Recently Tamela Rich Tweeted (Twittered?) sent me a link to her blog post of the day. Within the blog post, she had a quote from someone about nook vs. Kindle. That’s the million dollar questions these days isn’t it? Walk into any Barnes & Noble and you will hear customers ask, “But how is it better than the Kindle?” And how is it? Let me tell you about why I chose to buy a nook.
Let me first qualify my post here with some background on my eReader journey. In April of 2009 I bought a Kindle 2. I was aware of the Kindle before that, and knew that I would have one eventually, but wanted to wait and see where it was going before I jumped in. When the Kindle 2 was released, I knew that it was must have for me. Buying the Kindle 2 changed my reading habits entirely. When I was in high school I read voraciously, but as I got older and life started to take over, my reading sharply declined. I never was the type of person who could carry around a light read to enjoy anywhere. Short books are not my thing. I need my 800 to 1,000 page tomes to keep me satisfied for some time. Lugging one of those around just is not an option for me. Now, you can probably see where I am going with this. The Kindle provided me with a way to, not only carry around the current 800 page book I was reading, but to also carry around several more as back-up. In fact I could carry the whole Amazon store with me, all in a package the size of a small paperback. I started reading more than I had in the last 5 years in a matter of months.
So as you can guess by the fact that I run a nook blog and forum, I now own the nook. Why? Why did I feel the need to purchase another eReader device when I was already so satisfied with the Kindle? That is not an easy question to answer, there were many factors involved in the decision. I could say I liked the look better, I liked the android base and the possibilities it provides, or I liked that I could use my nook in Barnes & Noble stores for special offers and reading. But those are only part of the story (and probably ones you’ve heard many times). When I sat down to write this post, I really stopped to think about why I am sticking with the nook, and truly there was one answer that kept popping to the forefront. Options.
Truth be told, once I sit down to read a book, let’s say The Lost Symbol, it makes no difference whatsoever if I am reading that book on my Kindle or my nook. The eInk screen is made by the same manufacturer, so the actual reading experience is exactly the same on both devices. The real difference for me is where I bought the book, and this is where my answer lies as to why I think, in the long run, nook may be a better choice over the Kindle.
If I want to read a public domain book, Sherlock Holmes maybe, I can pick that up anywhere and everywhere, mostly for free. I can buy it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, I can get it from Feedbooks.com or the Gutenberg Project. If I download the book from a site like Feedbooks, I can use the same exact file (with only a conversion for file type using Calibre) on either my nook or my Kindle. These books are DRM free and so long as I convert them to the file type that each devices uses, I am good to go. But what if I want to read a new release? What about that book I was reading earlier, The Lost Symbol? What are my options then?
This is where the nook takes a step forward in my opinion. If I want to read The Lost Symbol (legally) on my Kindle, I have to buy it from Amazon. Currently Amazon has this book for sale at $9.60. Not a bad price, but it’s the only option I have. Once I buy this book from Amazon, I can only read this book on the Kindle (or a Kindle enabled device). Actually, I can only read this book on the Kindle (or other device) that is associated with my Amazon account. That’s it. And Amazon has made it clear, that’s all they plan on allowing for some time to come.
But let’s now take a look at how I could get that same book on my nook. Of course I could buy the book from Barnes & Noble for $9.60. Same price, so that’s good. But for my nook, I could also buy The Lost Symbol from Kobo books, their books are DRM’d with Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) which is readable on the nook. Their price is currently $9.99, but they have a 20% coupon this month so I could get it for $8. Now there’s a deal. Another place I could pick up the book is at the Sony eBook store. The Sony store recently changed most of their files to ePub DRM’d with ADE, so they too will work on the nook. The Sony store has this book priced at $9.99. Let’s see, you also have Fictionwise.com to choose from, they are a B&N affiliate so all their books will work on the nook. They have the book for $20.00, but you get a 100% micropay rebate on the book. This means you have $20 in your account there that can be used to buy another book. That could be leveraged pretty well I think. Then there is eReader.com, another B&N affiliate. They have the same price and deal as Fictionwise. Oh and let’s not forget, if my local library participates, I can download The Lost Symbol from Overdrive and borrow it for free for 21 days. How’s that for options?
And the funny thing is, that’s not even all of them! I am sure if I were to take the time to look around the web, I could find many more websites that use the ADE DRM and are able to sell me new releases for a reasonable price, all of which would work on my nook. On top of that, if I buy my books from these other sites, they will not only work on my nook, but on any device that can read the ADE DRM, which is a lot of them right now, except the Kindle. As well, ADE will soon be releasing an update to their program which will allow my books from B&N to be read using their software. That means even if I buy a book at B&N, I could read it on another device that has this new ADE software installed, not just the nook.
