If there is anything at all I’m obsessed with, it has to be modding Android devices/Fire Tablets and reading comics, books, magazines, and anything else I can get my grubby little hands on.

So it was only a matter of time before I combined the two hobbies into one. Since reading is such a large part of my daily routine, my modded Fire Tablet is the perfect home for my library. Some people prefer the Nook, e-ink Kindles, or even Kobo Readers. But me? I’m a Fire Tablet guy all the way.

I spent considerable time testing several popular reader apps (that have both free and premium versions) and found something useful in each of them.

Finding alternative reader apps for a modded Fire Tablet

The Kindle app is fine, but sometimes you need to get out of the Amazon ecosystem

Credit: David J. Buck / How-To Geek

If you’re an avid reader, chances are you might use the Kindle app or maybe Kobo Rakuten. Both are solid choices if you don’t mind being locked into a company’s ecosystem and storefront.

Last time I checked, the Kindle app can still display PDFs, although the experience varies greatly by device. You can also send compatible files using the Send to Kindle service, which handles EPUB conversions. My experience with Kobo is limited to when I bought (and later learned I didn’t own) some TMNT books last year. I was a bit disappointed with it.

So I tried some alternative apps.

CDisplay Ex

The original comic book reader

Credit: David J. Buck / How-To Geek

There is always some value in shelling out a few bucks for an ad-free experience. The free or ‘lite’ version of the app works great, but it’s horrendous when a random ad appears halfway through a comic you’re reading.

And they’re not single-page static ads, the likes of which you’ve seen in comic books of yore. No, they’re these awful, bordered, intrusive ads that practically require you to click on them or hide the ‘x’ in the corner.

It was worth the $6 not to deal with those. CdisplayEx handles CBZ/CBR format well, and it does a fantastic job of handling most document types in its mobile form.

So what about the reader? In short, it’s amazing.

For testing, I read a Byte magazine from 1978, courtesy of The Internet Archive, in CBR format. I also read the first issue of Nintendo Power, courtesy of Retro Mags, in CBZ format. The interface is intuitive, and it connects straight to your documents folder. I have everything stored locally on a high-storage SD card, but there are options to sync to other devices, which I 100% did right away.

Color correction worked wonders on the older magazines. Other features, while minimal, simply enhance the reading experience, like the ability to change the display to fill the screen, zoom, or display two pages at once. Other features I found less useful, like the different options to turn the page (I like to tap or swipe left; nothing more or less), and cropping the corners of the pages, did absolutely nothing to enhance the experience.

CdisplayEx excels at library Management and provides a fantastic reading experience for PDFs and comic book formats, which is my primary use case for this app. I sprang for premium because I read a ton of comics and old tech magazines, and because the ads are too invasive in the free version. Overall, it offers a solid experience and is definitely optimized for highly visual works.

Moon+ Reader

A versatile app for lots of text

Credit: David J. Buck / How-To Geek

On my Fire Tablet, I found Moon+ Reader to be an impressive reader app with an excess of features. Moon+ Reader is the free version, while Moon+ Reader Pro is the premium version. Both of them work well.

In the free version of the app, I was able to read something like 60 pages or so before getting an ad. But the ad was so annoying, intrusive (I believe it was for Temu), and difficult to navigate away from, that I immediately went premium for a one-time purchase of $11.99.

If you can deal with the infrequent, yet disruptive, ads, the free version is great. Both versions are feature-rich, so you get a lot right out of the gate.

I tested the reader with some issues of a comic book I’m currently reading, and with two ePUB files: A Princess of Mars and an old science fiction story, courtesy of Project Gutenberg, and an Acoustic Guitar magazine I got with my digital subscription a few years ago. I used this one for long-form reading over more visually complex stuff.

Books, however, performed very well. Moon+ Reader provides the closest facsimile of e-ink I’ve found on any app. My tired old eyes tend to favor gray, sepia-tone, and dark mode. All of them are here and look good with the text displayed on them.

