B&N Nook

[LoveBlue]

I tried out both the small Kindle and the large one at a Staples over the weekend. The small one would drive me nuts. I'm a very fast reader, so I'd be turning pages rapidly (even using one of the smaller font sizes), and the blinking, the fade in - fade out effect, would be really annoying.

If I buy one at all, it will for sure be the large size.

So, St. Saphhire, would you recommend that for someone who prefers the large size, would it still be a good idea to wait and see what they come out with in color? Will that version be coming out in both sizes?

I'll most likely have my Kobo with me when I'm in DC on the 18th. Remind me to show it to you if we "hook up" at the convention.

 

[LoveBlue]

Epub is a file format. You know how you can have pictures on your computer as .jpg or .png or .gif, or you can have a word file that's .doc or an excel sheet that's .xls? Ebooks are digital files as well, and .epub is one (extremely popular) format that is currently available. Almost every e-reader except the Kindle (for now) can read .epub files, and until the next update comes out, 95% of the public libraries in the US have their collections available only as .epub files. However, this will not be the case by fall of this year (at the latest) since Kindle will either be releasing support for .epub files, or the libraries will have their collections available in Kindle-compatible format as well (Amazon has already announced that they've come to some sort of agreement with Overdrive ensuring this.)

I get my books for the Free Library of Phila. Sometimes I get a ePub and sometimes I get a PDF. I prefer the ePub, but if a book I want is only in PDF, I'll get it.

 

[Mudkipz]

I don't really "pronounce words in my head". Shoot, that's slow when you think about it. :S Any quick techniques? I'll just get a book lol. I feel behind and reading a book comfortably within a day would help me a lot. Especially a text book with information-packed chapters!

 

[StSapphire]

I don't really "pronounce words in my head". Shoot, that's slow when you think about it. :S Any quick techniques? I'll just get a book lol. I feel behind and reading a book comfortably within a day would help me a lot. Especially a text book with information-packed chapters!

I've heard if you really want to practice is to take your index finger, and slide it down the center of a page, and let your eyes follow the page behind it. I'm sure you can search something like Reddit or Lifehacker for speed reading tips, since I'd be willing to bet that both of those sites are ones you already read. :P

 

[InfamousMacBook]

I have a NookColor. I am not to excited about it. I only read books and the newspaper. I never got it for the apps or the magazines. I have been thinking of down grading to Nook eInk.

 

[Mudkipz]

Thank you. On Reddit, I searched up on speed reading and found an application, spreader, (Free online speed reading software | Spreeder.com) and looks very simple. I gotta paste a section of whatever I'm reading inside the paste box and it'll take one word at a time as you play (at 300 wpm as default setting, but you can change it to your liking and take it from there). Don't read them out loud in your mind (mentally) and do chunks (putting group of words into one word or instance) and one would improve their reading speed.

Gosh. I can't resist reading them out loud in my head and it's indeed a bad habit you must get rid of in order to improve your reading speed... Gotta chew a gum or my pencil!

 

[StSapphire]

I have a NookColor. I am not to excited about it. I only read books and the newspaper. I never got it for the apps or the magazines. I have been thinking of down grading to Nook eInk.

I think the word you meant to use was "upgrading".

Thank you. On Reddit, I searched up on speed reading and found an application, spreader, (Free online speed reading software | Spreeder.com) and looks very simple. I gotta paste a section of whatever I'm reading inside the paste box and it'll take one word at a time as you play (at 300 wpm as default setting, but you can change it to your liking and take it from there). Don't read them out loud in your mind (mentally) and do chunks (putting group of words into one word or instance) and one would improve their reading speed.

Gosh. I can't resist reading them out loud in my head and it's indeed a bad habit you must get rid of in order to improve your reading speed... Gotta chew a gum or my pencil!

Oh yeah, I've looked at that before. I remember hearing a recommendation that you count (out loud) from one to twenty and loop to keep you from reading the words aloud in your head.

 

[Beach girl]

Pulled the trigger!

Way-ull, Nook owes SCJSue a commission - I went out and bought the thing tonight! Yay, me!!