So yes, I like the look of my nook, yes I like that it is android based, yes I like the in store features it provides. But what I like the most is having options of where I can buy my new releases. If I only had my Kindle I’d have to pay $9.60 for The Lost Symbol. But with my nook, I could pay $8 to own it or I could borrow it for free from my library. Those are the kind of options I want to have, and that is why I personally chose to buy the nook.
Happy Reading!
Rachel
Photo by [n] from Flickr
19/01/2010 at 11:08 pm Permalink
Rachel,
This is the kind of intelligent response I hoped I’d get when I tweeted to you. I think you tipped the scales for me.
Many thanks.
Tamela
my original post: http://bit.ly/5tngXX
20/01/2010 at 10:40 am Permalink
Rachel, you have nailed it here, it amazes me how many folks are out there dissing the nook for things like the web browsing etc. I see two major advantages to the nook and you have covered them nicely. 1. It is an open platform, some folks think that this means they can hack the nook because of the Android operating system, but for the average person this does not matter, an open platform means that you can get your content from a wide variety of sources, wow the nook does a great job here. 2. “Barnes & Noble” Technical reviewers totally miss the importance of the “Love Affair” that readers have with their books and the whole buying experience. The convenience of being able to buy a book whenever or wherever you are, is great, but not being able to ever enjoy the experience of going into the book store or Library to pick that book out would prevent many hard core readers from moving to the new technology.
20/01/2010 at 7:56 pm Permalink
Thanks for this great insight…like you, I was just “waiting” to see where the Kindle was headed and then the nook hit the market, introducing a whole new slew of research. This is a huge help and, like my friend Tamela, this helps tip the scale for me.
20/01/2010 at 9:09 pm Permalink
@Eric B — Glad I could help you make your decision. The nook isn’t without it’s issues right now, but for the reasons I outlined, it’s worth overlooking the short term issues for the long term gain you get. I hope you enjoy your nook and maybe we’ll see you around the forums!
Rachel
20/01/2010 at 9:15 pm Permalink
@TheNookReport — I agree. B&N has an advantage just by the leveraging of their Brick & Mortar stores. I love eBooks, but I also love walking into a book store and looking at all the pretty things there. I know I’d never buy another paperback, but I might buy a nice hardback for my shelves. So having B&N entice me to continue to visit their stores satisfies all my book needs. I can carry all my books with me in my purse, and I can feel comfortable walking into a book store with my device to enjoy a little quality Dead Tree time too.
Rachel
20/01/2010 at 9:16 pm Permalink
@Tamela Rich — Thanks again Tamela for the inspiration and I hope if you do pick up the nook, you’ll join us over at our forums!! Lots of great people there to learn from.
Rachel
16/02/2010 at 9:06 pm Permalink
Hi, Rachel,
I just recently bought a nook after a few months of ruminating on it and making similar comparisons to those you’ve outlined above. I wish I had stumbled across this page earlier
The deciding factor for me was also the availability of ebooks, since the book-buying dollar commitment is probably going to far outweigh the initial purchase price of the reader! And bn.com has so many more titles available currently, I just had to go with the nook.
Thanks for the insights,
Theresa
25/02/2010 at 7:34 pm Permalink
Hi,
I just got my Nook today. I wish I had found your site sooner. Getting my Nook out of it’s many wrappers was a chore. I have it charging now, and I have yet to read any of the 50 or so eBooks I have. Where did I get 50 eBooks? All for free, you ask? I got them at Baen books free library. If you are into SciFi, then you are in for a treat. They have a large collection there. They also offer there new releases for resonable prices. Frequently weeks before they are available from B&N or other bookstores. Check it out.“Baen Books”
26/02/2010 at 5:26 am Permalink
Glad you got your nook out of it’s package finally!!
I also like the baen library, they have a lot of good stuff there. Be sure to also check out our freebie section on our forum too (these are books that are free only for a short time): http://www.nookboards.com/forum/index.php?board=10.0
Happy Reading!
Rachel
01/06/2010 at 6:57 pm Permalink
Hi,
I just got my Nook today. I wish I had found your site sooner. Getting my Nook out of it’s many wrappers was a chore. I have it charging now, and I have yet to read any of the 50 or so eBooks I have. Where did I get 50 eBooks? All for free, you ask? I got them at Baen books free library. If you are into SciFi, then you are in for a treat. They have a large collection there. They also offer there new releases for resonable prices. Frequently weeks before they are available from B&N or other bookstores. Check it out.“Baen Books”
11/07/2010 at 11:32 am Permalink
Just got the Nook, we homeschool and need mostly classics…the gutenberg site has almost every book I need…but there are so many files on there…how do I know which one to download for my nook? Thanks!!
Tara