Smart Bitches, Trashy Books

I ordered the Nook the day it was announced, so I’ve gone through all the growing pains.  I am very, very happy with the Nook but I would probably say the same if I had bought a Kindle or a Sony since my main purpose was to stop overloading my bookshelves.  The biggest advantage over the Kindle is that I can check out ebooks from my library and read them on the Nook.  I don’t have a problem with the weight - seems light enough to me.  And thanks to an earlier column here, it has a beautiful Oberon Designs cover.

I got a Nook for my birthday while recovering from gall bladder surgery and don’t regret it for a minute!

First, I do agree with the previous poster that you need an Oberon Design cover - the video sold me on the durability of the cover and yes, they also do covers for the Kindle and iPad!

What really sold me on the Nook was the freebies - I know that a lot of the free books have been public domain, but it’s nice to get the footnotes and introductions to the classic books to help give perspective and references other than just a text file. B&N has been giving out one free ebook every Friday from a variety of genres and I enjoy that.

I’m also a big believer in their connecting the Nook to the brick-and-mortar store. The Nook often has free coffee coupons attached to it, free chocolates or pastries or just a store coupon to buy something IN store. Not to mention the “read-instore” option that allows me to sample new releases without pawing through the fresh copies on the shelves. It may be just me, but I hate people who browse through new releases and damage the books then put them BACK on the shelves for someone else to buy as new. Blech.

I also enjoy being able to talk to a real person when I have a problem, which I haven’t had yet. *fingers crossed* At my local B&N I asked and was told they’re selling 4-5 Nooks per day and I see a variety of ages buying them, from my age group to older to younger. It’s a good way of keeping the print books and ebooks intergrated so I go into the store.

Last… and I’ll admit upfront it’s an emotional thing… I don’t like Amazon. I’ll buy from them if I must for items I can’t get elsewhere, but I’m not keen on feeding that beast. But that’s just me. And I see no reason for the Kindle to have a keyboard there all the time when the Nook keyboard can be called up and then put away.

So… that’s me.

Next?

We went with the Nook for my tween and teen daughters for a couple of reasons - needed a rudimentary browser for them to fact-check and keep up with their homework assignments, and needed access to the ePub format for library books. The Nook pays for itself over and over when they can access library books instead of buying ebooks or making a run to Borders for their assigned reading.

I haven’t used it much but they LOVE it. I can’t stand reading on my iPhone - either I put the text small enough so I can get in the flow of the book and end up dying of eye strain or I put the text large enough to read easily and then have to turn the page every second and a half and get no flow - but the Nook really is easy to read on. If I can ever get it away from them I look forward to using it.

My eldest is a sophomore in college (UCF in Orlando - Go Knights).  He is a devoted reader and packs ALL of the Twilight books whenever he travels.  Do you know how big those suckers are??? 

I’m thinking of getting him an ereader for Christmas.  I’ve got a Sony (PRS 505 - plain Jane), which I love, but I’m not a very techie person.  I just need it to read ebooks and it does great.  But I’ve been thinking of getting my son a Nook.

I’m concerned because I’ve heard some bad reviews of the Nook and when I Googled it (at least) one person has a “hater’s page” out there for it, but those things do make an impact. 

I think my son would like the wi-fi/3G, the Nook (like my Sony) can handle ebooks checked out from the library (I love that; so would he), and I understand that Nook handles Epub.  Have you or your hubby ever used the read in store feature?  Aren’t they supposed to be able to read anything in B&N free in the store? 

The ability to read in store would be great for him; there is a B&N next door to his dorm.  He could go in to read any books for research projects, etc. and use them as sources without having to stretch the budget to buy them. 

If I don’t go with a Nook, I’d probably get him a Sony.  The Kindle’s lack of ability to handle library books would be a pretty big deal to my son - it is to me as well.  I wonder if Amazon is planning any system updates to allow the Kindle to handle library books? 

Any info on the “read in store” ability would be appreciated.

Thanks for helping a confused Mom!

My Nook story starts with a friend.
F: So you bought a digital book reader yet?
Me: No, not much need of one. I will buy dead tree books till I am old and gray.
F: I got a Nooooook! and it is wonderful!!!
Me: Yeah right.
F: You can lend books with a Nooook: One time to one friend…and you can read library books with it..(said with the sing song manner of cherubic book pusher)
Me: No, no, I shall not buy a machine that will let me purchase books at midnight! It would be…cruel for you to tempt me so! (said like the not so innocent soprano in a bad musical)

So I ended up buying my Nook for library books, freebies, and lend me books…I have purchased no more nook books than I would have if I did have to go to the bookstore at 10am rather than grabbing them whenever I wanted a new series to read.

The machine itself is easy to hold, easy to read, and when I am not reading a book I can use it to listen to music, or play suduko on.  And my friend and I can lend each other new authors as we find them.  Why I did not go Kindle? I did not like Amazon’s fight with the publishers, or the lack of Library friendliness of their programing. Why didn’t I go Sony or Ipad? Price (I grabbed my Nook when they lowered the price to 149).  There are some things that I feel could be tweeked with the Nook, but overall I have been very happy with my purchase.

My NOOK was a Christmas gift from my kids.  I’d been on the fence with the whole eReader purchase, reviews of Sony, Kindle, Cybook peaked my interest but the price kept me away.  My oldest’s sons roommate was working for B&N when the nook was released and they were all “did you see it? OMG?” and I did my “I’m not buying so I’m not looking”

So they pooled their money and bought it for me, with a pretty red cover and a gift card to put books on it.  Could be that I’m partial to my kids… could be that I’ve never used any other type of eReader… but I love my nook.

