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I've been playing around with what I consider the three main book reading apps that have library management. To give an idea of my basic criteria, i.e. how I like to do things, let me go through how I generally decide what to read next.
It's based on how I use to do things pre ebooks. With the exception of books that I haven't read yet, I have my library organized in a fairly standard way, by category and by author within the category. The unread books are on their own shelf (well, technically they were in a stack by my easy chair, but that sounds so messy) with the books that I plan to read next on the top. Books in the process of being read are on their own shelf/stack.
When I am ready for a new book, I look at the to be read stack. If I find that I'm not in the mood for any of them, then I go to the library and scan through it for something that fits my mood.
Unfortunately, none of the three products will let me work in that manner. Marvin's big draw back, for me, is that I can't order the to read category manually. iBook's big draw backs are that a book can be in only one category and it doesn't support series. Kindle's big draw backs are it can't be ordered manually and it doesn't support series.
The bottom line is that all three will get the job done. iBooks and Kindle have the advantages of big bucks behind them and the ability to buy a book and have it downloaded over the web automatically. Marvin is more responsive to customer requests and gives at least a degree of integration with calibre. Right now, I suspect that I'm going to be using Marvin more and more since I see the most potential for it working the way I want it to work. It syncs pretty well with Calibre and if it every adds manual ordering and better support of categories in calibre, then I will be a very happy man indeed.
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