BookLive vs BookWalker for eBooks: Why I think BookLive is better for purchasing books

If you don’t already know, BookLive and BookWalker can both be used to easily purchase ebooks from Japan. Here’s a list of pros and cons I’ve encountered while using both. I personally prefer BookLive

**// BookLive**

BookLive Pros:

>Has 200 highlights as opposed to BookWalker’s 50
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>Reselects entire highlight
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>Displays book percent while reading
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>Has more extensive customization in terms of night mode
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>Easy to purchase books on mobile

BookLive Cons:

>Sometimes sign in with AppleID doesn’t work on my mobile browser
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>Trying to find new books to read within BookLive itself is pretty terrible. The categories don’t make much sense and sorting by popularity seems to mean very little

**// BookWalker**

BookWalker Pros:

>Can have highlights within highlights
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>Displays in “pages” (although not accurate to material)
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>読み放題: Pay a monthly fee to read as many manga or novels as you want from a pretty broad selection

BookWalker Cons:

>It’s difficult to select multiple kanji that have furigana over them (selection in general is a pain)
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>It keeps taking me back to further along in the book than I had read to
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>I can’t get my books to show up on my computer browser? Not sure what’s happening there
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>Can’t see what percent you’re through the book without closing book
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>I can’t seem to get new recs for 読み放題? Maybe it only activates when finishing a book?
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>I have to switch device languages on my mobile device to view their Japanese store
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>読み放題 is like 80% light novels, and while I appreciate them a lot as a part of my reading catalogue, they’re not really what I like the most

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**// Other Notes**

1. BookWalker is ostensibly more directed at light novels, shinbungei, and manga
2. BookLive has slightly more books
3. They both have 試し読み (try before you read) on pretty much everything
4. Both can be used outside of Japan
5. There’s also honto.jp. I’ve never used them for ebooks myself, but I love them for buying physical books because they put everything in one box, saving on shipping.
6. Both have mobile apps (iOS, probably Android?) and can be accessed from your browser
7. On iOS, you may have to have a Japanese AppleID (which is easy to make and honestly very useful if you don’t already have one)