I was out shopping for clothes for an upcoming wedding, and there happened to be a Barnes and Noble store in the mall. So after I bought myself some new goodies at Lord and Taylor, I wandered over to B&N "just to see what it's like."

I looked at the Nook Color with all the apps, and the e-mail and this and that, and mentioned that I'd want to take the thing to the beach with me. "Oh, in that case, you don't want that one, you want this one," says the nice young man, and he showed me the Nook "Simple Reader."

Well, I'm a simple kinda gal, so that sounded about my speed. He showed me all the features and opened up a sample book and a sample page of the Wall Street Journal. I liked them both. I found the proportions of the screen much nicer than Kindle. It's probably only a fraction of an inch different in the width, but for some reason it looked far more readable. The whole screen is devoted to what you're reading; it doesn't have those little buttons on the bottom like Kindle does.

And I liked the page-turning, either by touch-screen or by button. It did not do that photographic-negative blink thing that Kindle does. Seemed much smoother.

So I bought it. $139. Plus a nifty, handy-dandy, turqoise blue case for it, for another $25.

It's charging up even as we speak. I'll be loading a couple or three books on before we take off on our big road trip, and will report back. I'm looking forward to using the thing.

So, thanks, all of you, for the unbiased opinions and reviews. I'll be glad to give a better review in a couple weeks or so. Fingers crossed that I'll like it!

I can see I might have to watch the budget a bit as far as buying stuff. Although Nice Young Man claimed that this Nook also supports library lending, so I hope to try out that feature too.

 

[Beach girl]

Adventures in Nookie-land

It isn't as easy as they would have you think to get a little Nookie. Er, a little loaded. Um, to move to better living through technology...

Anyway, spent a few hours getting this thing up and running. First problem: Nook would not recognize our computer network. Well, it recognized it, but it would not accept our password. I tried it several times. We turned our modem off and on again. We turned Nook off and on again. My husband, the brilliant engineer (he claims that's the appropriate description) could not make it work.

He did find, on a bunch of forums talking about Nook, that this is a somewhat common problem with no known solution, so far. They don't mention this in the advertising, oddly enough.

Finally, by grace of the fact that someone in the neighborhood is kind enough to be running an unsecure network, I was able to register the Nook, but it's annoying that it would not recognize the perfectly valid and absolutely correct password. I did NOT enter my charge card that way though; I have no idea who this unsecure network belongs to and didn't want my vital info sent that way. Finally did that by connecting to B&N via computer, not Nook.

Then my tech playing around was interrupted by the necessity of a shopping expedition for hubby, and we went to the ballet again tonight. Got back and I had more fun with technology.

Again, not that easy. Had to go to adobe.com to download the appropriate program to read epubs. Had to register. Had to find a screen name. All of the first four screen names I tried to call myself were already in use. To all of you Adobe users: if you see "Beach girl" on there, it ain't me. Somebody stole my name. Guess there are more people than l'il ol' me who like beaches.

Finally I came up with an original name, so Adobe was happy. If Adobe's happy, I"m happy.

Because I am frugal - ok, cheap - I skipped the B&N book store and went straight to my local library site. They are pretty good, in their section on "Online resources," in explaining what you have to do. I followed all their directions, hooked the Nook up to the computer, and finally was able to start browsing.

With high hopes, I started with "New ebooks." Very nice. Every blessed one was already checked out. I put about a dozen books "on hold." There are anywhere from 10 to 50 people ahead of me for various titles, so who knows when I'll really get them.

Tried to search "All ebooks." That search came back with tons of audio books (Nook can't do that, and obviously my poor ears can't, either) and some e-books which again, were already checked out.

FINALLY figured out the solution: I went into "Advanced search," left all title, author, and other descriptive fields blank, put "epub" into the "format" box, and clicked on "Show only available books."

Yay, that was the secret! There were some 400 or so books to choose from.

I downloaded: Carioca Fletch, by Gregory McDonald, Baby, We Were Meant for Each Other (a book about adoption), by Scott Simon, The Americans: The Democratic Experience, by Daniel Boorstin, Churchill, by Paul Johnson, and Come Back, Como, by Steven Winn.

