If you have questions, of course, please feel free to ask on our boards. Perhaps someone is having the same issue as you!

Cheers!
Rachel

I made up a quick tutorial about how to convert files for the nook in Calibre. It also explains how to send the files to your nook once they are converted. Remember, only non-DRM’d files can be converted. If I have a file in a format the nook won’t read natively, I will generally convert it to ePub. You can also use Calibre to keep track of all your books that are already in a nook compatible format, and then use the program to easily send them to your nook.

This is a picture tutorial, so I will let me screen shots do the talking, but feel free to leave comments with any questions!

For additional help with Calibre, feel free to visit our forums.

Cheers!
Rachel

If you do not know about the Oberon covers for the nook, you are missing out. Oberon Design is small company located in Santa Rosa, CA. All their leather products are hand crafted right in their shop. I first heard about Oberon when I got my Kindle. I never bought one for the Kindle, but I lusted over it for some time. While the covers are not inexpensive, the quality they bring is well worth the cost. When I got my nook, I knew I must have one. So for my birthday, my hubby ordered me just the one I wanted, Dragonfly Pond.

My cover arrived today. It was shipped in a priority box, and when I pulled it out, it was wrapped in a very simple, yet very pretty, brown paper. A free charm was also included.

The brown paper unwrapped …

to reveal a beautiful leather cover.

Inside the cover, was an “Owner Manual” …

Leather care instructions …

And some information on the company with extra elastics in case one breaks.

The interior has a pocket and a wool strip to protect the screen on one side. On the other side it has straps to hold the nook in. (The inside is black, even though this picture looks more brown.)

There are plastic inserts in each pocket, which help with stability, though you could take them out easily if you wanted to.

The design I chose doesn’t go across the whole cover, but the back is still nice looking.

The design on the front has great texture.

The nook fits perfectly inside.

And even has a nice profile when shut.

The cover folds back nicely without any cracking.

The straps do not cover any of the holes at the bottom.

Now for something fun.

If you are careful, you can open up one of the pockets and see where the metal ends are for the strap that wraps around the button to keep the cover clsoed.

If you poke one of the metal ends up (put your hand in the pocket, and carefully guide it up).

The strap will come off and you can add your charm to it.

Carefully poke the metal piece back down, and now you have an easier way to get the elastic off the button when opening your cover.

I love my new cover, it’s exactly what I needed for my nook. Be sure to check out all the other styles people are buying over at the boards.

Here are just two of the designs other members have gotten:

Cheers!
Rachel

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

We got into a great conversation on the message boards about buying books directly on the nook versus buying them online from their website. The general consensus seemed to be that it is easier to buy the books online and then download them to the nook. I have to agree with that. Especially if you aren’t looking for one particular book, the website is so much easier to browse around. Of course being able to buy on the nook is nice if you don’t have access to a computer, but if you do have access, I would highly suggest buying on the computer rather than the nook.

It was asked exactly how the books get from the computer to the nook when bought this way, so I typed up some instructions for buying eBooks online, and I thought I would share them here. For those of you who are familiar with buying books online (maybe a little too familiar ) please ignore this post. But for those of you who are not accustomed to buying online, I hope this post can be of some help to you!

1. Go to www.bn.com (just click the linky link there)

2. Click on the eBook heading in the brown bar

3. In the search bar type the title of the book you are looking for (you’ll notice to the right of the search bar it says eBooks, this means you’re only searching in eBooks)

4. Click the green GO button

5. Now you will see a list with (hopefully) the book you’re looking for at the top. If your book is not available in eBook format, then it won’t show up in the list. As well the little blue “digital” sign under the title tells you it’s in eBook format.

5. If you now want to buy this book, you can just click the “Buy Now” button that shows up next to the book in the list. Your credit card will be charged at that time. You do not need to do anything else on the computer at this point.

6. Now to get the book on your nook, if you are in an area where AT&T cell phone service works, turn Airplane mode off and go to My Library. If you are in the coverflow mode, be sure to x out of that. Then click on “Check for new B&N content” You may need to click on “View my B&N library” first. It should now say it’s looking for new content and the book will show up automatically.

7. If you are not in an area where AT&T cell phone service works, then you will need to connect to your home wi-fi network, then go to My Library and if you are in the coverflow mode, be sure to x out of that. Then click on “Check for new B&N content” You may need to click on “View my B&N library” first. It should now say it’s looking for new content and the book will show up automatically.

And that’s it! Now you should have all your books on your nook, ready to read!

Cheers!
Rachel

Photo by bass_nroll from Flickr

If you have not heard of Kobo, you may want to check them out. The company was formerly Short Covers, but recently overhauled their name and their look. They only sell eBooks, and all of their eBooks are DRM’d with Adobe Digital Editions. This means that they can very easily be read on the Barnes & Noble nook.

