Kindle or Nook?

[bbernardini]

I know this has probably been asked before, but I'm asking again, as my wife is debating getting one. Thoughts from either side of the debate?

(Yes, I know some of you prefer to have real books. We have plenty of those as well, I assure you. We also have a constant stream of books coming to us from the local library.)

[zonkers]

1. The name nook is sort of weird. on edit -- here is side by side comparison from Biz Week...

NOOK

The Good: Includes an additional color screen, permits friends to borrow downloaded books from one another, and allows free browsing of entire books when the user is in a Barnes & Noble store.
The Bad: Slow to boot up, format text, and display it on the screen. Color screen and Wi-Fi connection drain battery life.

KINDLE

The Good: Lighter and faster than the Nook, it boasts longer battery life, and each of its features has been thoroughly tested in the market.
The Bad: The physical keyboard seems clunky and unnecessary. And it lacks some clever features, such as lending rights.


---------------
seems like a no brainer to me.

[dugaresa]

2. will they call the users "nookies"

that would be funny

[gmoney]

13. Well it is officially the "Nook E-Book Reader"

Endorsed by Hugh Hefner and Larry Flynt.

[Call Me Wesley]

3. I suggest the Kindle, too,

although I'm not in the mood right now to praise amazon. I bought my 'European' Kindle on December, 11. Now their bigger model is on sale in Europe, too, but they didn't see the need to announce that it's on the way, otherwise I'd have waited.

The Kindle is very nice on the eyes, has a great battery life even with WiFi on all the time, and the ebooks for it are way cheaper than for the Nook.

If all fails, I'm still waiting for Apple's rumored e-reader, which should come out in March. ;)

[seaglass]

4. I don't have my Nook yet, Christmas gift, but I was leaning towards

it over the Kindle because

a.) user replaceable battery unlike Kindle
b.) book lending
c.) memory card for storage of addtl books

B&N is largely matching Amazon on book prices

My only hesitation was that I am not an early adopter - I usually prefer that others work out the bugs for me:-) I know they have already sent out 1 patch and they seem to be paying attention to user issues - I have been following the Nook boards/blog since pre-launch.

[elocs]

5. I don't buy books, that's what libraries are for. Can't beat the price. n/t

[stray cat]

7. You must have a decent library in your community. Lucky!

[bbernardini]

8. The library in our town is only okay. The inter-library loan, on the other hand...

We regularly have books sent from the other 17 libraries in our county to the one closest to us. The head of the local branch knows us all by name. :)

[elocs]

10. It's a great library system here in La Crosse. I have a branch maybe 6 blocks from me

and the main library is just 2 1/2 miles away. A great selection of books as well as books on tape and cd as well as loaded on mp3 players that you check out, and there is also a lot of dvd movies as well. Plenty of computers and lots of space to read or study. We have 2 universities here as well as a technical college so there are lots of students who use the libraries as well as the ones at their schools.

[stray cat]

14. Sweet! Sounds like the college town where I grew up in MN

[Captain Hilts]

6. Rocks or paper. nt

[Bucky]

9. Actual books for me

I need to be able to thumb through a book--particularly if it's nonfiction.

[GermanDem]

11. I LOVE my Kindle!

I have had a kindle for over a year now, and I love it! The big plus for me is that you can subscribe to blogs and newspapers on the kindle, and it's really cheap. I get the NYT News feed, which is quite extensive (several long articles, updated several times a day), for $1.99 a month. That's a steal! I also love the fact that you can browse amazon's vast book selection, download samples, and if you decide to buy a book, you just press a button, and 60 seconds later you have the complete book on your kindle! So much easier than hooking something up to the computer. Also, you can do basic web browsing with it, nothing really picture-heavy, but enough to e.g. check the weather on yahoo.

[stray cat]

15. By switching to the E-book NYtimes I saved the price of a kindle in a year

and much less recycling of newspaper and general waste of paper

[LibertyLover]

12. Sony Reader

Got one for Christmas and love it.

[Solomon]

16. Kindle all the way. The bugs are ironed out. The "nook" is guilty

of false and/or misleading advertising. Do the research. The Kindle is set up to function as a reader. The nook is eye-candy.

I almost bought a nook and after finally trying one out I'm glad I didn't. I got so frustrated trying to navigate the thing that I wanted to smash it. But then again, that's because I had already had the experience of using a Kindle. I'm sure those who have never used an e-reader before will be perfectly wowed and impressed by the nook, defective as it is.

[Fleshdancer]

17. I got my mom a Nook for Christmas...

It doesn't ship out until February though so if you want immediate gratification, the Kindle or the Sony Reader are your best bets. The reason why I chose the Nook for mom was because I wanted it to be wireless (Kindle is, Reader isn't), the screen on the Nook seems bigger than the Kindle and it uses a touch screen instead of the keyboard button thing.

From a quick search, the books on B&N.com were cheaper than on amazon, the Nook carries more free books than the Kindle, and B&N is doing this cool thing where if you bring your Nook into a B&B store, you can discover special deals. You can also share your ebooks with others who have the Nook for period of time. You can also get magazine subscriptions with the Nook, but I can't remember if the Kindle offers it.

[Pithlet]

18. I say Kindle, but only because I already have one.

I've looked at the Nook and it's really nice. But I really love my Kindle and I highly recommend anyone who loves to read getting one. They don't fully replace traditional paper books. I still have and get those, too.

[bbernardini]

19. Kicking for more thoughts from the weekend crew. nt

[burrfoot]

20. Got a Kindle for Christmas, and I love it.

I still have plenty of paper books, but one of the REALLY nice things about having and e-book reader is that when you turn the last page of the last new book in the house (or hit "next page" for the last time ;) ) you don't have to re-read an old one or suffer without a good book for a couple days, you just browse, click, and keep on keepin' on.

As has been said above, the Kindle is fast and really easy to read, and the battery life is (I hear) significantly better than the Nook with the color screen. I don't know how it works on the Nook but with the Kindle you can easily turn off the wifi as well, which saves you even more battery time.

And while the browser is totally basic, it's enough to load up DU. What more do you need than DU everywhere you go?!? :evilgrin: