Musings on the Nook 1

A few people have asked me to tell them about my experiences with the Nook and I also thought maybe it would be a good idea to keep some documentation on my experiences to refer to in the future, yes I'm a dork.

So I've thought about getting an e-reader on and off for at least the last year or two but never wanted it enough to actually fork over the money until now. These are the things that lead to my decision:

-We all know I could use more space and less books, hopefully this will help me out with that problem.

-More and more galleys are being released in the e-galley format (like one I got Friday) and I really cannot sit at a computer and read an entire book but I want to be able to take part.

- Many many romance novels are released in e-books format and that's what I'm reading right now.

So Friday night I seriously started considering getting one. Went to Barnes and Noble and got the low-down. Sent my dad to the store Saturday to look, he's my go-to gadget guy. I really only considered the Nook and the Sony e-readers. I'm sure the Kindle is fine but I didn't have access right then and there to play with one so it was out of the question for me (plus it has like a zillion keys on the button). I've seen one before but I wanted to try it out NOW. I've never been a fan of the full touch screen which the more expensive Sony's have and didn't like where the actual buttons were and don't like the design of the Sony Pocket Readers so that left the Nook. Plus, I like the look of the Nook, it reminds me of my ipod and MacBook Pro.

I purchased it Saturday afternoon, sadly the cases are only in the larger stores right now so I had to go about 30 minutes away to get a case. I just don't feel comfortable walking around with it without a case. I also purchased the 2 year extended warranty, the only extra thing you could really get that isn't considered an accessory (there is only one version of the nook.)

Took me about 15 minutes to get it out of the package, they went a little overboard trying to appeal to the Mac audience, all smooth and sleek and it was darn hard to get it out. It came with a USB cable and also an adaptor for the wall. Apparently wall charging is much faster at 3 hours compared to 6 hours. Also battery can be saved by keeping the Nook on Airplane mode when not accessing the e-book store. Had trouble waiting for it to charge so I started playing with it while it was charging. Sadly it comes with very little paper directions (I know I know, it's an e-reader, I know!) There is a guidebook or two on the nook itself and also one you can download online. I rather wish it came in paper, much easier to flip through that way. The actual start up of the Nook is slower than I would have hoped so I don't turn it on and off much when I plan to use it again soon (it goes into screensaver sleep mode). Also the page flipping could be faster. I hear that B&N will be providing software updates for the Nook though, so hopefully everything will get better in time or I'll just get used to it!

I like the design of the Nook, 80% reading screen with turning buttons on both sides and touch screen on the bottom. After a bit of time the touch screen goes to sleep, good when reading but bad when you are trying to use it. Can probably change the setting to keep it awake longer. Since I've never been a touch screen person it's taking time to tap the right letters and hit the right keys. The biggest problem has been using the scroll bar!

Since it didn't come with a paper manual I didn't read much before I started messing with it, oops. Eventually after much frustration I discovered that your e-books go into 2 very different locations. Books you buy straight from Barnes and Noble go into the snazzy B&N Library that has the beautiful cover flow and anything you buy outside of Barnes and Noble or already happen to have go into the utterly boring My Documents, which is a different library, without cover flow. So that's disappointing that they are separate libraries.

I already had a few e-books in Adobe Digital Editions on my computer which was not recognizing my Nook and after almost giving up I had to go into the Digital Editions folder and steal the e-books from there, outside of the program itself. Honestly Adobe Digital Editions just seems to be a roadblock to me.

The nook has a screensaver and wallpaper you can personalize, I haven't done so yet. Also you can browse the Barnes and Noble e-book store right from the nook if you have a Wi-Fi or 3G signal available. Only once or twice I couldn't pick up a signal in my house and that was only for about a minute or so. You can add books to your e-book wishlist right there or even on your computer and they will pop up on your nook. I like that. You can obviously instantly download books right to your Nook and you'll also get an email linking to the B&N website which houses your e-book library as well, backup is good! Barnes and Noble provided 3 classics on my Nook, they weren't downloaded but were in the library. So I had to tell it to go download them, was a bit confusing, maybe that was in the manual I didn't read. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't going to be charged for these random books already in my library. Was also able to get some other free e-books of their site, they also have a $5 section which seems nice!

I haven't bought many e-books yet (pre-ordered only one actually) but have been looking around and discovering some free and legal places to get public domain books and other free e-books.

Today I woke up and started fiddling with it again. And in the span of about 30 or so minutes it froze about 5 times. Yesterday it froze about once or twice but nothing like this. I was doing something different every time so there was no rhyme or reason, would restart and about 3 minutes later, frozen! This couldn't be good! Called customer service who was very nice (and only about a minute wait too) they instructed me to remove the back cover where the battery is housed (I hear you can replace the battery too instead of the whole thing, which is very nice!) removed the battery and plugged it into the wall charger for 30 minutes without the battery. Since then it's seemed to work just fine!

I was finally able to sit down and start reading a book on my Nook! There is a little progress bar at the bottom of the page right by the number of pages which only counts ahead after every few pages, I've heard it's showing the real page count not the e-book count. So far I really like the way it feels in my hands, you don't have to worry about holding a book open, and I can totally read it while laying down, which is great in my book!

And that takes us up to about right now! Hopefully more soon!