Kobo currently has a promotion going for the month of January. If you use the coupon code, Save20, you can save 20% on any of their books. This offer lasts until January 31.

Their regular prices are pretty reasonable, so this 20% off makes it a great deal!

You can get the new Stephen King book Under the Dome for only $7.99 with the coupon code

Or Dear John (recently made a movie) for only $6.71 with the coupon code

If you have never used Kobo to buy books, it’s pretty simple:

1. Got to their website here.
2. Pick the book you want to buy, and click Buy Now
3. Under the part where it asks for credit card info, you’ll see “Have a promo code? click here”, click there
4. Enter the promo code Save20 and hit apply
5. Enter you credit card info and check out

You’ll want to make sure you have Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) installed on your computer before you download the book. If you do not, you can pick it up here. Download the file and follow the instructions for installing it to your computer. Once it is installed, you can download your newly purchased Kobo book and it will open right up in ADE.

Now you just need to get the book from ADE to your nook. It’s pretty simple really. Plug your nook into your computer using the USB cable. Once it’s plugged in, open ADE. ADE will recognize the device and ask you if you want to authorize it. Click Authorize Device, and now all your ADE books will work on your nook. You only have to authorize your nook the first time you plug your nook in with ADE. After the first time you do not even have to open ADE to get the books on the nook.

There is an easy way to move the books that are in ADE to your nook using ADE, but unfortunately if you do this, you will not be able to read them on your device. The ADE folder does not show up on the nook when it’s not plugged into the computer, so you’re going to have to get your ADE books on your nook a different way.

1. Open the folder that contains your ADE books (Mine is in my “My Documents” folder on my desktop)
2. Go to the My Computer and open the nook Drive
3. Copy the books that are in the ADE folder and paste them in the “My Documents” folder on the nook (Important: Do not put them in the ADE folder on the nook, this is the folder that is not recognized once the nook is unplugged)
4. Unplug your nook and get to reading!

When this is all typed out here, it seems like a lot, but I promise you it’s not. The good thing about having your books with ADE DRM instead of B&N DRM is they will be able to be read on a much wider variety of devices in the future.

So remember visit Kobo and save 20% using coupon code Save20.

Happy Reading!
Rachel

Photo by evelynishere from Flickr

Well I have officially joined the ranks of nook owners. If you’re wondering why I didn’t order the nook the day it was released (even though I bought the Nookboards domain the day it was announced), the reason was funds. I never thought Nookboards would actually take off (though of course I hoped it would), and I didn’t have the money to drop on the nook since I had just bought my Kindle in April. But once Nookboards started to get active, and I saw all these people talking about their orders, I knew there was no way I could properly run the board without one. I decided that, in addition to the nook I needed to properly run the board, my husband also needed one as a gift for his birthday. Luckily a Christmas bonus ended up covering the expense for us, and now we are a proud dual nook family.

I took still photos of unboxing my nook, and a video of unboxing my husband’s (yes he was sufficiently rewarded for allowing me to open his for him). Let’s get into it!

First off, the nooks arrived in a rather plain brown box

Once the box is opened, you encounter plastic wrapped air and a thick gray foam pad

Also on top here are your instructions for opening the box

Once this is all removed, you are left with the nook

If you follow the directions closely, you’ll actually do fine getting the packaging apart.

Step 1
Remove the plastic shrink wrap that encloses the entire package

There are actually 2 layers of shrink wrap, the first wraps the nook with cardboard

and the second closely wraps the nook

A pen, scissors or a knife while easily help you get these two plastic wrappings off.

Step 2
Slide the paper box sleeve that covers the top portion of the package

Step 3
You will see a small tab on both sides of the package with the word “PULL” printed on it. Starting with the tab, pull the security strip off and away from the packaging around the top of the box and down the opposite side.

Step 4
Lift off the plastic top case. This opens the plastic box so you can get to your nook, which is in its tray attached to the bottom case.

Step 5
While still attached in its tray, pull your nook and the tray straight-up. Lift the bottom end first and then unhook the top, while holding down the bottom case against a flat surface, such as a table. Your nook and its tray should slide off of the bottom case.

Now you are left with the nook on its tray

Step 6
To detach your nook from its tray, start at the top of your nook. Hold it in your hands as shown and use both thumbs to push evenly against the plastic tray to pop it off from your nook. The opposite end should now easily slide out of the try.

If you examine the top of the tray, you will see there are two small tabs that fit into small slots in the nook

You want to apply enough pressure on the tray to push those tabs out of the nook. They will snap right out. It does take some force, so don’t be afraid to push hard!