I love the instant gratification of buying books wherever I am, whenever I want.  I love that I am never without reading material and that I can sideload different formats.  I love that it works with my bookstore.  It fits in my purse, my laptop bag, my backback, wherever - no I don’t find it heavy.  The games aren’t key but for quick amusement its nice to have them, as is having some music or the rudimentary web browser.  Knock on wood I’ve never had a problem with my nook that wasn’t of my own doing (i.e. running the battery down to critical mode). 

A note about those haters - Kindle has haters, Sony has haters, noon has haters - technology choices are personal and subjective, what I like you may not like.  I like to form my own opinions and I’m not opposed to using reputable sites for advice, or sites that give impartial comparisons.  Haters never did it for me, their responses are usual more personal than educated, and more than one I’ve read I could point out the user error and not the device error. 

I’m not afraid to giggle when I ask “i love my nook” <—- all lower case?  Why?

Love my Nook after doing major research on which e-reader to buy.  I will admit it has a few bumps (been known to freeze up on occasion) but not enough to make me want a Kindle.

One of the main reason the Nook was a better option - REPLACEABLE BATTERY. I have already warn down my battery after a year of use and order a new battery to replace myself.  With Kindle, you have to send the whole kindle back and they send you another Kindle.

Also, I have read and heard too many horror stories about Kindle being in disputes with authors and their books being pulled from people’s kindles even though they had paid for them.

I bought my Nook 3 weeks ago and so far I love it.  What decided me between a Nook and a Kindle was that with my Nook I can go to the store and talk to a real, live person if I have a question.  I was actually in B&N yesterday and got tips for surfing the Internet on my Nook from the salesperson at the Nook display.  I also like that while I am at B&N I can read any book in the store for free.  This is especially handy to preview a book that I’ve heard about but am on the fence about buying. You all know how buyers remose can set in about page 50.  I got the WiFi only model, so I can only download at home or at a hotspot, but I really haven’t gotten a wild hair to download a book in my car during rush hour.  I read mine with the cover folded back on itself and find it to be very comfortable.  I really love my Nook!

Went with the nook because it handles library books and has wifi and eInk.  If any of Sony’s products had all the features I wanted, I might have gone with that.  My biggest complaint about it is where the “next” button is placed, it’s too low on the device.  I do really like turning the pages with a flick to the touch screen though, especially when reading and bed and I don’t want to annoy my husband with the small noise of pressing the button.  I read about half my books on the nook and half are still paper (mostly ARCs or library books), but I wish I could read all of them on the nook.

@Mary Ann

AFAIK and from what I’ve used it for, the ‘read-in-store” option allows you to read *almost* any book in the store for an hour (or a certain number of pages which they figure you can read in an hour). It’s a way of sampling a book without picking it up off the shelf and manhandling it, basically.

I used it to read some of “The Passage” and see if it was to my taste - and B&N does have special essays from authors available to promote their newest work and all.

To me it’s a great way to surf the new releases without going over to the shelves and picking up a copy and dragging it back to the cafe or just plain old manhandling it. And if I like it, it’s stored in the Nook history so that I can buy it right there. Or I can come back the next day and pick up where I left off to read for another hour!

;)

mother effing spammers. I’m going to be deleting this from the back end, but whoever you are - I wish diarrhea upon you. - SBS.

mother effing spammers. I’m going to be deleting this from the back end, but whoever you are - I wish diarrhea upon you. - SBS.

mother effing spammers. I’m going to be deleting this from the back end, but whoever you are - I wish diarrhea upon you. - SBS.

Hubster wants an e-reader for his scientific journals. Problem is most of them are PDF, and he also wants color for things like Scientific American. I want to upgrade from my eBookwise, but so far, I haven’t found anything to lure me away from the nifty backlight feature (I tend to wake up at 2 AM and want to read to get back to sleep. When your eyes are already dark-adapted, a ‘regular’ lightbulb is too much) and the immediate page-turning. I appreciate the reviews here.

Terry
Terry’s Place
Romance with a Twist—of Mystery

I have yet to buy myself an ereader. I’ve been using the Kindle on Mac. ANd I agree on the name Nook—awesome. Kind of like the “light wedge.” You should have heard the jokes I was victim to on account of THAT.

I just got back home from Ohio where I did a demo and show an tell of a nook, a kindle 2, and an ipod touch for a group of librarians. 

I like my nook just fine.  I have to admit the rounded edges are nice - they don’t dig into my hand during extended reading sessions in the same way as the kindle can.  I really like that I can put library books on it, but oh man was figuring all that out and setting it up a huge pain.  Mostly the fault of ADE tho not the nook itself. 

If it was all I had, I would probably be a nook lover, but….

Compared to my kindle, even with airplane mode on (which takes several clicks to turn on off btw) the battery sucks.  The touchscreen makes the thing bottom heavy.  I have yet to be convinced that it is awesome - I find it hard to make it turn pages sometimes, and too responsive at other times (like when I’m trying to scroll through the TOC).  I have yet to use it to actually buy a book, as I got it to read epubs on that I get as galleys or library books.  I don’t like that it seems to arbitrarily assign stuff to one folder or the other and other than that (which I can’t seem to control) it has no organization.  And I can’t figure out how to delete stuff from the my documents side (where almost all my books are) without doing it manually when I have it plugged into my computer.  Which means sometimes I can’t figure out which book I’ve read and which ones I have still to read based on just the titles.  The lack of organization gets to me a lot. 

Overall the nook mostly seems like the kindle 1 to me, nice but kind of clunky and with a lot of features that still need to grow up.

I’ve had a nook since January so I’ve been through the growing pains—buggy early firmware releases, cracked buttons, etc. These problems appear to have been worked out now. I chose it because it is compatible with pretty much anything non-kindle, Adobe DRM epub which means I can get library books on it, wifi/3G, and the lend me feature.  I’ve joined a group for lending books which has been most useful and cost-saving.  As a device I’m not sure it’s better than a Kindle or not, but I’m fond of it and it does what I want it to do (i.e. lending of various sorts) without having to strip DRM (which I’m not philosophically opposed to doing as long as I abide by the terms of the loan/sale/whatever, but I regard it as a PITA).  I read tons more now that I have a nook than I ever did before, and I was a big reader before…

Another nook owner here!