That will keep me busy for the next 21 days.

 

[TXgolfer]

I still say they are tough on the eyes.... Plus I like books....they are conversation starters. Walking up to a stranger with a Nook and asking what they are reading just looks weird. I bet I got five dates just from reading "The Shack" in public......I even carried it around for months after I was done. That book was right up there with a baby or a puppy.

 

[LoveBlue]

I still say they are tough on the eyes.... Plus I like books....they are conversation starters. Walking up to a stranger with a Nook and asking what they are reading just looks weird. I bet I got five dates just from reading "The Shack" in public......I even carried it around for months after I was done. That book was right up there with a baby or a puppy.

eInk is just like reading a book. I bought the white Kobo because I thought "white on white" (white pages with the white border of the device) would be easier on the eyes than have a black border.

 

[StSapphire]

It isn't as easy as they would have you think to get a little Nookie.

Anyway, spent a few hours getting this thing up and running. First problem: Nook would not recognize our computer network. Well, it recognized it, but it would not accept our password. I tried it several times. We turned our modem off and on again. We turned Nook off and on again. My husband, the brilliant engineer (he claims that's the appropriate description) could not make it work.

He did find, on a bunch of forums talking about Nook, that this is a somewhat common problem with no known solution, so far. They don't mention this in the advertising, oddly enough.

That sucks. Hopefully you figure something out. This is one reason why I'm hoping nook comes out with a 3G touch model later, I don't like needing to log on to a specific network.

Finally, by grace of the fact that someone in the neighborhood is kind enough to be running an unsecure network, I was able to register the Nook, but it's annoying that it would not recognize the perfectly valid and absolutely correct password. I did NOT enter my charge card that way though; I have no idea who this unsecure network belongs to and didn't want my vital info sent that way. Finally did that by connecting to B&N via computer, not Nook.

Good thinking, wireless networks are horribly insecure, although presumably they transfer info over HTTPS, so you'd probably be safe anyways. But, better safer than sorry, eh?

Then my tech playing around was interrupted by the necessity of a shopping expedition for hubby, and we went to the ballet again tonight. Got back and I had more fun with technology.

Again, not that easy. Had to go to adobe.com to download the appropriate program to read epubs. Had to register. Had to find a screen name. All of the first four screen names I tried to call myself were already in use. To all of you Adobe users: if you see "Beach girl" on there, it ain't me. Somebody stole my name. Guess there are more people than l'il ol' me who like beaches.

Welcome to the internet, lol.

Finally I came up with an original name, so Adobe was happy. If Adobe's happy, I"m happy.

Because I am frugal - ok, cheap - I skipped the B&N book store and went straight to my local library site. They are pretty good, in their section on "Online resources," in explaining what you have to do. I followed all their directions, hooked the Nook up to the computer, and finally was able to start browsing.

With high hopes, I started with "New ebooks." Very nice. Every blessed one was already checked out. I put about a dozen books "on hold." There are anywhere from 10 to 50 people ahead of me for various titles, so who knows when I'll really get them.

Tried to search "All ebooks." That search came back with tons of audio books (Nook can't do that, and obviously my poor ears can't, either) and some e-books which again, were already checked out.

FINALLY figured out the solution: I went into "Advanced search," left all title, author, and other descriptive fields blank, put "epub" into the "format" box, and clicked on "Show only available books."

Yay, that was the secret! There were some 400 or so books to choose from.

I downloaded: Carioca Fletch, by Gregory McDonald, Baby, We Were Meant for Each Other (a book about adoption), by Scott Simon, The Americans: The Democratic Experience, by Daniel Boorstin, Churchill, by Paul Johnson, and Come Back, Como, by Steven Winn.

That will keep me busy for the next 21 days.

Glad to see you eventually found some library books for you. I imagine that the more e-readers get popularized, the more you'll both find ebooks available and the more you'll have to wait from the library, especially for popular books.

Hope you enjoy it!

I still say they are tough on the eyes.... Plus I like books....they are conversation starters. Walking up to a stranger with a Nook and asking what they are reading just looks weird. I bet I got five dates just from reading "The Shack" in public......I even carried it around for months after I was done. That book was right up there with a baby or a puppy.

