[jordo487]

I am new to the ebook/audio book world (not a big reader), but have been trying to read a few books lately. Anyways, I don't really know the best/known apps that integrate well with amazon or other places to purchase books. Any suggestions or comments would be appreciated. I would prefer to listen to listen to the books or buy a physical copy to read. Plan to hook my S5 up to my car and listen as I drive.

[SpookDroid]

Well, if you're buying audiobooks from a store, usually said service's app is the best one since it'll give you the least headaches. For Amazon, the best option is Kindle. For Audibles, it's the Audibles app.

For eBooks, however, I totally prefer Google Play Books only for the ability to upload your own books to the service (ePub or PDF files) and have that sync anywhere, even any PC or mobile with a browser, so you never lose progress no matter where you read.

[jordo487]

Well, if you're buying audiobooks from a store, usually said service's app is the best one since it'll give you the least headaches. For Amazon, the best option is Kindle. For Audibles, it's the Audibles app.

For eBooks, however, I totally prefer Google Play Books only for the ability to upload your own books to the service (ePub or PDF files) and have that sync anywhere, even any PC or mobile with a browser, so you never lose progress no matter where you read.

Thank you for this information, especially about the Google Play Books, I didn't know you could upload your own files into it.

[SpookDroid]

Yeah, it's very cool. You can also upload your own music (or in your case, audiobooks if they are in non-DRM-protected MP3 files) to Google Play Music and have your collection available to stream on any phone or browser.

Ever since they gained that feature, I've only used Play Books and never looked back.

[anon(8114070)]

For listening to audiobooks I highly suggest Listen Audiobook Player. When I was looking for a player I did a lot of research and at that time LAP was the best. I've been using it for over a year and continue to like it. The developer is quick to make changes and has been super responsive to request and questions. Currently because android does not allow applications to write to the SD storage (extra storage card in your phone) there is a minor issue. This will be resolved with the Lollipop release. The developer is aware of the issue. I do store my books on my extend storage card and when I want to add more or delete them I connect the phone to my PC, use xplorer2 (this is a very enhanced windows explorer) to see what is on the phone and either delete or add books. I place each book in its own folder on my PC and on the phone. This makes it much easier to manage. One of the features I use all the time is the ability to play the book at a faster speed. You can easily adjust in 1/10 increments. Currently I'm at 2.1 times faster than normal speed. All of my books are in MP3 format. If I get a book that is not MP3 I will then convert it to MP3 format.

[SpookDroid]

In Android's defense, KitKat did change SD Card permissions but it does allow apps to write to SD Card. What it doesn't let them do is write or modify files that they didn't create or that aren't inside folders that don't 'belong' to them. But if the app creates its own folder, it can very much write to that folder without issues.