There is no better way to read e-books than on the stunningly simple Kindle app. The storefront is easy to navigate, and the selection of titles runs deeper than the plot of a Haruki Murakami novel, chockablock with both full-length tomes and Kindle Singles (the perfect commuter fare — not so short that you don’t care, not so long that it outlasts your ride).

Responding to the modern reader’s desire to consume on multiple platforms, the app automatically syncs your progress through a story across devices. Start a book on your phone during your morning commute, pick it up again at lunchtime on your desktop, bide time on the treadmill on your Kindle DX, then really dive in before bed on your tablet — all without losing your place. Your notes, highlights, and annotations follow you as you go.

For iOS, there’s also bonus video and audio content, like author interviews, in the enhanced Kindle Editions. And Amazon recently added a web-based social networking component so you can see what your friends have been reading and check out their notes and highlights. Our only complaint: There’s no easy way to go back and reread a book. Once you finish, it automatically syncs to the end and requires multiple steps to reset. But while you’re still swiping pages, the adjustable screen brightness, color, and text layout make the Kindle easier on the eyes than Natalie Portman, and just as smart.