I have been debating between the Nook and Kindle and finally decided on a Nook. Let’s not debate it - its been done to death on other threads.
I have been saving Best Buy points and have almost enough for the $149 wifi edition. I think this is what I need. I have read that the browsing experience is really much better on your computer and if you are going to shop at other eBook stores you will only do that on your computer as well. Point being, I can’t think of a real reason to pony up the extra $50 for the 3G option. I am willing to listen to reason.
Next - what impact do you think Barnes and Nobles current financial woes will have on the Nook?
Lastly, do you think a next generation is around the corner? Or a price drop?
When I’ve REALLY needed a new book, I’ve been in an airport, a hospital, or other places with no free wifi. (I have a Kindle, but same idea.) The more expensive version is a one-time cost, right? The times I’ve needed it have been worth a hell of a lot more than 50 bucks (one time!) to me.
Insofar as proprietary readers are concerned, all of them read .pdf. As to which format wins, I would wait for a next gen version. For all you know, either Amazon or B&N could buckle in the format war. As someone with an HD-DVD player hooked up to his Xbox, learn from the errors of my ways…
The Kindle 3 was released Friday, and according to all the reviews it blows all of the ereaders out of the water so far. The rumors are that Barnes and Noble are working on a Nook 2 (Project Encore) and logic says that unless B&N wants to be completely killed in the ereader market they’re going to release their new baby within the next month or so.
Eta: I had a nook for about a month but it didn’t impress me. I returned it once I heard about the new kindle.
Zero. B&N has no financial woes. What’s been in the news lately is a power struggle, not a financial crisis. The company is solidly behind the Nook, too.
This is the one thing I don’t understand. Why don’t people have extra books already on their reader? I can’t imagine having run out of books. I’ve always got books at home, I would assume the same would happen on a reader.
Yeah, but sometimes you don’t want to read any of THOSE books. What I do often is have a bunch of samples on my Kindle to remind me that I was thinking of reading these things, and then when I need another book I look through them and buy one I like. This past January I went with my mom to Pittsburgh for a family visit that turned out to be a week in the hospital watching my grandma die. Sixteen hour days in the waiting room. If I hadn’t had the 3G Kindle I don’t know what I would have done.
I don’t claim any expertise, and concede you may know more about the company than I do, but they’ve had a couple of quarters of losses, and seem to have very little cash but over $300 million in debt.
I bought a Wi-Fi Nook a few weeks ago … no regrets. Within a few hours I had downloaded enough free books to last me a long time and I’ve already read more than enough of them to pay off the thing compared to buying paper versions. As much as I am into instant gratification, I can’t imagine being so impulsive as to feel unable to wait until I can connect to Wi-Fi to start reading a particular book … but then, I’m old and feel no need to be in constant communication with a cell phone or Twitter or such, either.
As for the future of B&N and/or the Nook and/or future versions – well, it’s an electronic device; it will become outdated … waiting for the latest and greatest next step probably means never getting one at all.
Amazon’s proprietary ebook format was what tipped the balance for me; I like that B&N chose to go open source.
No real comment other than to echo that many of the times I’ve really wanted to buy a book on my Kindle have generally been when WiFi wouldn’t be available so a one time $50 is well worth it to me.
Switching to an eReader has, suprising to me too, not resulted in the digital equivalent of a stack of books on the nightstand waiting their turn.
The big reason I always had dozens of paper books waiting to be read was not so that I’d have a lot of options at any given time but because I pre-emptively purchased books. If I saw something I wanted to read at some point I had to buy it then because I knew I’d never remember it later. The other part of it was that I needed to make sure I never ever finished a book and then had nothing else new to read.
Both of those things went away with an eReader that can always be conveniently connected to a store. Now if I see a book I want to read in the future I just add it to my wish list and then only buy it when I’m actually read to read it. And I don’t need a little stockpile to ward off a gap between reading material because I can always shop online anywhere.
I’m hoping this isn’t a zombie thread, but I chose the Nook Over the Kindle for two reasons:
If B&N folds, the Nook reads an open standard (I rediscovered my library over on fictionwise! Yay!)
The Nook lets you check out books from the Library (this is actually a requirement for my Mom. If I can’t live without the Nook by Xmas, I’ll buy her another one…if I find I’m not using this one so much, I’ll give it to her.
FWIW, there’s this site (rhymes with DuhIratePay) that has a TON of epub format books. Not that I’d ever condone that kinda thing.
What I do often is have a bunch of samples on my Kindle to remind me that I was thinking of reading these things, and then when I need another book I look through them and buy one I like. This past January I went with my mom to Pittsburgh for a family visit that turned out to be a week in the hospital watching my grandma die. Sixteen hour days in the waiting room. If I hadn’t had the 3G Kindle I don’t know what I would have done.