Kindle or Nook? Help a brother out...

[GabrieltheCelt]

Ok y'all,

 A dear friend and I were talking the other day about the Kindle Fire.  He said he loves his and that it was well worth the cost.  A couple friends at work have a Kindle and a Nook.  I never thought I'd even consider one of these gadgets, but they're really looking quite handy.  So, here's kinda what I was thinking; all I want it for is to read books.  It'd be cool to be able to highlight text.  Any y'all have any thoughts? 

[Timon]

I have the regular Kindle and love it.  Dont have much experience with the nook, but im sure at the end of the day they both get the job done.  If all you want it for is to read, then maybe save some money and get a regular Kindle. (meaning not the fire. i hear the regular ones are better for just reading anyways.  but... the fire looks pretty cool, so maybe you should get that. sorry im not of much help, and sorry im still writing in parenthesis...)

[NicholasMyra]

The Nook is not going to be as advanced as the kindle, and you definitely want instant access to Amazon.com's repository of cheaper E-books. Kindle all the way.

[Achronos]

Careful with e-books, some of the formatting can be off and some of the versions they have are pretty bad.

[LizaSymonenko]

I don't have an actual Kindle, but, I downloaded the Kindke App to my iPhone and simply LOVE it.

[ZealousZeal]

Liza- you can get the Nook app for your iPhone, too.

I have a Nook (the original, Etch-A-Sketch like screen), and I love it. Not backlit, so it's easier on the eyes. But I mostly use the Kindle and Nook apps on my iPad these days.

Either is a good option. Happy e-reading!

[LizaSymonenko]

Really?  I didn't know that. Searching for it now. Thanks!!!

[Cognomen]

Both are good, but Barnes & Noble is a less frightening company.  Then again, most of you probably use gmail, so that may not matter.

[katherine 2001]

I am looking at getting the color Nook.  It is $30 cheaper and seems to do everything that the Kindle Fire does.  I do like the fact that there is an actual store that you can go to if you have problems.  I read more nonfiction than fiction (I don't read very much fiction anymore), and I would be able to see pictures better in color than in black and white.  I haven't made my final decision yet, but I am definitely leaning towards the color Nook.

As far as the Nook not being as advanced, many reviewers disagree with that. 

[katherine 2001]

Also, the Nook Tablet costs the same and it is more powerful and you can use a card in it as well.  If I could afford the extra $30, I would get it over the Kindle Fire. 

[Adela]

I love my Nook!  For reading books, it is great. I had the original and now the simple touch.  Working with computers has given me eye strain, so the eInk technology is what I need. I can't use the Nook Color.  I like how I can change font size to help my tired eyes.  I love the word-lookup, you can touch a word and the definition will appear. Great for vocabulary building! You can bookmark pages and make notes. Also, you can create shelves and order your books however you want.  You can also checkout eBooks from the library and download them onto your Nook; the library will have instructions on how to accomplish this. The Nook Simple Touch is the right size for me, it is much lighter than the original Nook and it has a faster page turn.  My Mom's Nook is on my B&N account so she gets access to all of my books. You can put up to 4 or 5 devices on your account to share the eBooks within a family

[katherineofdixie]

I have the Kindle Touch and I really like it, though I wasn't sure that I would. I just want to read books - I don't want to watch movies or anything else. I was really excited when I discovered you could borrow e-books from the public library!

[ZealousZeal]

Really?  I didn't know that. Searching for it now. Thanks!!!

No prob! It's nice to have access to both. Sometimes Amazon will have a book I want, and B&N won't, or vice versa. Apple also has an eReader (iBooks) with its own eBook store. I use all three. A trifecta of reading! 

[Agabus]

Ok y'all,

 A dear friend and I were talking the other day about the Kindle Fire.  He said he loves his and that it was well worth the cost.  A couple friends at work have a Kindle and a Nook.  I never thought I'd even consider one of these gadgets, but they're really looking quite handy.  So, here's kinda what I was thinking; all I want it for is to read books.  It'd be cool to be able to highlight text.  Any y'all have any thoughts? 

The basic Kindle should work for you then.

The only thing I might suggest is shelling out the extra money for the model that comes with the built-in keyboard rather than having to navigate the onscreen one with the arrow button.

[GiC]

I prefer Barnes and Noble's e-books format to Amazon's, but Amazon tends to have better prices; I also use several other Amazon services, I use their EC2 and S3 services for cloud computing/storage, I get much of my television through the Amazon Video app on my Roku, and I buy various electronics and miscellaneous items through their website (though generally not books anymore, I buy e-books almost exclusively now). I know Amazon will still be around and I'll still be able to access my e-book purchases made today in ten years, I'm not so confident with B&N.

But regardless of which company you choose, I wouldn't recommend either the Kindle Fire or Nook Color. They're just cheap tablets with e-reader apps. If you just want to read books, the original e-print designs are much easier on your eyes and don't require regular recharging, not to mention that they're much cheaper.

