One of the bright stars of CES 2010 was the eBook reader category. We're a long way now from the days of just the Sony Reader and the Amazon Kindle. There are colour, dual and even flexible screen variants arriving but as impressive as all this hardware is, the content available is of just as great, if not greater, importance. In fact, one of our readers of the Spring Design Alex preview we did wanted to know exactly what this new half Android device would be able to offer him compared to, say, the Barnes & Noble store at the Nook's disposal and the Sony Reader store too

The great thing, of course, is that you don't necessarily need one of these devices to make sure that you've got plenty to read. You might not have direct access to library on the hoof but, if you're happy to sideload, then there's plenty out there to be had. So, in case you need a point in the right direction, here are 10 online book stores with eTitles for just about everyone. For an indication of price, we searched for "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" for no other reason then it's geeky, it's in the news and it's a good read too.

1) Mobipocket

Catalogue

65,000 titles

Price

$14

Formats

Mobi

Exceptions

Nook, Sony Reader

Mobipocket is a good all round store that started in 2000 and picked up by Amazon in 2005. Plenty on offer and all in the .MOBI file format popular in just about all readers out on the market.

2) Project Gutenberg

Catalogue

30,000 titles

Price

Not Available

Formats

ePub, Mobi, HTML

Exceptions

None

The reason you won't find Philip K Dick's novel here is because Project Gutenberg is all about digitising books in the public domain. So, anything modern and published by a reasonable sized company is generally out of the question. That said it's got a big old catalogue and covers all the devices.

3) CyberRead

Catalogue

310,000 titles

Price

$14

Formats

ePub, PDF, Mobi

Exceptions

None

Whacking great library and all readers covered. You'll find what you need at CyberRead.

4) Waterstone's

Catalogue

21,000

Price

Not Available

Formats

ePub

Exceptions

Kindle

A sad indictment that there was no copy of the book that inspired Bladerunner but then 21,000 is slightly disappointing from a book retailer of this size. That said, Waterstone's still a good place to go hunting.

5) eBooks.com

Catalogue

Unknown

Price

$14

Formats

ePub, PDF, Mobi

Exceptions

None

It's not known quite how large the catalogue of this site that does what it says on the tin but "big" is probably the answer. eBooks.com covers fiction, non-fiction and has a section on academic texts as well. Not all of the titles are available in all parts of the world but there's still plenty to choose from for anyone.

6) Cambridge University Press

Catalogue

Small

Price

Not Available

Formats

ePub, PDF, Mobi

Exceptions

None

Powered by eBooks.com, the CUP eBook store covers all devices as well but this time specialises in just academic titles on all sorts of subjects. It's fairly new, so there's not bags on offer at the moment but in time it should be an excellent hub of all things reference.

7) Diesel

Catalogue

1.4 million

Price

$14

Formats

PDF, Mobi

Exceptions

None

Another all rounder here and this time with largest collection of titles of all. Diesel stocks just about every genre of fiction and non-fiction and also has a good section of freeeBooks well worth a browse too. Surprisingly, no ePUB files but between PDFs and Mobi, you should be ok most of the time.

8) Powells

Catalogue

Unknown

Price

$12.43

Formats

ePUB & ACS4

Exceptions

Kindle

Powells was the only eBook store to offer a discount version of "Do Android Dream of Electric Sheep" which indicates there could be further bargains afoot here. NoePUBs but the DRM-free PDF titles should be good for most hardware out there.

9) Penguin

Catalogue

3171

Price

Not available

Formats

ePUB

Exceptions

Kindle

Being limited to just one publishing house may not be that great but when it's Penguin you can guarantee plenty to get excited about - apart from Philip K Dick's novel sadly. From NickHornby to the classics and all in just one good file format. Not suitable for Kindle users.

10) Epic

Catalogue

Unknown

Price

$14

Formats

Mobi

Exceptions

Nook, Sony Reader

The bad news for Sony and Barnes & Noble geeks out there is that the Sci-Fi and Fantasy specialist, Epic, is not compatible with their systems. There's probably not many other eBook stores out there with categories dedicated to paranormal erotica.