And your nook is free!

Don’t forget to remove the sticker on the screen

Step 7
Remove the small white box found at the bottom of the plastic packaging with the “nook” and “BARNES & NOBLE” logos printed on it. Push on one end to slide the box out of its paper sleeve.

The white box pops right out of the top of the case

And the inside part slides out like a matchbox

The instructions come off and you have your micro-usb cord and charger below

And that’s it! Your nook is unboxed and ready to play with!

Here is the video of unboxing my husband’s nook. I videotaped it myself, and it shut off half way through, so I had to put the nook packaging back together to show you the last half of the unboxing. Because of this, you’ll notice that the second half of the video the nook is stickerless! Hopefully my video making skills get better!! Regardless though, you should get a pretty good idea of the process of unboxing your nook.

I hope you enjoyed my unboxing, if you have unboxed, or soon will be unboxing, your own nook, please join us at our forums: Nookboards.com/forum

Happy unboxing!
Rachel

Due to popular demand, Nookboards will be hosting a monthly (or as often as we get hosts) book club! We are very lucky to have Alan Hutcheson, the author of Boomerang, as our very first book club host. So not only will you get to read a cool book, but you’ll get to hear from the author himself, his thoughts and ideas on the book.

So how will this work?
It’s pretty simple really, these will be the dates we will be following ….

January 3, 2009 – Alan will give us the first set of pages to read by Sunday, January 10, 2009.

January 10, 2009 – Alan will post the first set of questions for us to answer and give us the next set of pages to read by Sunday, January 17, 2009.

January 17, 2009 – Alan will post the second set of questions for us to answer and give us the next set of pages to read by Sunday, January 24, 2009.

January 24, 2009 – Alan will post the third set of questions for us to answer and give us the next set of pages to read by Sunday, January 31, 2009.

January 31, 2009 – Alan will post the last set of questions for us to answer and we will have a wrap up of the book club (cake for all!! ).

What is the book about?

Ted Hogwood’s beloved guitar is in the window of Topp Dollar Pawn. The only way he can get the money to rescue her is to accept an assignment from the AABC, a not nearly official branch of the US intelligence community. He is partnered with Jerry Kwiatkowski to steal a boomerang containing secrets that should have died with J. Edgar Hoover. It would be simple if they knew what they were doing.

Where is the book available?
Alan’s book can be found for free at Smashwords using a special code he has provided for Nookboards:

Smashwords Use coupon code: HD26A This will be good through January 31, 2010

Or it can be found at Barnes & Noble for $1.99, and half of his royalties from these sales go to his local high school band …

Barnes & Noble

Interested in joining us?
Visit our dedicated Boomerang forum here, if you are interested in following along with us! Alan had already posted the Week One Reading Assignment.

Cheers!
Rachel

Photo by grewlike from Flickr

I just wanted to throw up a quick post to let people know that Firmware updates for the nook have been reported. It doesn’t seem like everyone has gotten them just yet or that they have sent an email to owners about it, but a few people have reported that their nook has updated itself.

Here is a picture that was posted on Twitter: Update Picture

A few other members on our board have also reported getting the update. It seems that Barnes & Noble stores got an email from headquarters outlining what would be included in the update and Engadget has a report of some of the things that have been reported to be fixed in this update: nook Update

Please let us know if you have gotten your update on the forums: New 1.1 Firmware Update is Out

Hopefully this new update will help many of the consistent issues users have been having. Please remember though, not all devices that come out of the Barnes & Noble factories are working properly. If you find that your device has issues that other people don’t seem to be having, please consider an exchange. All nooks come with a one year warranty and you should use that if you need to (though getting the exchange may not be as easy as it sounds, but we’ll save that for another post).

Happy Reading!

Rachel

Photo by massdistraction from Flickr

Since none of the “official” reviewers seem to give a product more than a quick glance over and maybe use the product for 1 or 2 days at most, I thought it might be nice to hear a review from a consumer that has been using the nook for over a week now. The best part is, he has been using it for its intended use, reading. Yes, it’s nice to know all the quirks and bugs on the LCD screen when you are jumping around, but, really, how often will you be doing that once you get down to the business of reading? So while we are waiting for those updates and fixes, the nook looks like its doing a pretty good job at delivering a book to you.

This review was typed up by Everyman on Nookboards:

After a week of having my nook, I feel like I have conquered a lot of my misgivings about it. I somehow have entered a new phase of nooking.

I love my Kindle 2. But, just between you and me, I am MADLY in love with my nook.

Happy Reading!
Rachel

Photo by Joe Lanman from Flickr