If you're looking for the tablet option you're better off spending a little more on a Galaxy Tablet (or an iPad, if you're that kind of a person) and just downloading the Kindle and Nook apps. You can find a 7-inch galaxy tablet online for under $250 now, only $50 more than the Kindle fire and a much better, more powerful, and more versatile piece of hardware.

[katherine 2001]

I have the Kindle Touch and I really like it, though I wasn't sure that I would. I just want to read books - I don't want to watch movies or anything else. I was really excited when I discovered you could borrow e-books from the public library!

I also just want to read books.  However, since I read mostly nonfiction, I am concerned about being able to see pictures well on the regular ones.  That is the main reason that I am thinking of buying the Nook Color, though I guess you can get apps and magazines on that one too.  You can also use a card in it for more memory.  Also, if I do have problems with it, I can take it into my local Barnes and Noble for help.  You can borrow books for both kindles and nooks at my library.  

[GabrieltheCelt]

My wife has settled the question for me; for our anniversary, she bought the Nook with Glowlight.  Very cool.

[biro]

That looks nice! I have a Nook Color. I used to have a Kindle, but I fell on it and broke the screen.

[katherine 2001]

I bought my Nook Color at the beginning of the month and just love it.  I subscribe to People on it and just found out today that you can get the print edition for free as long as you keep up the subscription to the Nook version (which is $9.95/month). 

[stanley123]

I went with the Kindle with the built in keyboard. One feature I like is the text to speech option. And Kindle has a whole lot of classical books for free.

[katherine 2001]

There are many free books for the Nook as well, plus you can download books for free on Fridays if you go to the Barnes and Nobles store.  I also like it that if I have a problem with my Nook, I can take it to the store and get support there. 

[GabrieltheCelt]

I love my Nook, but it does seem that Amazon has a lot better selection.  I wonder if there's a way to download it anyway? 

[Jonathan]

I love my Nook, but it does seem that Amazon has a lot better selection.  I wonder if there's a way to download it anyway? 

There are ways to download kindle books to your computer, then strip the drm and sideload them to another ereader... but depending on where you live it may be illegal. It's not straightforward, and you may lose your formatting. Just search for stripping kindle drm. I think it's a calibre add-on.

I know the question of which ereader is settled, but if other people are considering it:

-The Sony PRS-T1 is the best for reading PDFs. I have the previous model, the prs600. It is great for being able to easily load on service books, the ANF/PNF collections, old out of print books, text books, etc. It can also load books from virtually any online bookstore except for Amazon. Other readers can handle PDF, but none of them do it as well, reflowing it so it is readable without having to constantly zoom in and out of a page.

-Kindle gets you access to the amazon library, which is the best for current paid books.

-I would never buy a kindle fire, because it's a low resolution backlit screen, which means eye strain. I do have the kindle app on my iPod touch, which is still back-lit, but at least has a much higher pixel density. So between my ipod and my sony ereader, I'm covered for access to the amazon library, and great pdf handling.

[katherine 2001]

I have both Kindle and Nook for PC and love them both. 

[stanley123]

Other readers can handle PDF, but none of them do it as well, reflowing it so it is readable without having to constantly zoom in and out of a page.

I downloaded the Sony reader for the PC and although it can read a pdf file, I cannot get it to change the font size and reformat and reflow the text. A pdf paragraph is fixed and I don't see anyway to have the reader reformat it to make the words flow to fit the window.  With the kindle, for example, if you buy a kindle book from them, and the text is too small, you can change the font size, and the reader will automatically adjust the number of words to a line, so that it becomes reformatted and can be read in the display window.  Although the kindle reads pdf files, it reads them as a fixed file and no formatting is done, except that you can zoom in and move around, which doesn't really work that well.
I was told that the features on the Sony reader for the PC are similar to those on the hand held Sony ereader. However, the PC reader does not reflow and reformat the text in the pdf file that I have. The format remains fixed, with the same number of words per line, regardless of whether you try to zoom in or not. And BTW, the Sony font size feature, does not appear to work on the PC reader for the pdf file that I have.

[Monk Vasyl]

I prefer Barnes and Noble's e-books format to Amazon's, but Amazon tends to have better prices; I also use several other Amazon services, I use their EC2 and S3 services for cloud computing/storage, I get much of my television through the Amazon Video app on my Roku, and I buy various electronics and miscellaneous items through their website (though generally not books anymore, I buy e-books almost exclusively now). I know Amazon will still be around and I'll still be able to access my e-book purchases made today in ten years, I'm not so confident with B&N.

But regardless of which company you choose, I wouldn't recommend either the Kindle Fire or Nook Color. They're just cheap tablets with e-reader apps. If you just want to read books, the original e-print designs are much easier on your eyes and don't require regular recharging, not to mention that they're much cheaper.

If you're looking for the tablet option you're better off spending a little more on a Galaxy Tablet (or an iPad, if you're that kind of a person) and just downloading the Kindle and Nook apps. You can find a 7-inch galaxy tablet online for under $250 now, only $50 more than the Kindle fire and a much better, more powerful, and more versatile piece of hardware.