What sold me on buying the nook at the time was in no small part because Barnes and Noble owned Fictionwise—and I’d been buying a majority of my ebooks from Fictionwise because THEY had the ability to let me download books directly to my computer, which Amazon wasn’t lettting me do then. (I’m a Mac owner, and the Kindle for Mac app didn’t exist yet.) I was also quite cranky at Amazon over the whole AmazonFail debacle. The nook had the ability to read all of the ebooks I already owned. The Kindle didn’t. The choice was pretty simple.

I don’t mind the weight of the device in its cover, in no small part because that cover means the device is a lot more durable to carry around in my backpack than a paperback or trade is. I burn through a LOT of books, and since I do a majority of my reading on the bus during my work commute, those books take a lot of abuse. And unlike many voracious readers, I don’t actually like damaging my physical books. I like to keep their covers as pristine as possible even if they’re books I’ve read half a dozen times.

Since then, what issues I’ve developed with B&N aren’t the nook’s fault per se. I’m not thrilled that the device separates B&N purchases and sideloaded content, but I live with that. I’m crankier that it STILL can’t sync with the nook app on my iPhone, and crankier yet that B&N’s customer service is still pretty poor, especially in regards to Mac owners (we Mac owners still don’t have an updated Mac app capable of reading epub files without crashing).

Also, since I read more SF/F than I do romance, I’ve found that B&N’s selection of SF/F is sometimes kinda random. More than once I’ve noticed that they’ll have all of a series EXCEPT one random book, and it takes forever to get customer service to do something about that missing book. And when a new book comes out that is in theory supposed to have the ebook drop on the same day, B&N often lags behind Amazon in getting the title up on their store.

There’s still plenty of life left in my nook and I don’t intend to buy another reader soon, but I’m tellin’ ya, if the rumblings I’m hearing about Amazon eventually picking up epub bear fruit, I may have to defect. We’ll see. I’m hoping the nook improves in the areas I’m cranky about before then.

Can’t we talk about nookie instead?

Hubby gave me a nook for Christmas.  Registering it was onerous - currently I live 200 miles from the nearest big cities and 50 miles from WalMart (mixed blessing, that…) so Wifi and 3G coverage don’t much exist.

Once I got it set up, reading it is fine - but until I was told about the freeware eCalibre program, sideloading was annoying.  The webpage is:

http://calibre-ebook.com/

Hope that also helps someone else!

I have a Nook.  Well, first I tried using a dell mini as an eReader.  Ugh, wrong aspect ratio and the backlighting is hard on my middle aged eyes.  Then they dropped the price on the nook and REMORSE:  I HAD IT.  I convinced my husband he needed my mini and I needed a nook.  I got one about a month ago and so far I am quite happy with it.

I keep it in a kindle cover that was on clearance at target.  I think the covers are egregiously overpriced.

I have the wifi only because the 3G is from AT&T and their coverage blows goats in my city, and furthermore blows dead goats in my part of the city.  It is a good thing I cannot get wireless at work or I would probably have retail therapied myself to death. 

I have put quite a few freebies from gutenberg on it, have purchased a couple of books from B&N and elsewhere.  I have a lone kindle book, but I am not entirely ready to break the law and strip the drm in order to move it to my nook.  I also have been using the nook for library books and KNITTING PATTERNS!  I love that I don’t have to carry around all the paper of knitting patterns in my bag, but I haven’t really gotten a smooth way to transfer my notes to the patterns.

I’d been looking at e-readers for a while now. bouncing back and forth between Nook and Kindle. I’ll admit that I chose Nook because of the design and because the interface seemed friendlier. It was, it is and I love it!  The name makes me cringe the Nook E-reader…say it out loud really fast.
Ahem..right. 
The good things are the interface is very easy and the screen is wonderful.
Loading and battery life are good. Though, you don’t ever want it to run all the way down,something that will happen if you just let it sit in the “turned off” mode.
It’s a complicated process bordering on a magic spell to get it back up to charge again. That said the B&N customer service people are really nice and helpful.
All the freebies are nice. And, it came preloaded with Pride and Prejudice!

I chose the Nook because a)Best Buy didn’t sell the Kindle yet and I just can’t bring myself to spend that much on something I haven’t touched; b)I wasn’t crazy about being tied to Amazon; and c)none of the Sony readers impressed me.

I’ve had the nook since January, and I’ve been very happy with it. I’m not at all tech-savvy, though, so take that for what it’s worth. Most of my issues with it have been solved by the various software upgrades. One thing that’s a bit of a problem for me is the placement of the page turn buttons. They’re placed too low for me to press them while holding the nook with one hand. A bigger issue—THE issue, imo—is it’s lack of ability to create folders and organize my books. I have so many books now that it’s become a pain in the ass to find what I’m looking for. I can’t understand why B&N hasn’t included that feature in one of the upgrades. I’m waiting until my warranty runs out, and, if that feature still isn’t offered, I’m softrooting, which I’m loathe to do (again, NOT tech-savvy!).

I have a Nook and I use it alot. That being said, sometimes I want to throw it against the wall. I download from Dreamspinner Press and about one in three don’t format right. If you read them on small font, they are fine. If you read them on medium (which I prefer), the words get all mixed around. Makes me nuts. Like others, I don’t like that my books are stored in two different places. The newest thing I’ve noticed is that sometimes it turns more than one page. Click once, turn two pages. I also hate turning it off and on. Push, wait, push again, wait, push again. It makes me feel incompetent. Is it better than reading on my computer? Yes, most definitely. Is it better than holding a book in my hand? Not so much.

I know it gets no love here in the States (and I don’t know why), but I adore my CyBook Opus.

