My Nook

I was semi-correct when I thought it would be a nice idea to have an e-book for my journey to Russia.

For a number of reasons I selected the Barnes & Noble Nook over the Amazon Kindle or other e-books. I’m almost happy with my choice.

Barnes & Noble offers more than a million e-books. Most of them are about half the price of a hardback, or even less. Some are just $1.99. A few are free (classics without copyright issues). I can download more than 1,000 books, magazines, and newspapers onto the Nook. So carrying something the weight of a paperback can provide me with virtually unlimited reading material.

There were two features in particular that I wanted on an e-book. The first was Wi-Fi connectivity. The second was an ability to download e-books from the public library, in addition to buying books online.

The Nook does allow a user to connect to the web, and I don’t mind its limitations for us early adopters. However, I do expect that my Nook will seem dated quite soon unless there are software updates. I can do a Google search and a quick look-up, but it’s not convenient to browse around the web.

Figuring out how to download e-books from Fairfax County Library while at home was more complicated than I expected. People at Barnes & Noble were no help; they just read books in the store. But with perseverance I got Bill Bryson’s “A Short History of Nearly Everything,” David Halbertam’s “The Coldest Winter,” and the game theory study “Rock, Paper, Scissors.” These e-books are treated like print books, with due dates. Only what happens to an e-book is that it becomes unreadable on the due date. It stays like junk in My Library until I use Adobe Digital Editions towipe my e-shelf clean.

So far I’ve bought just a few e-books from Barnes & Noble, each for less than $15. One is the last book by Stieg Larssen, “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.” Another was Leningrad-based “City of Thieves,” by David Benioff (while traveling I love being immersed in the atmospherics of a novel about that place). My other e-book purchase was a classic I haven’t returned to since college: de Tocqueville’s “Democracy in America.” That one was 99 cents.

Barnes & Noble touts its “Lend Me” technology. Just like when you buy print books, you can lend out e-books – subject to restrictions. You can lend a book once and only once, and for just 14 days. So any of you who want Larssen’s hot new book, or Benioff’s critically acclaimed novel, be the first person to contact me and you’ll get it.

The Nook allows me to bookmark pages, highlight sections, and use a Find feature for key words. I can also change the font size, which is particularly useful depending on whether I have good lighting or dim contrast. It can go 10 days without needing a recharge.

Although Nook software can be downloaded to smartphones and the I-Pad, I think that extensive reading on a backlit screen would be tiring for the eyes. E-books have e-inks. You read them with reflected light, just like reading a print book. But current products don’t have enough contrast, in my opinion. And small screens require several click-throughs to cover the equivalent of a print page.

In addition to the reading surface, the Nook has a color touch-screen with that has pretty icons and a teeny tiny keyboard that is not pressure-sensitive. It's skin-contact and motion-sensitive. It will not respond to being touched by fingernails, and if you have fat fingers (apparently I do) then it’s wise to get a stylus like one made for Apple products such as the iPhone.

Would I be happier with the Kindle? Maybe, because Kindle users always come across as enthusiastic. There’s one thing of which I’m very sure: E-books readers are going to go way, way down in price. Amazon is intensely interested in having you buy a Kindle. Barnes & Noble really wants you to have a Nook. Buy either one and you can store more than 1,500 books on your device. The companies drool over having you as a frequent buyer of books at say, $10 a copy.  

I predict that there will be a price war between Amazon and Barnes & Noble. It’s worth it to the companies to subsidize the hardware cost. E-books that don’t have this subsidy had better be worth a higher price.

I think I’ll hang on to my early edition Nook for a few years, and then donate it to the Smithsonian Museum of American History. It will be appropriate one day for the exhibit of obsolete technologies, such as the electric typewriter.