Wednesday, September 22, 2010

E-Readers: Review of the Nook


Happy Wednesday, everyone!

Before I hop into the post, I'd like to say thanks to Kittie Howard over at The Block and A.F Stewart over at A.F Stewart's Blog for the awards they've given me this week! We have now received a "You Deserve a Star" award from Kittie, and the "One Lovely Blog Award" thanks to A.F Stewart (that's the second time someone has given us that one--yay!). You ladies rock! Thanks for the shout out and awards!

Now for today's post, I want to talk about e-readers. Those of you who have been following me for a while know that I have posted about this before. One of my very first posts was actually about the Kindle. I've had my reservations about e-readers and e-books in general, but I'm trying to take a step forward and explore the new possibilities.

In my opinion, the general public still hasn't hopped onto the e-wave. However, while the only people I know who own e-readers are either writers, bloggers, or other types of publishing professionals, it seems at the moment that e-readers aren't leaving the industry any time soon. They will most likely end up spreading to the general public--whether this will be weeks, months, or years from now I don't know, but it seems likely to happen.

So as a result of this, I broke down and asked for an e-reader for my birthday. My hubby, being as wonderful as he is, told me I could pick out one of my choice. After some debate and consideration, I decided to go with the Barnes and Noble Nook versus the other widely used reader, the Amazon Kindle. Here is what I like about the Nook:

--What mainly sold me was the "Lend Me" app that the Nook has that the Kindle doesn't feature yet. I absolutely love lending out my books to friends and that was one of my larger reservations about getting an e-reader. With the Nook, I can lend any of my books out for up to 14 days to anyone with any format of e-reader, or simply anyone with a computer. After that time period is up, it will be sent back to me.
--The store. While I do buy a lot of used paperback books from Amazon, the physical reality of having a store I can take my Nook to, if I need help, is much more comforting than calling up customer service on the phone.
--The color touch screen. I love the colors and images of book covers. They sell me just as much as the back cover blurb does, so being able to see the cover in color when I'm browsing for books is great.
--There are many free books I can download, and when I'm in any Barnes and Noble, I can read any book they have available for free--same as if I were grabbing a book off the shelf.
--Free downloads of the first twenty to forty pages of any book I want to buy. That way I can sample it and decide before I pay the cash.
--I'm already reading faster and more than I usually would on my Nook than I do with paperback books. However (big however), I'm still only reading books by authors I would usually buy in paperback, mainly New York Times Bestsellers who are well-known from major houses. So while I may have hopped on the e-reader train, I'm not quite ready to support e-publishing as a main means over paperback. I have nothing against e-books, and I'm sure there are many great ones out there. But for me personally, it has not made me branch out to read e-pubbed only authors or what some might call "indie" books. Who knows, that may change later though.

The only thing I've found so far that I don't like about my Nook is that there is no zoom feature for PDF files. I tried to read an essay article for one of my courses by downloading it to my Nook. The text was too small to read and since the Nook does not support a zoom feature yet, I was out of luck.

Overall, I think anyone who is an avid reader should consider getting a Nook, or Kindle if you prefer that style. So I've thrown away my cautions toward e-readers. Let's see if e-publishing comes next.

Til Friday! Winners of the challenge, don't forget to contact me or I will draw more names.

5 comments:

  1. I do love the look of a Kindle but am holding off till they get colour :) I can wait

    http://damselinadirtydress.blogspot.com

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  2. I've looked at the Kindle a little, but I haven't used it extensively. I mostly relied on internet reviews of the two and the listed features to help me decide =)

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  3. Great post Kaitlyn...I have yet to climb on the e reader bandwagon...I flirted with the idea of a Nook, but I just don't think I'd be comfortable reading for any length of time on it...I also love the physical part of reading too much, holding the book, turning the pages...

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  4. Thank you! =D I understand what you mean completely. I love looking at the covers of the book, feeling and smelling the pages, etc. Honestly, I thought I wasn't going to like it either--I was even reluctant about requesting it as a gift in the first place, because I didn't know whether I'd want to return it or not. Now that I have one though, I think it's great.

    I'm a super busy person. I'm on the go a lot, and I like that it is more hands free than holding a paperback. I will still always buy my absolute favorite books in paperback (the Sookie Stackhouse novels for example), but it's nice when I'm trying out books by authors I've never read before. Since the books are cheaper, if I don't like the novel, it wasn't such a waste of money, which is an advantage as well.

    From my current perspective, I think e-books are here to stay, but I don't believe they will ever completely outrun paperbacks. But I suppose we'll have to wait and see ;-)

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  5. Oh I'm glad you enjoy your Nook _ I do love my kindle :)

    And your list picked my number one market advantage for the Nook too - the "Lend Me" feature. Great idea.
    Do come over and share your thoughts on other publishing/ebook related posts at my blog e-Volving Books

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