Nook Verdict

I've had my Nook for almost a week and haven't really had a lot of time playing around with it. I have started to read Gone With the Wind. Finally. Thought it would be a good one to start with. Once you get used to the functions, it's easy to navigate. I haven't had any experience with it operating too slow. I helped an old lady the other day with hers and she complained about it taking to long to start up. Nook has a standby mode which leaves it on a screensaver and a complete shut down which turns the screen blank. When it's on standby, you can tap the power button and it will open up where you left off with no loading. I've left my nook on standby for days and haven't had to recharge it so it doesn't use much power. When you shut it completely off, it takes a few minutes for it to load up when you turn it on. I wonder how many people do this and then complain about it taking too long to start up. Another thing that can be confusing is, it opens up from main menu options to where it last left off. Not a good thing when you're looking at a demo device but helpful when you are using your personal device. For instance Customer 1 is looking at the demo, opening up and paging through a book, and then walks away. Customer 2 comes over a few minutes later and turns it on. It opens up in the middle of the book that Customer 1 was looking at. They go to Documents and it opens up the document that was last viewed. You get the idea. One customer was getting frustrated because the touch screen kept shutting off. Turns out, a previous customer changed the settings to a 10 sec shut off. If I didn't help him change it, he would have thought that was how it normally operated.

On E-books, you can view samples which can be pretty lame depending on the book. A lot of the samples I've viewed are too short to determine the content. An example of this are E-books for cookbooks. I wanted to know how one of these would look and if they would have pictures in them. A lot of the ones I viewed barely get through the introduction and then the sample ends before you see any recipes. Annoying! On the other hand, the sample for Gone With the Wind was 62 pages long which was about 3 chapters, even with a super long introduction at the beginning. There's an option to view whole E-books in Barnes & Noble for an hour so I'll have to bring mine in sometime and browse the cookbooks. There's a bunch of Classics that are free on Google books and I've downloaded a few. They are basically scanned copies of books so at the beginning there are some blank pages and the barcode from the library, etc. Kind of annoying. Why scan a blank page? Stupid! Other than that, the format works on my Nook. In most cases, E-books are cheaper than buying the book but I have to keep myself from buying E-books that I wouldn't normally consider buying as an actual book. I can see how it will add up pretty quickly.

There has been a big debate among serious book lovers on Electronic Readers. Some people say they prefer to have a book in hand while they read. In my experience, I am starting to like reading on my Nook better than an actual book. I read a lot in bed and will roll over on my side to read. Holding a book up is annoying, especially if you are laying on your side so that the side of the book with the most pages is the one up in the air. Sometimes I accidently close the book, it gets heavy etc. Since it's lighter than a book, it's easier to hold and I just rest it on the bed. The pages change really quickly and might be actually faster than turning an paper page. In my mind right now, I'm picturing one of those infomercials where they demonstrate how difficult it is to use something like a regular mop and bucket. The person is struggling to ring the water out and is making a huge mess. Then they show their mop and the person does it easily. ha ha. I'm picturing this but with books. The person is reading a book and loses their place, then has a hard time turning pages, etc. Ridiculous, I know. ;) I think I will still buy some books, especially when it's cheaper for me to do it. It's also ridiculous to state that E-Books will completely replace real ones. It just makes it easier to read and access more books, without running to the bookstore or library. With technology now, it's not hard on your eyes.

I've been waiting to take my Nook around until I get my cover I ordered. I looked at a few options and decided I wanted one that would protect the screen and could be held easily while reading. The one below is the one I decided on. The cover can be folded back while reading and it got good reviews from customers who bought it.

This is the one I wanted but isn't available yet. It snaps shut and you can fold it back and snap it open.

I considered this one because I wanted something with color instead of just black. It's currently unavailable because it sold out. That was the determining factor. I just found out today we have one in store that someone returned without packaging. Hmmm. Maybe I'll take a look at it.

What's your opinion on E-Books and E-Readers?