You'd be surprised, on both counts. The e-Ink is no different from reading a printed page, and thus no harder on your eyes.

As for asking people what they're reading... I read my Kindle on my bus, and while walking around downtown, in parks, etc. I get asked all the time what I'm reading (and how I like it, etc). If you merely go by opportunities to start a conversation with someone, you'd probably get more with a Kindle because they're starting to go mainstream and everyone recognizes them, but not everyone has them, so people always want to strike up a conversation about it. (Not a bad thing if you like to meet people and talk. More bad when you want to be left alone to actually read. )

eInk is just like reading a book. I bought the white Kobo because I thought "white on white" (white pages with the white border of the device) would be easier on the eyes than have a black border.

I've not especially noticed that making a difference one way or another, really.

 

[Hollykins1]

I read very fast, although certainly not 90 pages in a minute. I was taught speed reading in elementary school - think it was in the 3rd or 4th grade. I ended up being the top student in it.

There are times when I wish I didn't read as fast! When I find a book I really enjoy I want it to last. So I work to slow down my reading speed.

I read every word, rather than skim. I have excellent comprehension, unless I'm really bored with the material. It was a very useful skill in school and college.

Incidentally, I am primarily an auditory reader/learner - meaning I "hear" the words in my head. People generally have a predominate trait for learning: auditory, visual, or kinesthetic tactile (hands on). That very trait did in my first attempt at learning sign language back in college!

That is not to say that people ONLY learn in one way, but rather that each individual's brain tends to be wired to have one way as the most prevalently used.

Now the area of where I am not sure of the research, is in persons who were born blind or deaf. Would it have been the way they processed information, or was it acquired?

Back to the topic of reading. I love my Kindle and prefer the e-ink technology. Someday I might like to get the DX Kindle with the larger screen. I know I don't enjoy reading on my IPOD or smartphone mostly because of the smaller screen. Since I read so quickly it's better to have more text on one page.

My 81 year old mother just got a Kindle! I never thought she'd like it but she loves it.

 

[LoveBlue]

I bought a "cheap" plasitc plate stand to hold my eReader so I can read while eating (I eat alone a lot). The stand folds and fits in my eReader pouch.

 

[TXgolfer]

:
As for asking people what they're reading... I read my Kindle on my bus, and while walking around downtown, in parks, etc. I get asked all the time what I'm reading (and how I like it, etc). If you merely go by opportunities to start a conversation with someone, you'd probably get more with a Kindle because they're starting to go mainstream and everyone recognizes them, but not everyone has them, so people always want to strike up a conversation about it. (Not a bad thing if you like to meet people and talk. More bad when you want to be left alone to actually read. )
.

Oh....that gives me an idea....I will get a nook and still carry books....That way people will ask why I have both!

 

[TXgolfer]

BTW I had a Kindle and downloaded some books....But it's really only good for one book because crayons really mess up the screen.

 

[StSapphire]

Oh....that gives me an idea....I will get a nook and still carry books....That way people will ask why I have both!

Sounds like a good plan to me. I'm considering getting both a nook and a Kindle for similar purposes. Doin' my part to reboot the economy - e-readers cost way more than real books, especially when you have to buy each of your books twice for each device.

BTW I had a Kindle and downloaded some books....But it's really only good for one book because crayons really mess up the screen.

No, no, no. You did it all wrong. You're supposed to use dry-erase markers!

 

[TXgolfer]

Sounds like a good plan to me. I'm considering getting both a nook and a Kindle for similar purposes. Doin' my part to reboot the economy - e-readers cost way more than real books, especially when you have to buy each of your books twice for each device.



No, no, no. You did it all wrong. You're supposed to use dry-erase markers!

That's Rightist!!!!! I am left handed....hard to use dry erase as my hand erases.....

 

[kokonut]

I like the feeling of having dead trees in my hand. Certain books smell nice, too.

 

[StSapphire]

I like the feeling of having dead trees in my hand. Certain books smell nice, too.

You... you... tree murderer!