Kindle Electronic Reader vs Nook?

[TrekTheKaty]

I LOVE MY KINDLE! I DON'T LEAVE HOME WITHOUT MY IPHONE AND MY KINDLE!

My husband and I love our books--we have a whole room ("Library") in our small house dedicated to our collection. However, we were running out of room. We actually were considering moving to a bigger house to accommodate all the books (and we don't usually buy hardbacks!)

I bought the first kindle for my husband when they came out. We both travel for a living, he reads 2-3 books at a time, he was starting to wear reading glasses, and we're "techies." The wireless downloads and different font sizes were big selling points. My husband didn't take to it at first, so I stole it. I became addicted.

I read more, now, than I have since high school. Any books that are in public domain are free from Amazon or other websites (gutenberg, freebooks). Also, I read more new release hardbacks because they can be as low as $9.99 (publishers don't like this, and it may not last). I never dreamed it would pay for itself. Now, we have 2 kindles on the same account--so we can share books (you get up to 5 devices, including iphone and pc). We can actually buy a book and read it at the same time instead of waiting for the other person to finish! Instead of buying every book I'm interested in, I download a sample into my "virtual book pile" and only purchase when I'm ready to read it (that alone is a money saver--I never did get anywhere near the bottom of the book pile before hubby stole, read, and loaned out to someone else--then I ended up buying again). When I went to sell/donate some of our old books, we also discovered we had quite a few copies of some of our favorites. Amazon is polite enough to keep you from downloading twice.

The other advantage is ergonomics. I can hold my kindle in one hand. Much easier than holding SK's lastest "Under the Dome." At the time, I was reading "Snowflake" about Warren Buffett. It was so thick, I wasn't comfortable sitting in a chair, at a table or in bed. With a Kindle, reading in bed is much more comfortable.

I love bookstores and still go--with my kindle tucked in my purse. I download samples and anything not available on my kindle, I purchase. I also donated a lot of my old books to the library.

The screen is e-ink so it is easier on your eyes than a computer screen. It has a grey background and less glare.

I would advise checking the Amazon and Barnes & Noble forums to learn more. Rumor is the Nook is slow to ship and has quite a few software problems. I finally demoed a Nook at B&N with a friend who was interested and it wasn't very user friendly, IMHO. I couldn't get it to open a book, and the employee wasn't doing much better. Also search both stores for your favorite authors (Grisham and JK Rowling are not available in ebooks).

Sitting on an airplane the other day, someone next to me had an interesting book. I downloaded a sample before we pushed away from the gate. Sweet. I can sit at home in my jammies, watching letterman while it snows and download a new book by an author just interviewed on TV. Sweet (and lazy!)

Not all books are available in e-book format. Authors have the right to say no. Being able to borrow from the library would also be nice. However, I don't miss loaning books--my friends never brought them back anyway. Mooches. The color screen seems to be a big selling point, but I can do without it. Rumor is Amazon may be working on color, but they claimed up to this point it wasn't feasible. Also, think about all the fingerprints on your "book" from the touch screen?!

You can also convert word and pdf's for your kindle.

Oh yeah--battery life. If you turn off the wireless when you're not using it, the battery lasts over a week (I lost track after a week and a half).

But, it's really up to you