The ability to import is wonderful, but you can also grab public domain books directly from Project Gutenberg through the app itself via the Net Library option. Table of contents navigation is quite smooth, and thanks to this app, I’ve finally been able to dive into my copy of The Beato Book that I picked up back in 2017.

I tested the TTS feature on the pro version, and it was hilariously bad. I think this is one feature I’ll skip when using this app. It certainly does nothing for my hearing issues.

ReadEra

A well-rounded reader app with zero ads at any tier

Credit: David J. Buck / How-To Geek

I like ReadERA, and I’ve been using it for a little over a month now. It’s a powerhouse reading app that can handle a large variety of common file formats.

The best part of ReadEra is pure functionality with no ads whatsoever at the free level. You can just read and enjoy the features without Temu or some AI ad interrupting your book. It’s just you, a killer UI, and what’s on the page. The auto-detection for file types is phenomenal and really well done. Some of the other apps struggle a bit with sorting file formats properly.

The app has customization options based on format, so the menu will show you options for PDF or CBR, depending on your format. Everything I read on there was easy to read, looked good, and didn’t have any ads or other issues.

I tested all the different formats I used in the other apps, largely the same titles, and had a positive reading experience for each one. I also tested my copy of Code Monkey Save World that I received as a Kickstarter backer way back in 2013. It looked great, and I finally finished reading it, then ReadEra let me do a review of it with its built-in review prompt.

I’ve found ReadEra ideal for all of my file formats, and if I had to choose only one reader, the premium version would be my desert island pick.

Librera

The multi-purpose app that caters to musicians

Credit: David J. Buck / How-To Geek

Like most reader apps, Librera offers to load your entire library. It also offers three different modes. This is how they were laid out in the version I tested:

• Book mode
• Musician’s mode
• Scroll mode
• Text-to-Speech

There’s a free version that lets you skip ads for a few hours if you choose to watch a short one first. And you’ll want to do it because the ad placements are the worst of all on this app (out of the batch I tested). There’s a big video at the top of your library, and then there’s a full-page ad every so often. So keep that in mind if you test this one out.

Credit: David J. Buck / How-To Geek

There’s an interesting feature called word replacement that lets you alter the text. It’s interesting in a curious sort of way. We have night and day modes here. The night mode in particular is very easy on the eyes due to the gray text. Aside from that, you can alter the font, which has a ton of fun options you don’t typically find in other apps.

The autorotation is a little stilted, but I quite like the blue light filter here. We have standard reading settings and some unique advanced settings like mirroring, loop scroll, and a reference mode similar to Calibre. Then you have the option to tweak the status bar.

I kept it gray.

Scroll mode is the equivalent of reading something in a browser. I immediately disliked it. I had to turn off my blue light filter and switch back to day mode because the colors were way off (it looked like an old film negative). Scrolling is also a bit clunky when reading a magazine or book, and the pages take too long to load.

I was eager to try musician mode because I’m learning more advanced guitar techniques and retraining myself on stuff I’ve forgotten over the years. It features auto-scroll for sheet music. I used it to check out a few exercises from my music book. It worked fine, and I could see using this app for sheet music, which is definitely a strong point.

Credit: David J. Buck / How-To Geek

And then there’s text-to-speech mode. I did not like that, at all. The robotic voice, the hasty delivery, the unnatural sound. TTS feels like it has a long way to go for most of these apps, but this one did not live up to the hype.

Librera has some nice features, but I probably won’t use this app for much other than sheet music, since that’s its strong point.

Reading on a modded Fire Tablet has never been better

Credit: David J. Buck / How-To Geek

After spending considerable time with all of these apps, I will say that it’s hard to choose between them. It was a very tough decision, but I am sticking with ReadEra as my primary reading app on the modded Fire tablet.

Storage

16GB

Screen Size

6-inches

Even in the budget department, the Amazon Kindle is a stellar value, from its light and compact design, to its adjustable front light and 6-inch display.