I pre-ordered myself a Nook!

Ktrek · November 14, 2009, 02:13:08 PM

Every year my wife lets me get some kind of electronic device for Christmas. There are not many electronic devices I really want anymore as I have good equipment but ever since the Sony Reader came out I have been wanting an ebook reader. She thought I would want an I-Pod but I really have no use for one. All I need is a phone that rings and lets me call. I could care less about all the little apps that are available. It just would not suit my needs very well. So, I told her I really liked the features of Barnes and Nobles new ebook reader called The Nook. Even though there are similar designs to the Kindle the Nook has quite a few more features. Unfortunately it will not arrive in time for me to take on my vacation but I'm pretty excited about being able to carry 1500 books with me wherever I go and up to 75,000 if I expand the memory. I decided I will purchase all my Star Trek books in ebook format from now on instead of paper. I'll miss the paperback books for sure but I'm running out of shelf space. My entire Star Trek library, and more, would fit on the Nook, which is an amazing thing to think about. I'd like to publicly thank my wife for her kindness and generosity and putting up with my geekiness all these years!

Bromptonboy · November 14, 2009, 02:16:09 PM

Looks good. I have been toying with the idea of getting something like this. It has a better price than the Kindle, and should be less proprietary.

Rico · November 14, 2009, 02:27:42 PM

Wow - so that make three Ebook readers out there now? Hmm, kind of surprised by that.

Feathers · November 14, 2009, 02:33:23 PM

Cool idea although that particular device is not one I've heard of (I've not heard of many). The black words on white screen approach is supposed to work well. How are the books priced in comparison to paper?

Bookshelf space is a problem in our house too but I've worked round that up to now by buying my Star Trek books in eReader format and reading them on my device of the moment - currently iPhone.

Barnes and Noble have actually scuppered that for me, however, by buying up eReader and locking down a lot of the content to the US. Thus my electronic reading habit is rapidly dying out.

jedijeff · November 14, 2009, 02:33:32 PM

Cool Device, sure is thin as well, looked at some pictures online, looks like it has a nice interface to navigate a person's library.

Ktrek · November 14, 2009, 02:41:20 PM

Quote from: Feathers on November 14, 2009, 02:33:23 PM
Cool idea although that particular device is not one I've heard of (I've not heard of many). The black words on white screen approach is supposed to work well. How are the books priced in comparison to paper?

If you look online at B&N's website you will find that the ebook price is the same as the paperback book. One huge difference though is that all new books released in hardcover are only $9.99. Since most hardcovers cost twice that or more I think that will be a savings. Plus I quite often skip buying hardback books and wait for the paperback even if it is a year later. Now I can afford to read a title when it is released.

There is a good comparison chart on B&N's website that shows the differences between it and the Kindle. I think the Nook outshines the Kindle although I'd be willing to bet that the next version of the Kindle will copy a lot of the Nooks features.

Will reading books in the Nook give new meaning to the word nookie? LOL

Kevin

Feathers · November 14, 2009, 03:04:36 PM

It could have been the Wook!

Rico · November 14, 2009, 03:48:10 PM

The most important thing to me would be how well it feels and looks when you read it and the catalog of books available. My wife Lynn has been interested in the Kindle, but the price still seems to high for the device and we also think the e-books should be cheaper overall. But I can see things going more this way over time.

Ktrek · November 14, 2009, 07:08:48 PM

I'm not sure I agree with you Rico. The I-Pod is just as expensive for what it does and like I said earlier I would much prefer an ebook reader. For me it serves a far greater usefulness. Only because I LOVE books and reading is my favorite pastime. And not to mention that the screen is...shall we say... READABLE! :)

Kevin

Ktrek · November 14, 2009, 08:56:55 PM

I found the Nook comparison page to the Kindle. Here it is:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/nook/compare/

cosmonaut · November 15, 2009, 12:35:08 AM

A good e-book reader would be great, I've tried doing this on my iBook, it's small enough so I just tuned the page and opened it like you would a book, but the screen isn't good enough to let you read for hours.

Carrying a library with you is cool, and if you like the classics anyway (means older than 70 years), just go to project Gutenberg, they have 30 000 books!
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

There are also some people who are starting their career as an author by releasing their books as free audiobooks and free pdf (still selling paperbacks), an example would be him:
http://jchutchins.net/

Feathers · November 15, 2009, 01:14:30 AM

I agree price has an impact on these decisions and that's where eReader did well for a while. Much cheaper than paper.

Since they've moved into the ownership of mainstream publishers that's changed but I have started to wonder on the costs of servers and bandwidth against paper and ink. For a major publisher there would still be quite an expense involved in electeonic distribution. Not as much as driving books round the country maybe but still not completely free either.

Prices have risen as electronic reading has started to go mainstream but once the public at large really takes it up and we all have a personal PADD, I think we'll see a reasonable differential settle into the system. What I don't know is how long that will take.

Rico · November 15, 2009, 05:52:11 AM

Quote from: Ktrek on November 14, 2009, 07:08:48 PM
I'm not sure I agree with you Rico. The I-Pod is just as expensive for what it does and like I said earlier I would much prefer an ebook reader. For me it serves a far greater usefulness. Only because I LOVE books and reading is my favorite pastime. And not to mention that the screen is...shall we say... READABLE! :)

Kevin

Well, obviously you wouldn't agree with me since you are getting one of these. I was just sharing my views. As always everyone is entitled to their own opinion. One last thing I will say though is it will take awhile for these E-Readers to catch on and really penetrate the market (just like DVD players, cell phones and .mp3 players have done). At that point there will be even better units out there and they will certainly cost less. My wife and I both love to read too and I'm sure will eventually get some type of E-Reader. I'm just going to wait awhile.

Bromptonboy · November 15, 2009, 06:27:25 AM

I LOVE project Gutenburg!!!

The funny thing is that Rico posted a picture on Facebook 'Me on the bridge' (sitting on the TOS captains chair) - this put into my mind the old poem 'Horatio at the bridge' - which has been filling my thoughts all weekend now. I found this right away on Gutenburg (and subjected my poor kids to a reading of it last night as a bedtime story before our trip).

psikeyhackr · December 10, 2009, 08:19:55 PM

Levar Burton said he just got a Nook on twitter yeasterday.

http://twitter.com/levarburton

I tweeted him and suggested he test it with this:

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/24161

50 year old SF about water on the Moon.

psik