E-reader Almost 1 Month in
I posted about a month ago about the fact that I’d purchased a Nook to read ebooks on. I felt pretty good about my decision at the time but had bits of doubts because my spouse though I should get an iPad instead.
Nearly one month later I’m very happy with my decision. Much of my satisfaction comes from the fact that I can use my libraries ebooks on the Nook. I’ve borrowed and read nearly a dozen ebooks. Its so easy and the collection that the library has is quite good.
For me this is a huge bonus. I like to read a lot and don’t want to spend my entire disposal income on books. I’ve always borrowed from the library and having the Nook continues to let me do that. It is beyond unfortunate that other ereaders (in particular the iPad) don’t work with library ebook technologies. Considering the Apple Adobe relationship and the fact that most ebooks are DRM’d via Adobe’s software, I’m not optimistic that this will change.
My love for borrowing ebooks doesn’t mean I don’t purchase books though. I have a very small but growing collection. I’m using Calibre to load non-DRM’d content including a bunch of short stories that I got from some of my favorite authors’ websites and content from Project Gutenburg.
All and all I’m feeling good about the decision. It certainly is easier than trying to jam 3 books in my carry on and 4-6 more in my suitcase. Also no late fees, borrowed ebooks just stop working when their check out period is up.
Do you know what vendors, with ebooks in what format, you are using from your library on the Nook?
I’m pretty sure that iPad will let you load non-DRM’d books on it, if they’re in the right format.
There is obviously a mis-match between what formats the iPad can load, and what formats your library (presumably through third party vendors) offers. I’m curious to know how to allocate the blame between Apple and the third-party ebook vendors on that, but I don’t think it’s safe to assume that Apple gets the bulk of it without knowing more info.
I’m also curious about the system being used by your library to circulate e-books. Is it Overdrive?
@Jonathan Rochkind
The main problem is that the iPad wasn’t supporting the adobe drm stuff, which seems pretty popular among vendors. I heard some rumors though that apple announced yesterday that it will allow apps that used the adobe drm.
The issues here are an extension of the Apple vs Adobe fallout.
I decided to give the nook a try, picking one up on Sunday. At this point though there’s a good chance I’ll return it. I’m giving myself a few more days. I really, really love the screen. However, there’s some drawbacks:
1) There’s no zoom option when reading a pdf. It’s fine if it is a book that I’m willing to convert to ePub or something to resize, but there’s some pdfs where I’d rather leave in the original formatting and zoom in/out and move around.
2) The browser is almost there, but still buggy. The main issue is using the hardware buttons that flip to the next page when reading a book to move down the webpage tends to skip over large sections of the document. So to scroll down through a page you have to use the touchscreen. I’ve dimmed it to the lowest setting, but it’s still distracting. Otherwise m.safaribooksonline.com would be really usable. You can, however, zoom in the browser. If the button was better about re-positioning it would make it much easier to read.
3) navigation in general is annoying. I’d probably find myself only keeping a few books on it at a time and synching it with my computer. Not really a show-stopper though.
All of these are likely to get fixed in future software updates, but I hate having something just because the software might improve.
I’d also like something of a subscription model. I just read books too fast and even the cheaper eBook prices are still spendy for me. (I’d probably need books somewhere around $2 to $3 dollars to be economical).
I’d definitely recommend the nook though to the following:
1) people who’s libraries have good collections through overdrive. Wasn’t thrilled with the selections at mine, but still need to investigate more.
2) people like me who’s favorite auhors are out of copyright. The extent of the google books projects is impressive. I’m reading through some Hearn now, will probably try to get some more Chambers and Dunsany shortly. However, the nook/google books display doesn’t have a lot of information about the actual book when looking through the navigation options, so getting the books directly can be tricky.
3) People who already tend to purchase large amounts of fiction and churn through it. If you don’t mind giving up a physical copy (and run the risk of losing access to your digital copies over time) it would be excellent.
I’m already considering purchasing some of these as gifts. It’s an impressive little piece of hardware. As for me though, I think the price is ultimately a little high for what I want, particularly when I’m thinking of get a lightweight laptop and a smartphone soon. I’ll be keeping an eye on the nook software updates though. And who knows, in the next day or two I might find that I’ve grown to like it so much I can’t bring myself to give it up.
Yes, it is Overdrive. It doesn’t work badly once you figure it out. But I hate the fact that its a two step process to get things on the Nook.
I’m not really trying to lay blame on Apple in particular. I can’t read Adobe DRM’d content on a Kindle either. For me the real problem is that the few ebook readers support the technology that library ebooks are in. The fact that both the Sony readers and the Nook can support it makes me feel like it is more of a problem with the device maker than the content provider. But really both sets of folks have a hand in this. Honestly, I think if the library ebook issues gets solved it will all potentially be moot. You can read Kindle or Apple or Barnes and Noble ebooks on the iPad if you load the appropriate app. Given that the Nook is based on Android they could follow a similar model and allow the same thing.