Much of the bad reviews on nook are dated with pre-update info and complaints - not to say that there might be some valid complaints still, just that a goods number of issues were resolved quickly.

I had’ve my nook since the beginning and I love that my device is the same but the quirks have changed without purchasing something new and improved -that aspect of the android os is fantastic. BN is ever developing the next best feature (which is why I’m not yet freaking out about a lacking folder option with the device) and I certainly don’t feel out in the dark. Plus in-store support is highly important to the company ***full, disclosure: my job is to sell NOOK and I take great pride in ensuring my customers are satisfied with their purchase***

I honestly don’t have any major complaints. I’ve used the library feature more times than I can count, I read books for review on it in addition to what I buy for pleasure, I have so many free books it isn’t funny, and that read in store feature is awesome. Except for the read in store feature (which wasn’t live when I made my purchase) those were the reasons I went with nook over the others. It honestly had nothing to do with the fact BN is my employer - if I’d thought the sony was better, I would’ve gone with it.

Truthfully, most ppl would be happy with one of the big three, and I agree that having more readers in the market is a good thing. I do, however, think NOOK is the best or there so far.

He keeps bringing it to me and telling me it’s out of books

This made me laugh out loud :)

I have a NOOK and I LOVE IT!!!! Here’s the reason. I have a job in a call center and as people who work in call centers know I have the MOST boring job in the WORLD so in order to stay awake I read. But a few months back The Powers That Be decided that books distracted us and prevented us from doing out jobs so we aren’t allowed to have books on our desk. This is where the Nook saved my life. I can put it in an out of the way place on my desk where my supervisor can’t see it, I can make the font BIG so I can read it without needing it to be so close to me that it is obvious I am reading. And unlike a book my Nook is easy to hide under a napkin, Cheet-o bag or I can prop my purse so passersby can’t see that I am reading. I have been doing this since I got my nook and so far no one has busted me. (YAY ME!!!) Also, if I finish a book while I am at work I usually have a bazillion more that I impulse bought off the internet and if I am not in the mood for one of those or I am reading a series and just HAVE to read the next book I can go 3G and buy a new book from my desk. My Nook has saved me from hours of tedium at work. I am sure the Kindle or and other e-reader could have done the same thing but I like my Nook. It’s cute and has designer covers from Kate Spade and right now it has a pink neoprene cover to keep the case from cracking in my purse. I like the interface of the nook and that I can control my library from the BN website. I love everything about the Nook. I held off buying an e-reader until the Nook came out…

“shut up, I’m trying to read”  made me LOL. Tell him to be nice or you’ll load it all up with Nancy Grace books.

I LOVE MY NOOK . . .I tried my best friends Kindle for a week and hated it .  The keyboard at the bottom bugged me a lot :P so when hubster brought home the NOOK I was unsure but I have had nothing but AWESOME and WONDERFUL things to say about it.  I love the weight.  I love the screens.  I love that I can play soduku or chess.  I love the customer service I’ve received.  I can NOT recommend this any higher than I already do . . .I LOVE MY NOOK :)

I have them all. Palm, Sony, Nook, iPad, and as of yesterday, a latest gen Kindle.

I love my Nook for all the previously mentioned reasons - ePub, side loading, library, and the fact that I’m a B&N cafe rat - so I actually do carry my Nook with me to B&N at least 1x per week and use the in store features.

Oh, and then there’s the fact that B&N owns Fictionwise, which owns eReader, which used to be Peanut Press way back when I started reading and collecting books on my US Robotics PalmPilot 5000.

But my #1 most loved Nook feature? Two words: free chocolate.

I’ve yet to get the free chocolate feature with any of my other readers.

PDF file reading and markup are the only things I decidedly cannot do on any of my eInk readers. Most of my PDF reading is technical/educational, and I retain what I learn by scribbling and marking up my books. This quirk turned into my primary use case for the iPad. But the iPad is too heavy for casual reading in bed. It’s also too BRIGHT for reading in the dark unless no other option is available (I find my iPhone to be too bright for reading in the dark, too, FWIW).

So I read eInk before bed and for entertainment, use the iPad during the day, on the go, and when I travel for work.

So why did I get the latest gen. Kindle? I’m a tech. Junky. One of my friends wrote a book that was only released as a Kindle ebook. I have a bunch of Mobipocket books dating back to my Palm days, and I wanted to be sure that I’ve got my ereading possibility bases covered. One more thing - it’s wafer thin and weighs nothing.

The whole weight/size thing is a serious consideration for me. I love my Sony Pocket because of the size, and the new K gets me an eInk screen closer to my eReader size and weight sweet spot.

I would love to carry my Nook with me on travel, but between the laptop and the iPad, and the knee surgery I had last year, I seriously need to limit how much stuff I carry. (I’m still mourning the loss of my backpack to a less convenient wheelie laptop bag.) The size of the new K means I can have my eInk on the road again. (Technically, I could’ve done this with the Sony Pocket, but then I wouldn’t have had the excuse to get the K. I’m going to donate the Sony Pocket to a teen cancer patient, though, so it’s all good.)

The Nook still remains the most feature rich reader in my collection, though. None of the other readers, including the iPad, have the free chocolate feature!

But my #1 most loved Nook feature? Two words: free chocolate.

LOL!  ok, if i had a B&N anywhere nearby, this might sell me on it.

My husband and I got his-n-her Nooks about six weeks before they did the price drop (cue inordinate sounds of unhappiness). I had a Sony in the past and I LOVE the Nook for the big buttons, the insta-downloads, the sideloading (which is so, so easy) and I’m even used to the touch-screen now.

I think it’s like comparing Apples to Oranges - would I be equally happy if I had started out with the Kindle? Well, sure. This is kind of like the Mac vs PC argument. They’re both computers; it just depends which one you are happier using.

