But Kindle is easy on the eyes and easy to navigate. I can download any one of 240,000 Kindle-formatted books in the blink of an eye. The speed is simply phenomenal compared to Stanza, which sometimes pauses just to load chapters. You can't search or download books directly from the Kindle app--you need to use Amazon's Web site. (No, you can't use Amazon's mobile app, either.) Once you've entered your Amazon username and password in the Kindle app, Amazon will recognize your iPhone when you buy books from the Web site. The first book I downloaded from Amazon's Kindle store appeared instantly when I launched the app. The second book, which is a monster of a biography on Abraham Lincoln, took about 30 seconds to download.

Wide Selection: Kindle offers a large number of books in a variety of categories.

Incidentally, that's another way Amazon hooks you. One-click book buying is a dangerous thing for bibliophiles - it's why I turned it off for my regular book purchases and also why I have about 200 items in my Amazon shopping cart. Downloading a book to Stanza, especially if you've bought a book through Fictionwise, is a much more cumbersome process. I almost prefer the more laborious way--it puts a check on my e-book buying and keeps me out of the poorhouse.

For a non-Kindle owner like me, therefore, the question comes down to interface, selection, convenience, and, to some extent, freedom of choice. I don't like that I cannot import other e-books into the Kindle app. Then again, I don't like that I cannot import Kindle e-books into Stanza. Both apps have nice interfaces that make reading e-books on the iPhone's small screen no problem at all. But Stanza is more customizable and therefore more user friendly.

Sure, Amazon has a much larger selection at prices far superior to an e-book retailer like Fictionwise. But Stanza supports e-books available free of charge from worthy sources such as . If your tastes run toward older material, then Stanza is a better choice.