Sydney - a little nookie

I just got my new nook. That’s an eReader produced by Barnes and Noble for those who don’t know. One uses it to read electronic books.

Why do you need a nook? One might ask.

Because I’ve got 1,140 books that I’ve bought from eReader.com and Fictionwise.com since 2001 that I need a device to read on.

I used to read them on my Pocket PC, iPaq (from the then Compaq), Palm Pilot, Palm Lifedrive, Palm Treo and then the iPhone. The technology keeps changing.

I can read those books on the iPhone but the iPhone is a very transient piece of technology.

I wanted a dedicated eBook reader that would hold all my books and allow me to go back to it to read whenever I wanted to read the books or re-read more like.

So far the nook is not what I would call a great device. It has surprised me in that it’s better than I thought it would be, but the reality is, it’s not as good an eReader as the latest Kindle 3G device. Amazon has done an amazing job on the user / reader experience with their latest eReader.

The latest Kindle is an AMAZING device for reading.

If not for the previously mentioned 1,140 books, I’d completely ignore the nook. My other alternative was to strip the Digital Rights Management (DRM) but that is illegal and very complicated to do – not something I want to try.

Here’s what I’ve found about the nook:

• You can’t buy it outside of the US and it won’t be supported outside of the US – I’m taking a chance here. I had to get a friend to buy it for me and then mail it.
• It was relatively easy to load books onto it from the PC to the nook using the USB cable. Just drag and drop into the correct directory – and they have a video on their support page to show you how to do it.
• It insists that you have a wireless connection in order to register the nook. I was able to register it using my home wireless connection.
• I’ve turned the wireless off since I will not be buying new books from Barnes and Noble for the nook. All new books are bought from Amazon for the Kindle.
• I ran into problems loading my old Fictionwise books (PDB files) onto the nook at around about the 700+ books mark. That was exceedingly frustrating. It would not recognise or load anymore books after that. Spent the entire night fiddling with it and just did not want to work.
• You would have thought that they would have tested the book loading beyond that number of books.
• I had to send out an SOS on the nook discussion boards to find out what to do. I’ve been waiting overnight for responses

The next day … update post nook SOS on the discussion boards.

I got lots of good advice. Unfortunately, none of them panned out.

I even went out and got a micro SD card which according to some experienced nooksters (that’s what they call themselves) would solve all my problems.

Nuh uh!

It didn’t happen.

In the end, I deleted EVERYTHING from the nook. Only loaded a few books at a time of what I wanted to read and then go from there.

So far I’ve loaded about 18 books on the nook. I’m reading one which I accidentally started yesterday because I was surprised to find that book there (always a delight). I’ll finish it before I head back over to the Kindle and before I load any other books onto it.

I’m thinking if I’m sneaky about this and only load one or two books at a time, I might over time be able to sneak a whole bunch of books past the nook and land them in the library where I can read them.

I have never had a problem with the Kindle (touch wood!).

One last observation – the nook is a much bulkier device than the Kindle, so with the cover on, it’s actually quite a heavy and unpleasant device to hold – like a heavy trade paperback. It feels much better to be read without a cover though a cover is a good idea to protect it.

I’ll use the nook because I have books I want to be able to read and I need it to read those books.

I do not love the nook.

I still love my Kindle.