Book label. If you tap a free book instead, the button is labeled Get Book.
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Tap the Buy Book/Get Book button.
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Enter your iTunes password to proceed with the transaction.
The book appears on your bookshelf in an instant, ready for you to tap it and start reading. You get an e-mail receipt acknowledging your purchase in the e-mail inbox where you receive every other iTunes receipt.
If you buy another book within 15 minutes of your initial purchase, you aren’t prompted for your iTunes password again.
Amazon has long said that it wants Kindle books to be available for all sorts of electronic platforms, and the iPad, like the iPhone and iPod touch before it, is no exception. So, take a look at the free Kindle app for the iPad, especially if you’ve already purchased a number of books in Amazon’s Kindle Store and want access to that wider selection of titles.
The iPad had the larger screen and color, but the Kindle had a few bragging points too, including a longer battery life (up to about a month on the latest Kindle versus about 10 hours for the iPad), a lighter weight, and a larger selection of books in its online bookstore.
The Barnes & Noble NOOK app is also worth a look. In fact, both Barnes & Noble and Amazon are competing against the iPad with smaller, less expensive tablets — the NOOK Tablet and Kindle Fire, respectively. You can find several other e-book-type apps for the iPad in the App Store. You can have a look at the following apps, just to name a few:
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CloudReaders from Satoshi Nakajima (free)
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Free e-books by Kobo
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Stanza from Lexcycle (free)