S60 Open to new features

The other reason that books (paper books) are usually portrait mode is that it's just quicker for the human eye to read that way (well, in the horizontal languages). It's easier to lose your place when you're reading long, long horizontal lines and come to the end of one (ie, the mental carriage-return and line feed). Plus if you're reading at the casual level -- like you do when you scan the newspaper -- narrow columns let you see far more information without moving your eyes physically. Often complete sentences fit into a couple of lines that are easier to skim -- the longer the line, the harder it is to skim. That's why newspapers choose to print their stories in narrow columns even when they have the freedom to lay out the entire story however they'd like to on the front page.

I've been chasing ebook software for mobile phones since I first got a mobile with java. I've been reading books on my Sharp Zaurus SL5500 since I got that, and these days that's about all I use it for.

I find that the most useful feature of an ebook reader is adjustable rate automatic scrolling, which both Wattpad and my current favourite MTextReader (I do not, sadly, have a smartphone yet) do quite well. I can adjust the rate without thinking and read without having to flick from bottom of screen to top, reacquire the text, check that I've got the right sentence, and continue.

I strongly agree that portrait is more comfortable, and I was quite surprised myself to find that the line length was not a problem. From many years ago when I was dabbling in TeX I remember seeing that research had shown the most comfortable line length for reading to be just over 60 characters, and that's what TeX does unless you order it to do otherwise. This would make portrait screens less comfortable, but I couldn't swear to that or find the reference. I've got no problem reading books on a good phone screen, and the built-in backlight is very handy!

Just like you, I prefer portrait view. Is just more comfortable, in landscape you are forced to hold the device with right hand (or both hands), and in portrait you can switch hands - it's important when reading longer :) And I totally agree that it seams less scrolling when in portrait view :)

Look at Baen too - they have a free library with about 100 or so free Sci-fi books, in various formats.
http://www.baen.com/library/

Plus of course they'll sell you eBooks too http://www.baen.com/ at reasonable prices ;-)

I much prefer Portrait view. Like you, I feel as if I get more reading per 'scroll'. But also, the shorter line length makes it much easier to scan the text. Think of comparing how you read a newspaper against how you read a large-format text book. The shorter line length is much easier to read. That's why the standard for academic papers is two colums on a page rather than one full-width column.

I also find that the devices are more comfortable to hold when viewing in Portrait. If I try to view Landscape, I am usually forced to hold the device with two hands becuase it does not fit comfortably into one, especially if I am reading for a long time. I much prefer to leave my other hand free for the coffee/beer/doughnut/nose scratching duties :-)