My biggest beef with the Nook is actually the website. They have some great categories like “Free Ebooks” or “Ebooks on MEGA SALE!!” that get me all excited. But every time I go to the BN website to look at Free Ebooks, they’re the same free ones every time. I actually have to look up the authors manually (by researching what is free on the Kindle) to see if they’re equally free on the Nook or not. It’s about a 50/50 ratio so far.  The ‘Ebooks on Mega Sale’ category is equally irritating. For me, if you have a $10 ebook you are marking down to $2, *that* is a mega sale and I get interested (I love me a sale). But most of the category is filled with books that are $1 off. Uh, B&N, I love you baby, but that ain’t much of a sale.

I’d love to be able to shop in a way that would let me sort by price. Like I said, someone over here loves a sale. ;)  I counted how many books I’ve bought since April while on the Nook - well over 100, and gotten almost as many free downloads.

My husband actually has not used his at all. He really wanted one for the ease of reading, but had sticker-shock when he saw how expensive the ebooks were. He has EXTREME buyer’s remorse. Heh.

I’d love to get a Kindle, if only for the lazy acquisition of freebies.

Love, love, love my nook.  I bought it about 2 months ago, afer the price drop, after all the kinks were worked out.  The biggest reason I chose it over the kindle was the ability to sideload content.  I don’t want to be tied to one store.  I also want to not go broke buying when I can get a lot of books from Overdrive (the library’s ebook service).  I feel like I have saved the cost of the entire reader because I have sideloaded so many books from the library.  Those would have cost me hundreds alone.

I never thought I’d get an e-reader. What sold me was that the books were cheaper than I could buy even with my B&N or Amazon discount. What sold me on nook was what other people have said; ability to lend, to read epub, sideload books, etc. To me the Kindle is far too restrictive on what you are allowed to read.

Once I got my nook, I discovered free fridays (am reading one of those now!), plus occasional major discounts on other books. The nook FB page is full of the awesome; something new at least a couple of times a week (plus that whole free fridays thing!).

I don’t have any problem with the weight (never even thought about it) and like to read it with the cover bent back. Love the variable font sizes and don’t have any trouble at all with the bottom screen interface. My 84 year old mother just got one and likes hers as well.

I do admit to being confused as to why anyone would want a device that doesn’t work for library books or epubs, but that’s me.

Have had the Nook since Feb. 2010 and had to replace it twice for cracked buttons. Wish I had a Kindle better website, better CS.

I originally bought the Nook purely on friend recommendation. That and the fact that I buy ebooks like crazy from Barnes and Noble alone. It suits its purpose perfectly for me. I do hate how dark the screen is though. I have so many lights on around me in order to read well on it. Besides that, though, I read on it all the time!!

I’m glad someone else noticed the ridiculous name, this webcomic pretty much sums up how I feel about the name
http://www.krrobar.com/mikebookseller/comics/299.html

I bought my nook after a lot of dithering between the Kindle and the nook.  It came down to what most others are saying, epub, lending and sideloading.  I travel a lot and was almost always carrying 4-5 paperbacks with me.  Now it is just my nook.  Of course, I have to turn it off and wait until 10,000 feet before being able to read on a plane.

I do like the tie-ins to the brick and morter store; like coffee!  I also like having a library that I can archive books to, as well as share on my IPhone.

The freezing of the screen problem is the biggest drawback.  I have gotten really good at taking the back panel off to fiddle with the battery.  I did get a new battery through customer service because it happened once too often and I blew a gasket.  I like being able to turn the pages with the touchscreen.  I have gotten good at the button though, clicking when I have 3-4 sentences to go on a page and knowing the next page will be there when I am finished with the previous one.

The whole ereader thing is very dangerous to the pocketbook though.  I was traveling and finished one of Joanna Bourne’s books.  I know there was another one out there so I looked it up, bought it and then stayed up the whole night reading!

I love my Sony and have no intentions of moving to the Nook.  That said, I have friends with the Nook who love it.  Perhaps if the Sony didn’t exist and I hadn’t fallen in love with my PRS-500 and, later, my PRS-505, I would’ve considered the Nook. 

However I have some problems with it based on what I’ve played with in my local BN (who know me well enough to allow me to test drive within the store).  It is bottom heavy and feels clunky in my hands.  The covers are outrageously priced (although awfully pretty, wish Sony did something similar).  It wasn’t as user friendly to me as I thought it should be.  And the BN vs. Other books situation makes me itchy.  I don’t like the two folders option.  Books are books.

As a die-hard book reader, the last thing I need is instant gratification, so I’m happy NOT having wifi capabilities on my cheaper, but reliable Sony.

Kindle?  Not even on my radar.  I don’t personally have too much against Amazon, but I resent being told that I can legally only order books from them. 

That’s what I love about the Sony.  They aren’t in the book business, so they don’t care where you buy them.  Plus the Sony recognizes more than just one type of format.  That’s all WIN for me!

System99? Oh, yeah, it seems like there will soon be 99 different systems of eReaders out there before much longer.

I bought the Nook primarily because I had already purchased so many books for my iPhone and wanted to send them over (the backlight was killing me on the iPhone.) I read on it a lot, but sideloading is a pain. I like the ease of buying directly from bn.com, where my account is on file. BUT Barnes and Noble takes forever to put books up. The September Carina books JUST were listed this weekend. Kindle has better selection, sadly.

My husband bought one on pre-sale, and we bought one for my mom for Christmas last year.  He bought me one for Valentine’s Day this year, when I had gathered up half a dozen print books off the shelf at B&N that he was planning buying electronically.

We’d debated Kindle’s.  But, we don’t have WhisperNet coverage, and Sprint has no plans to bring it to where we live or to where my mom lives.  If you don’t have coverage, a Kindle becomes much more difficult to use (so says a friend who has one that now gathers dust, having been tossed aside for her iPad). 