 Won't be able to get a Galaxy tablet now (Judge orders halt to Samsung sales of Galaxy tab

An initial win for Apple in its claim that South Korean company copied its iPad):  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47977129/ns/business-us_business/

I was thinking of getting one till I heard this news.

[Jonathan]

Other readers can handle PDF, but none of them do it as well, reflowing it so it is readable without having to constantly zoom in and out of a page.

I downloaded the Sony reader for the PC and although it can read a pdf file, I cannot get it to change the font size and reformat and reflow the text. A pdf paragraph is fixed and I don't see anyway to have the reader reformat it to make the words flow to fit the window.  With the kindle, for example, if you buy a kindle book from them, and the text is too small, you can change the font size, and the reader will automatically adjust the number of words to a line, so that it becomes reformatted and can be read in the display window.  Although the kindle reads pdf files, it reads them as a fixed file and no formatting is done, except that you can zoom in and move around, which doesn't really work that well.
I was told that the features on the Sony reader for the PC are similar to those on the hand held Sony ereader. However, the PC reader does not reflow and reformat the text in the pdf file that I have. The format remains fixed, with the same number of words per line, regardless of whether you try to zoom in or not. And BTW, the Sony font size feature, does not appear to work on the PC reader for the pdf file that I have.

If a PDF file contains images of pages (scanned, no ocr), then nothing is going to be able to reformat it, since there are not characters there to rearrange, just an image. But if a PDF contains text, then the sony can reflow it. I can it small, medium, large, etc., for the text size in a PDF for the Nicene Fathers, or various Bible translations, and the text changes size and is reflowed to fit into "pages" at the same size. It can also view them as originally laid out without reflow and zoom in and out.

[Monk Vasyl]

From another group I'm on, I was given a site where you can create your own ebooks, in either Nook or Kindle format.  The free program is called "Calibre".
Go to: http://calibre-ebook.com/

[biro]

From another group I'm on, I was given a site where you can create your own ebooks, in either Nook or Kindle format.  The free program is called "Calibre".
Go to: http://calibre-ebook.com/

Oh yeah, that is pretty neat! I use it to download newspapers sometimes.

[militantsparrow]

I own both. The Kindle is superior in every way to the Nook. Reading books on the Nook is fine, but browsing the web is terrible, lots of lock ups, etc.

[GabrieltheCelt]

I own both. The Kindle is superior in every way to the Nook. Reading books on the Nook is fine, but browsing the web is terrible, lots of lock ups, etc.

 Reading books is all I wanted to do and, so far, I can't say enough good about the Nook. 

 

[GabrieltheCelt]

From another group I'm on, I was given a site where you can create your own ebooks, in either Nook or Kindle format.  The free program is called "Calibre".
Go to: http://calibre-ebook.com/

 A buddy from work showed this me the other day.  Can't wait to try it out.

[Monk Vasyl]

From another group I'm on, I was given a site where you can create your own ebooks, in either Nook or Kindle format.  The free program is called "Calibre".
Go to: http://calibre-ebook.com/

 A buddy from work showed this me the other day.  Can't wait to try it out.

I started playing around with it and its real cool.  My project is to take the some reader services and convert them for use on my Nook.

[Jonathan]

From another group I'm on, I was given a site where you can create your own ebooks, in either Nook or Kindle format.  The free program is called "Calibre".
Go to: http://calibre-ebook.com/

 A buddy from work showed this me the other day.  Can't wait to try it out.

I started playing around with it and its real cool.  My project is to take the some reader services and convert them for use on my Nook.

You may also want to look at sigil, a free epub editor. If you convert a document to epub with caliber, sigil may allow you to clean it up a bit to work better. I've actually found it easier though to skip calibre, and just make simplified versions of service books by copying and pasting into sigil to create a nice, clean epub, with hyperlinks to allow easy navigation to variable/seasonable parts, etc.

[Asteriktos]

Ok so maybe this is a dumb question, but what options do you have for transferring books that you buy for these things? Like if I buy a kindle, and then 2 years later buy a better one, can I transfer all my books to the new one? Or what if I buy a kindle and then 2 years later buy a nook, will only some (any?) of the texts be transferrable? Also, I see a lot of works in the public domain for free or a buck or two, but people complain of the formatting... how bad is the formatting really? Is it bad enough that you're gonna want to spend the extra money to buy each work individually for a few bucks more each?

[Arachne]

All your Kindle books remain in your Amazon cloud, so you can redownload them whenever you need them.

The Nook, on the other hand, reads .epub files rather than .mobi, so they will need converting.

As formatting goes, e-readers are pretty basic. A lot depends on how heavily formatted the original file was; some elements can break badly in the conversion. As ebooks become more popular, though, and more and more titles come out in electronic formats at the same time as physical editions, that is likely to smooth out sooner than later.

[Asteriktos]

Thanks! 

[Arachne]

You're welcome. :-) I love my Kindle (and flirting with the idea of getting myself a Fire as well, when I can afford it), so I'm always glad to help out others along that way.

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