Having read the sample chapter of Anne Lamott's overpriced
new book on my Nook, I can say that it looks great. But I'm not going to pay 13 dollars for something I can't even share with someone else. I'll wait for the paperback, buy it, read it, and then give it away to a lucky reader. That is, if there are any of you left by then who hasn't gone ahead and bought it on your own e-reader.
And, just by the way, that amazing thing where, as a Nook owner, I am supposed to be able to "share" the ebook I am reading with another Nook owner? Yeah, right. Apparently, none of the (admittedly few) books I've bought qualify to be "shared." I feel ripped off. Meanwhile, if I had bought a Kindle, I could have read the Hunger Games for free
tonight and buying it would have cost me only 5 dollars. The Nook wants $8.50.
My advice? Buy a Kindle. My other advice? Don't bother asking for an e-reader for your birthday if you can't afford to buy books. I mean, unless you
like to read only the first chapter of the latest book. Then go right ahead.
You know, I'm thinking that some of us are just not cut out to be early adopters.
[Cartoon credit:
Fluffy Links]
That's why I won't buy an e-reader, as handy as they might be sometimes. When I fly (which is, admittedly, a rare occasion) I want to be able to read during take-offs and landings -- if for no other reason than to take my mind off the fact that the plane might crash. You can't do that with an e-reader. And as you have so nicely pointed out, there are 2 very important words: PUBLIC LIBRARY. I'm with you, SC: not a luddite but not an early adopter, either.
ReplyDeleteI loved my original kindle. Now I use the kindle app for iPad. But nothing beats the library!!!
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry your present isn't working out, because that's just crappy and unfair. But thank you for the Kindle over Nook opinion; I'll keep that in mind if I ever get a reader. Not likely, considering my cell phone still only makes phone calls...
ReplyDelete(I also prefer maps to my Garmin, which always sends me a roundabout way and seems to have an aversion to a certain stretch of highway between here and Boston.)
I'm on my second Kindle. I broke the first one, which I got as a gift and hadn't really wanted, and found I really, really, missed it, so I sprung for the second one. I don't think I'd feel so strongly about it if I didn't have trouble reading the tiny print in some paperbacks. Being able to change the font size is a real benefit for my eyes.
ReplyDeleteI'm really glad there are libraries, and I made use of them in my previous (young, single, lots of time) life, but now I find that I just rack up fines, so I might as well pay for the books themselves :-)
I haven't tried sharing books on my Kindle yet --I should look into that and see if it really works.
It's interesting you say that about sharing. I just read an interesting article about classic Judy Blume books and how they were so often passed from one girl to another--I know the copy of Forever I kept hidden under my mattress while I was reading it was handed down to me from a long line of girlfriends--and how e readers have wrecked that sharing. I'll stick with paper books. And it's ridiculous when people say that e readers are better for the environment because they save paper. Hello? Hasn't anyone heard of used books or public libraries?
ReplyDeleteI have a Nook and I love it...of course I use it for checking email and facebook whiole I'm nursing the baby at night...I also love OLD books...most of which are free from the Guttenberg Project...All Chesterton, Dickens, Cervantes, George Eliot and Jane Austen : ) woo hoo I am also addicted to sudoku and free apps like Civil War Journal...and crossword puzzles...
ReplyDeleteI will NEVER stop getting REAL books, but it is nice to sit with the Nook in the evening!
Oh, and being full color and back-lit, it is great for slide shows of the kid's photos...I'm kind of silly that way. I am kind-of sorry that I didn't wait til this year's model...
it is more powerful and faster (but I have a nephew who knows how to "upgrade" mine to do what the new ones do)!
My girlfriend has a Kindle and I have a Nook--we buy different books and then trade readers every now and then.
ReplyDeleteI got my husband a Nook for Christmas and he's been using it a lot. We haven't really tried the sharing thing, but it has let him take the one e-reader on the train instead of two or more books (with a commute of an hour and forty-five minutes each way, he has had a lot of reading time). Our library loans e-books (in part I chose the Nook because the library had more Nook material available than Kindle). And he likes it for surfing the web (it's the tablet, not just the reader.) And he also likes classics- so there's a lot of free older material out there.
ReplyDeleteOf course this doesn't stop us buying books, any more than paperbacks made hardcovers obsolete, but it is a different format with its own pluses and minuses.
Thought I'd let you know that if you have an a mac device, you can download the kindle app and read books there. Probably not as convenient but I've read books on my iPod touch and it works really well. Just have to turn the page more often, but you can make the text bigger so its easier to read.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the sharing feature is determined by the publisher. I have a kindle and cannot share a single book I bought.
Still don't have an e-reader. Funny thing is, when I bring my book to book club, all the e-reader people want to look at it--because it's BETTER than their electronic version.
ReplyDeletei'm not sure i LIKE reading just the (free) first chapter of books on the kindle, but damn i do it a lot. i have so many of them, and i almost NEVER actually go ahead and buy the book.
ReplyDeletei'm not sure i LIKE reading just the (free) first chapter of books on the kindle, but damn i do it a lot. i have so many of them, and i almost NEVER actually go ahead and buy the book.
ReplyDeleteI have an iPad, which has the Kindle app on it. I do like having the e-reader, and recently our local library spent $50,000 on ebooks so people with ereaders could borrow them.
ReplyDeleteA way to get around the sharing issue is to login as yourself on your friends device, then they have access to all of your books. Just did that with my husbands Kindle account.
My daughter gave me a Nook for Christmas. So far all I've used it for is doing the puzzles and playing the games she pre-loaded it with...
ReplyDeleteWe have four Nooks in our house, so I think that tells you where I stand on the debate. :-)
ReplyDelete(Also, if you get a Facebook message from someone you don't know tonight, it's me, emailing about Mrs. G's summer travel to our fair state.)