My other objection to the Kindle was being tied to Amazon.  I use them for a lot of things, but they have kind of become like Walmart: a necessary evil.  If I could get an e-reader that didn’t tie me to them, so much the better.

We looked at the Sony models, but I didn’t like the way they felt in my hands. They just didn’t fit very well.

We really like having both Nook’s connected to a single account.  It means that the genre reading we share (mostly fantasy & sci-fi) doesn’t have to be purchased multiple times.  On the flip side, though, is that he’s constantly complaining about my romance & mysteries filling up his reading list, while I scroll by pages of stuff that has no interest to me.

I had the buttons crack on mine the first night I had it.  The customer service rep I talked to was able to quite cheerfully talk me through the exchange process, and I had a replacement within 4 days.  The revised model that came out this summer has changed how the internal buttons are built, with reinforcement behind the plastic, so they are less likely to crack.

Count me as another who loves her Nook. Of course, I have to agree with others, including Sarah, in that I really think it just depends on the person. Maybe if I’d gotten a Kindle first, I’d be a Kindle diehard. There were many reasons I went with the Nook, though, and every time I’m in Target, I fiddle with the Kindle on display and walk away confident as ever that I made the right choice for me, in getting the Nook. One of the main reasons being the weight difference, actually. The lightness of the Kindle kind of scares me, maybe irrationally so, but I really love the weight of my Nook. And I love love LOVE the touchscreen. I feel kind of bad for those who have experienced frustration with it, as the page-swipe is one of my absolute favorite features. With it in its case (and maybe without, although it never leaves its case), I’m able to hold it one-handed like a paperback and page-swipe with my thumb, and it works perfectly every time. Also, add mine to those who give B&N customer service a thumbs-up. Every transaction and question I’ve had regarding the Nook has been very promptly and courteously handled.

Most of all, though, I’m just in love with e-readers as a whole. I used to be a voracious reader, especially when I lived in a pedestrian-friendly city and took public transportation everywhere. Now I spend almost all my time on the go in a car, and my reading dropped to an all-time low. I’m a multi-book reader, so that was a frustration, too, because my nightstand would wind up with stacks of partly-read books that mostly gathered dust because it was too much hassle and commitment to take them anywhere. With my Nook, though, I’ve read more in the past five months than in the past five years. I’m not crazy enough to consider Nooking and driving, but it does sit next to me in my car, and yeah, when I’m stopped at a long light or I’m in the drive-through I get a paragraph or two in. And I’m able to covertly read on the job, too, which is great since the work I do is pretty repetitive and mindless at times (consider it’s like listening to headphones while doing data entry).

My only frustrations are really a matter of impatience. I’m impatient for the publishing industry to get its act together about pricing and making available books in e-format before they make the same mistakes the music industry did with the mp3 format. And I’m impatient for the Nook’s next firmware upgrade and hoping they get the darned file organization issue addressed. Neither of these outweighs my joy over this new technology, however.

Followup comment!

Indeed, I agree that Kindle vs. Nook vs. Sony really is all a matter of personal preference. The various readers are moving closer to one another in terms of actual functionality, so eventually it’ll just be a question of which specific bell or whistle you might want for your personal reading needs.

Also, let me note that my perturbation with B&N customer service has NEVER been with the in-store people in Seattle, who’ve always been awesome. So was the one person I spoke with when I actually called in about the ongoing “why can’t I read an epub file in this Mac client you SAID was supposed to be able to read epub files?” issue. My frustration has more been with the whole question of the front lines of B&N customer service really not being able to give me the information I need to answer those questions to my satisfaction. (Read: I’m a techie, so tier 1 tech support is not enough for me, when I need info. Tier 2 tech support is more my speed.)

And yeah, I’m also desperately waiting for the next firmware upgrade. If they can fix the syncing issue and give us nook users some file organization that doesn’t suck (read: “any file organization at all”), that’d be lovely.

Excellent timing for this thread! I received a nook for my birthday two week ago but have yet to do more than figure out how to read a book. I’m a law student so reading (cases) pdfs is important to me but I was disappointed in my trial at doing that last week. I’ve since downloaded ECalibre and reformatted to ePub but haven’t plugged the nook back in to transfer the reformatted files to see if they are readable.

I wanted a nook (birthday gift buyer has been feeling me out for months and bought a kindle for himself) because: 1) pdfs, 2) I like barnes and noble because I’m a loyal customer and because I want Amazon to have competition, 3) the 1984 debacle, 4) the more open format.

Once my warranty is up I plan to softroot it.

Isobel Carr said on…
10.11.10 at 07:54 AM
I know it gets no love here in the States (and I don’t know why), but I adore my CyBook Opus.

Me too! I had a Nook, the buttons cracked and while I waited for the replacement, I fell in love with the Opus. I tried the new Sony Pocket, but it had a few issues i didn’t expect (accidental page turns, fingerprints creating glare at night) and i took it back to the store. I’m trying an iPad but its so darned heavy and i haven’t found a case that works for bed reading on my side.

I really love my nook as well. I call it Lil Bastard - LB for short. I work at a public library and I decided on the nook after test driving on that a co-worker had. The Overdrive system has so amny titles that I can borrow for free, that I have only bought ONE book from BN since I got the reader in August. EVerything else I have read has been on loan from the library. I easily sideloaded the older pdf books I had from other ebook sites and shopping is just a little too easy. A couple of clicks and it’s magically appeared on LB. It doesn’t really feel like I’m spending money, so I have to restrain myself.
A way to organize my books into various folders would be great and surfing the web is a little odd since you navigate with the LCD touchscreen at the bottom while reading the e-ink screen at the top. Still, I love reading books on LB and I have actually bought fewer paper books and ebooks thanks to the massive Clevnet online collection. And the reader only cost me $7.50 after I used all my rewards and gift cards!!!

love my nook for all the reasons already said!

