Whether it's in paper form, on a Kindle, or even via an iPhone, you're going to to do a lot of reading in the coming school year. Try ( Macworld rated 4.5 out of 5 mice ), which offers more than 50,000 books available to download for free, and more for purchase. Brush up on , get spiritual with , or explore your Machiavellian side with . With a list like this, you're sure to find something you can read for English class.

Textbooks are a reality for students. But why pay what the college bookstore is asking if you can find a better price somewhere else. Look for your books with the free ( Macworld rated 4.5 out of 5 mice ), the mobile companion to the Amazon.com Web site. You might just find whatever textbook you're looking for, and for a lot less. The app's search feature is quick, and Amazon has virtually everything. Even after shipping, you might still get a better deal and get your books in time for the first day of class.

When reading or writing, having a good dictionary is essential. The App Store offers a number of possibilities, both and . The $2 ( Macworld rated 4 out of 5 mice ) is debatably the best in the latter category, with more than 150,000 entries, a built-in Thesaurus, Web links and even spoken pronunciations; it even does a passable job as a spell checker. This wealth of information is indispensable to the student, and even fun to use. No one ever said that about their dusty old dictionary.