I'm aware of options for Mac, IOS, and the Bookshare online reader, but what about a desktop Windows app? It's amazing that EPUB on Windows is still so iffy and problematic.
I've never actually needed to read an EPUB, but it does appear to be gaining traction. An author once sent me their University Press-published book as EPUB, for instance.
Here's what I've tried today:
* Thorium: appears to be a web wrapper.
* Dolphin Eazy Reader: the document reader is a total keyboard trap. The app's own shortcut keys don't work while in the document view, and I have to be in browse mode to read anything. I have to use object navigation to get to buttons/menus or press alt+space, which is the only thing to escape the trap AFAIK. I wish this worked better, since it appears to let me read Bard books on the PC.
* Q-Read: Firefox warns me that it's a malicious site.
* Bookshare web reader: Sure, but it can't load what's on my computer.
* Edge. Microsoft no longer supports EPUB natively.
By Voracious P. Brain, 28 March, 2026
Forum
Windows
Comments
EPUB Reader
Try Paperback (https://github.com/trypsynth/paperback). It's very accessible and easy to use, and I've found it does a really good job with EPUB books..
Thanks!
Thanks, Lanie. That looks like the one for sure. The markdown viewer is a cool touch. Hopefully they'll add the option to edit certain text formats and support for multimedia pubs eventually.
This looks promising
Paperback looks like exactly what I need as well. I've been using Thorium but don't particularly like its web style UI. Gonna give Paperback a spin with some manuals and see what this can do.
Thanks
Bookworm
Just thought I would add an alternative. This is free and open source, and fully accessible.
Enjoy.
https://github.com/blindpandas/bookworm
I like Thorium
I've been using Thorium ever since the disability support department at a university in the US that I went to for my masters degree suggested it and I've been loving it. It's basically like navigating the web, and all the usual web navigation commands work.
Paperback looks promissing, but it seems there is no library feature where I can just import a bunch of books unlike in Thorium. The ability to use first-letter navigation in the table of contents is really nice though.
Epub reader.
I would recomand Qread, the program is only ten dollars and can help you read many different formats. if anyone wants the link let me know.
Paperback
Paperback so far seems to be the best solution for epub files. As it's in active development, I recommend everyone to send suggestions on their github so they know what are our user needs.
A library function would be welcome, specially if it works like the old adobe ebook reader.
Paperback vs. Bookworm
has anyone used both apps? I've used Bookworm, but it'd be interesting to hear from a user of both apps.