I love my nook!  Any reasons I list would pretty much repeat the comments from above.  I will say that I am NOT a Kindle fan because of their “does not play well with others” attitude, very similar to the Apple/iPod issue when they first arrived ...  I am a librarian, so as I thought when I purchased an mp3 player years ago, an essential feature was to be compatible with Overdrive, what my library system uses to lend free audio and ebooks.  Also, the fact that amazon says that the reason they are not compatible with other formats is something along the lines of we make such big strides so quickly, no one else can keep up…Holier than thou much?  Needless to say, I was completely turned off by Kindle.

With my nook I’ve been able to purchase books from all sorts of places and can download and sideload with ease.  When I bring it to work I show it off to staff (and some customers, too).  I love my funky purple & orange Peace/Love Johnathan Adler cover, too!

One thing that is extremely cool is that my library system has actually purchased 60 nooks and by the end of the year, will be loaning them out to library customers.  They will be preloaded with oodles of best-sellers and customers will be able to use the nook to borrow books from OverDrive.

My brother and I are 19 and 21, respectively, and we both got Nooks for Hanukkah. Neither of us knew squat about e-readers, and I still don’t, except that I was a pretty voracious reader before and liked the idea of carrying a library around in a teensy sliver of plastic. Without having any experience with other e-readers, here are the pros and cons:
Pros-
-The touch screen. I know it lags, but looking through the cover art in color is really useful, especially when I’m looking for a book I saw casually on the shelf at the grocery store and don’t remember the title, but damn if there isn’t a really hot guy with red angel wings on the cover.
-The LendMe feature. My brother and I trade books like baseball cards, and this prevents having to buy two of the same copies or having to actually switch devices.
-Google books. Half of my storage is devoted to classics I got for free. Since i missed out on a lot of such required reading during grade school, this makes me extremely happy.
-Charge will last for days if left in sleep mode.

Cons-
-Freezes up every once in a while. It’s easy to fix, but really annoying.
-Occasionally wipes bookmarks and place. This isn’t as much of a problem after they added the go-to-page feature, but again, really annoying.
-Long-ass lags for everything but reading. Keyboard has a two-second lag between letters and freezes if you try to type faster. Paging through in the shop is another two-second lag, not counting connection speed. Oh, and always shop on the device, never on the website itself—you will wait a solid hour before you get your book, often longer.

So… yeah. my opinion. Here’s your two cents and grain of salt.

My husband loves his Nook.  It must be good for big man hands ;)

I much prefer my Sony.

First, let me say that my kids are young enough that I hope to be forgiven for reading too much Dr. Seuss.  ( Can you read too much Dr. Seuss? )

Next, to address that pesky name.  I believe they stole it from Dr. Seuss.  I quote:
“We took a look.  We saw a Nook.  One his head he had a hook.  On his hook he had a book.  On his book was ‘How to Cook’. ... But a Nook can’t read, so a Nook can’t cook.  SO…what good to a Nook is a hook cook book?”  From, One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss.

Or at least that’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it!

NOOK had me at freebies, but like owning a time share condominium, it only pays for itself if you work the system.  I love scooting into B&N on Fridays for the NEW free reads.  As a result, I’ve been introduced to authors I wouldn’t have (or not until the moon turned to green cheese, anyway) purchased.  Not because I hadn’t heard of them but because I just have so many other titles in my TBR pile and TBP list that I would never have gotten around to it.  So, thank you NOOK, for introducing me to Karen Marie Moning, Jim Butcher, and especially, Elizabeth Berg.

I shop Amazon for lots of things, but for some reason I hate shopping books on their site (too cluttered for my ADD?).  As a result, I have always been a BN girl.  When it came time to buy an e-reader, I bought the one that worked with BN’s site.  I also was not a fan of the Kindle’s keyboard, which seemed to get in my way when I test drove it.  That said, I love my nook (ha!).  I have a silicon “condom” cover, and put a screen protector on it, and it seems to be holding up just fine eight months later.  I also like the nook app for my android phone- all my books are there, for me to pick up and read anywhere, anytime.
I agree with others who have said it is a personal choice.  But I haven’t had any issues with my nook that a two minute search on the nook forums hasn’t fixed.
A note on e-readers in general- When packing for a trip, it is great not to have to pack my usual 10 paperbacks anymore.

I love and adore my nook.  I was anti ereader just like i had been anti ipod before i was given one as a gift.

i like the e-ink no glare feature and the font choices and font size customizability works for me and my control issues. It goes back to the furthest-read point w/o bookmarking so I don’t have to bend pages or remember page #‘s. The instant gratification is seductive considering i live 90 min from a bookstore.

i get most of my books from bn and I’ve enjoyed the free ebooks featured weekly ranging from harlequins and diana gabaldon to the fairy tales of hans christian anderson.

i have a nifty red cover that folds back and snaps behind to stay out of the way.

I like the big buttons. I can’t even stand the teensy qwerty keys on cell phones so this one works well for moi.

After a lot of research, I went with The Nook and I haven’t regretted it even for a moment. Yes, the start up time is slower than Kindle, but I’ve had no issues with mine so far. I like that I have the ability to borrow library books, I appreciate being tied to a brick-and-mortar store, and I love the overall design and weight. The freebies B&N offers aren’t bad either :)

Everyone has to choose the reader that’s right for them, and for me the Nook has exceeded my expectations.

I’ve had a Kindle for over 2 years now (the original and now the K2).  I got a Sony Pocket reader about a year ago, then sold it and bought a nook when I found out that I could put Sony (and Kobo & Borders) books on a nook, but not B&N books on the Sony.  I had free books from all thanks to iPhone reader apps.  I ended up getting my nook on eBay (didn’t particularly feel like rewarding B&N for adding that extra layer of DRM to their books so I couldn’t read them on the Sony). 

