BookJar

Even though the computer is capable of keeping you busy for quite a while, it doesn’t mean older habits and practices are now dead. For instance, book writing and reading are practically enhanced by a computer, and books are now in electronic format. You can use applications like BookJar to read them.

An advantage in particular is the lack of a setup process, which allows you to have it stored on a thumb drive in case you want to read your books regardless of the computer you’re using. Moreover, it requires Java Runtime Environment to function, which means it runs on other operating systems than Windows as well.

The application wants to keep things simple and put emphasis on reading, so it doesn’t bundle too many elements in the main window. There is, however, a context menu you can bring up to manage various functions, and even access the properties panel. Navigation buttons can be found in the main window, and can also be triggered through hotkey commands.

Unfortunately, file support leaves much to be desired overall, and you’re only able to read books if they’re under formats like HTML, RTF, or TXT. Multiple items can be accessed, and these are saved in a list. The application also includes a search function to look up text strings of interest. Sadly, there’s no option to add bookmarks.

As mentioned, you can access the properties panel from the context menu. Here, you find a whole bunch of customization options to make reading more comfortable. Among others, you can change text and background color, as well as text font and style.

To sum it up, BookJar comes with good intentions, and offers a comfortable reading environment for your electronic books. The display can be customized for better reading, and even switched to fullscreen mode. However, it supports a rather disappointing variety of file formats.