Tuesday, November 3, 2009

A New Toy!!!!

Just in time for the holidays another ebook device hits the market. The long awaited Barnes and Noble Nook looks pretty cool, to tell you the truth. It does everything the Kindle and others does for a fairly decent price. At $250 you get a wireless machine that stacks up and in some areas surpasses the Amazon Kindle. Personally, I like the clean look of it. Maybe it's just me but are there a gazillion buttons on the Kindle??? The Nook looks simple to use, it displays the book covers and simply by touching the pic, you can open your book. Looks pretty easy to me.

Probably the BEST thing about this new handy dandy machine is the fact that other readers will probably all go down in price. Now for ebook lovers a device like this can't come more highly recommended than by ME. I love my little ebookwise 1150 BUT I lately I find myself drooling over the new stuff that's hitting the market. Talked with someone at Romanticon who is trying out a Cool-Er reader and has no problems with it either. The bottom line is, readers have a bigger and better selection, it seems, almost every day.

The loops have been buzzing about the new Nook for the past week or so and lots of writers have discussed the 'sharing' feature involving B&Ns reader. If you own a Nook you can 'share' a book with friends. This, I must admit, is pretty damn disturbing but here's how I gather it works. If you have a Nook you can send a book to a friend for 14 days. This can be sent to their Nook, computer, I-phone, whatever. While that 'friend' has the book, you will be unable to read yours and it disappears from the friends computer, Nook, or Iphone in fourteen days. So it really is geared toward a 'loan' only. It's temporary and I imagine since it disappears after fourteen days, it wouldn't end up on a pirate site somewhere. Most Nook's titles will cost roughly $10 and that includes bestsellers and B&N will also offer lots of 'free reads' as well. My main gripe about many readers is they aren't available anywhere but in the US. What? Are there no readers in the rest of the world? I know there must be a reason these aren't available elsewhere. I don't know what it is exactly but I wish they'd change that. E-book readers should be made available to everyone.

As a writer who writes for the ebook market, I'm personally thrilled to find such a selection of readers on the market these days. Competition is a good thing and will drive the costs down, too. Lately, I've even seen commercial after commercial on television about the Sony, the Kindle, and I suspect we'll see plenty on the Nook, too. The main thing this tells me is that ebooks and ebook readers are coming into the mainstream. This can only mean good things for those of us who write and read ebooks.

15 comments:

Molly Daniels said...

Soooo...if the book disappears from your Nook while it's being loaned, does it return at the end of the 14 days?

Personally, I like that feature. I've borrowed many print books and then have turned around and bought my own copy, plus any other books by that author. Especially if I've not read them before.

Madison Scott said...

I think it looks really neat. I'd love to have one. But like you said, hopefully that will make prices of the others go down and then I will have more variety to choose from. LOL.

Kell

julia barrett said...

I don't have an e-reader but my husband wants one. I've used a Kindle and it's easy to read the text. I like to hold a book in my hand but some people absolutely love ereaders. I hope the prices drop and they sell well for Christmas - for our sakes!

Fran Lee said...

I wrote to B&N about the "sharing" thingy. I believe that a book shared is a sale lost. And why pay $250 for a reader when it's only a couple hundred more for a small laptop computer? I need the laptop way more than I need a reader that can get broken, lost, or stolen. LOL! Adobe pdf in my computer screen is fabulous...you get a book that is 18 inches wide and the print can be adjusted from normal to huge for us old blind bats!

Kenzie Michaels said...

I'm looking forward to getting my 1st e-reader. I can't take either computer to my bedroom, and sometimes I get tired of sitting at the desk in order to read my favorite e-authors:)

Laurann Dohner said...

I read most of my books on my computer (24 inch widescreen monitor that is flipable so it goes long way for reading...LOL). I looked at the Kindle and I've been browsing the Nook but I think I'm going to buy the ebookwise because it dropped down to $89.95! It used to be like $135. You'd laugh if you knew what my 'portable' reader was currently. It's a 3 and a half inch MP3 player with a color screen for vids and pictures. It always loses where I was reading so I spend most of my time scrolling to find my place...this after I have to convert all my books I buy into text files because that's ALL it reads. On your ebookwise 1150 (that's what I want) can you read well on it at night?

Great post as always!

Regina Carlysle said...

Absolutely, you can read on the ebookwise at night.It's the only reader out there (at least that I know of) that has a built-in backlight. I actually love mine.

Hey! I didn't know the price dropped so much. That's great. Must tell some friends about that!

Regina Carlysle said...

Molly, my understanding is that YES, it does go back onto the device after fourteen days.

Regina Carlysle said...

I have to disagree that it's a sale lost. If you think about it, how many times have you loaned a book to a friend and introduced them to a brand new author. It would be sort of like the "free read" programs established by lots and lots of publishers these days. It's exposure. I, for one, wouldn't mind it if someone borrowed my book and then went to buy more of my titles. Guess it depends on your perspective.

anny cook said...

Love my Sony. What format is the e-bookwise? I'd like to get my daughter one of those for Christmas...

Lyla Sinclair www.lylasinclair.com said...

My first day with my Kindle, it felt funny in my hands. My Nude Spanish Guitarist had gotten it for my birthday and he kept asking what I thought about it and I wasn't sure. A couple of days later, I was totally addicted and can't imagine why I'd want another paper book.

I've had to spend a lot of time waiting lately, and when I ran out of one book, I just went to the Amazon store through my Kindle and downloaded another, or a free piece of one to decide if I wanted the whole book or not.

I never have to run around trying to remember what my latest book looks like when I'm going out the door. I just grab my Kindle and toss it into my bag.

Now I'm trying to decide which kind to get the NSG for Christmas. Does anyone know if the nook and Soney ereader let you download good-sized chunks to try out like Kindle does?

Regina Carlysle said...

Anny, I read html format with my ebookwise.

Regina Carlysle said...

I don't know, Lyla. If I were you I'd go to the B&N site and check out all the info on the Nook. I don't know if they give you a 'test drive' on a book or not but it's a great idea!

Chris R said...

I like the idea more ereaders are coming out and that will drop the price. I love pdf and because I am computer stupid, I want a reader where I can just stick a thumb drive in and read my pdf.

Anne Rainey said...

It's nice to see the Kindle get some competition! Maybe it'll bring prices down a touch!