As a device, I much prefer my Kindle.  It’s as though the nook developers looked at Kindle and thought “Now how can we add at least one step to any given function?”  I don’t understand why they didn’t do some research into what Kindle owners were clamoring for (organization!).  Kindle has it now, but users had been asking for it from the get-go.  I’m underwhelmed by nook’s LED screen, it’s too sensitive at times, yet not sensitive enough for page swiping (and yes, I’ve watched the instructional videos).  Kindle’s keyboard is incredibly useful for creating collections.  I want to be able to delete a book from my nook directly on the nook, rather than having to hook it up to the computer. People look at the Kindle and think it looks clunky and nook is sleek.  But from a functional point of view, using the Kindle is much “sleeker”.  I guess I prefer function over form.

From stories I’ve read (and personal experience with Amazon’s Kindle customer service) I’ll take Amazon for customer service hands down.  Don’t need a physical body - I can call to get a question answered, I can get a replacement Kindle overnighted to me (more than once) and in fact, just did last week when my daughter’s Kindle died from accidental causes.  And frankly I’m turned off by some of the either uninformed or lying salespersons who tell shoppers things about Kindle (and probably Sony as well) that just aren’t true.  Amazon offers a lot more freebies (recent/current publications) than all the other sellers combined, their bookstore is bigger, and even with the heinous agency model, their prices average lower.  Even if users were totally locked in to Amazon for acquiring books (which they aren’t), when they have the best selection & best prices, that isn’t the worst thing in the world. 

Library books weren’t even in my mind when I bought the nook - my local library doesn’t have Overdrive or any eBooks that interest me.  But after getting the nook I found out there are libraries I can access for eBooks even though I’m not in their local area, so have been reading library books on it.  I have yet to spend a dime on books for my nook with B&N.  And I’ve seen more than a few people say the same thing - they use it for library books and free books from B&N & books from other sources.  And therein lies a potential problem for B&N.  If enough people are primarily reading freebies and library books on their nooks, it becomes a bad business model and how committed is B&N to eBooks & nook long-term?  They’ve abandoned eBooks once already.  Amazon’s business model is better, and if they’re true to their word, they’re committed to eBooks. 

Bottom line, though, is that I want them all to succeed.  Kindle, Sony, nook, Kobo & all the others.  I want eBooks to succeed.  I don’t want to go back to paper books.  I can’t adjust the font size.  It’s too easy to lose my place.  I get distracted by the opposite page.  I’m spoiled, and not ashamed to admit it.

I have a Nook also and I love it. I like being able to transfer the books I’d bought and loaded onto my computer. I don’t mind having a section for books downloaded from B&N and those from elsewhere. What I want though, it the option to create folders within the library for different kinds of books. Or so I can organize by author or whatever. I mean -  I’m a librarian - if I can’t organize my books I start to feel an encroaching OCD-like anxiety.

For the free e-book lovers out there. Yes, when you click on the “free e-books” link on the B&N web site most of the same books are listed. However, if you go to search (on either the web site or the onboard Nook store) and type in 0.00 as your search term then launch the search, you’ll get the list of the nearly 100K free books available. The bad thing about that search is that there doesn’t seem to be any way to SORT the search. Very frustrating. But at least you get past the 100 or so books that B&N pushes through their free link.

And question… what is the free chocolate of which you speak? I’m all about chocolate but I didn’t know I could get free chocolate with my Nook. Please…tell me how.  Pretty please? With chocolate on top?

I’d love to be able to shop in a way that would let me sort by price. Like I said, someone over here loves a sale. ;)  I counted how many books I’ve bought since April while on the Nook - well over 100, and gotten almost as many free downloads.

If you type in the price (0.00) you are looking for, plus the topic/genre (for example: 0.00 mystery), this will bring up free books of that type.

Diff topic: has nobody else ever heard of a freakin “book nook”?  There was even a used bookstore in my hometown called The Book Nook.  It’s a PLACE with BOOKS in it!  Kinda like a freakin nook HAS BOOKS IN IT!  Kinda like a BREAKFAST NOOK is a place you have your BREAKFAST IN.  Jeez.  Enough with the name shame already.

You do realize that the iPod touch isn’t capitalized either, right?  ;)

Hey nook folks, I have a question for you: can you borrow library books using the on-board Wifi access, or do you have to download then load them onto the nook via USB?

SB Sarah - Neither Nook nor any other E-Ink device can use wireless download to activate library books. This is due to the way OverDrive uses Adobe Digital Editions desktop to create a token for the book to expire.

So all E-Ink devices have to transfer library books via USB, after the Desktop authorizes the book file.

I’m anxiously awaiting Bluefire Reader’s iPad app adding that functionality.

Also re this:

Hey nook folks, I have a question for you: can you borrow library books using the on-board Wifi access, or do you have to download then load them onto the nook via USB?

Though Overdrive has announced plans (at Library Journal’s e-Book Summit) to make this function available, I don’t know what devices it would work on or how.

I just checked out library books this very weekend onto my nook for the first time. I did indeed have to do it via download of a small file off of my local library’s site, which I then opened in Adobe Digital Editions. That turned into the actual book, and I plunked that down onto the nook via USB.

Worked mostly fine, although I did have to specifically remember to jump through a couple of extra hoops. I had to:

1) Download the file off my library’s site
2) Open ADE
3) Click on the file to launch it so ADE could see it (if I didn’t have ADE open first, I got an error message about ADE wanting an update, which it didn’t actually need)
4) Close ADE and plug in my nook in the USB port
5) Re-open ADE so it could see the nook
6) Copy the book down to the device
7) Profit! Or at least, Reading!

More complex a process than it really needed to be but once I figured it out, the books (of which there are two) made it all shiny-like onto my device. I will be doing this more often to try to whittle down my Enormous Reading List of Enormousness, since even with the extra annoying steps, it’s worth it to not have to carry around ginormous hardbacks.