E-Readers: Kindle or Nook?

[Hozr]

Kindle. The backlighting of the nook is hard on the eyes for extended reading. E-paper is awesome and the battery lasts for weeks.

[Iknownot]

I would have said kindle up until a couple of months ago. Now that Amazon has lost control of book pricing, I don't think it matters much anymore.

Pick whichever device you'd rather give e-book money too. If you want to give B&N money for books, buy a nook. If you want to give amazon money for books, buy a kindle.

I will say, I'd still probably go kindle because of Amazon's customer service, but overall, I don't think it matters much either way anymore.

Just my 2 cents.

[sholling]

IMO because of the e-ink screen Kindle is the better book reader but doesn't handle illustrations well. Any Android or computer will be a better magazine or encyclopedia reader because they're easier to navigate.

[Iknownot]

Nook has e-ink screened readers too. Like the Nook simple. You don't HAVE to get the nook color.

I certainly would not get the nook color over the kindle. At that point, there are other color LCD tablets that would be a better choice. IMO.

[Paper Boy]

Kindle
Can read it in the sun
Free 3G
Downloads books in literally seconds
battery life is weeks

[Bad Kitty]

Go with a Motorola Xoom, without the data plan. Love mine.

[steadyrock]

IMO because of the e-ink screen Kindle is the better book reader but doesn't handle illustrations well. Any Android or computer will be a better magazine or encyclopedia reader because they're easier to navigate.

Interesting, that could be an issue with textbooks. Can you elaborate?

[pbsmind]

I went with the pandigital reader rooted and use the Kindle app, plus other e-readers.

You could do the same with the nook color, as mentioned many times.

Purely for reading though the Kindle is better. If you want to store your books separately you'll need to get them from a site like smashwords.com and then use calibre to put them on the kindle.

[Big Ben]

I have a Kindle and love it.

Regarding saving books/storing them elsewhere, I highly recommend Calibre. Werewolf mentioned it as well, but thought it was worth mentioning a second time. Calibre is fantastic. It's freeware, does a great job of converting various formats, and allows you to store your entire digital library in one well organized place (on your PC, which you can then back up onto various storage devices). Calibre also allows you to turn your PC into a server and download books to your various devices with or without a USB cable. There is also a plug-in available that will remove the digital rights management (DRM) protection from the books that you purchase so they can be used on various devices.

Please note, I'm not advocating pirating or stealing ebooks -- if you're going to use it, pay for it. However, I read on my Kindle, my iPhone, and occasionally on my PC. I'm certainly not going to buy the book two or three times in several formats to be able to read it on my various devices. By removing the DRM protection, I can read my books anywhere I want, on whichever device is most convenient.

I'm sure someone will flame me on the DRM issue anyway ... so let me just do it now. I'm an evil person, I'm the very core of what is wrong with America, I'm a worthless piece of scum, and everyone hopes I never procreate ... blah blah blah. Got it. Thanks!

[sholling]

Interesting, that could be an issue with textbooks. Can you elaborate?

I just find the illustrations a bit too dark and a bit less than photo quality. Where e-ink excels is text. It's like reading black ink on white paper.

[RazzB7]

I have a Kindle and love it.

Regarding saving books/storing them elsewhere, I highly recommend Calibre. Werewolf mentioned it as well, but thought it was worth mentioning a second time. Calibre is fantastic. It's freeware, does a great job of converting various formats, and allows you to store your entire digital library in one well organized place (on your PC, which you can then back up onto various storage devices). Calibre also allows you to turn your PC into a server and download books to your various devices with or without a USB cable. There is also a plug-in available that will remove the digital rights management (DRM) protection from the books that you purchase so they can be used on various devices.

Please note, I'm not advocating pirating or stealing ebooks -- if you're going to use it, pay for it. However, I read on my Kindle, my iPhone, and occasionally on my PC. I'm certainly not going to buy the book two or three times in several formats to be able to read it on my various devices. By removing the DRM protection, I can read my books anywhere I want, on whichever device is most convenient.

I'm sure someone will flame me on the DRM issue anyway ... so let me just do it now. I'm an evil person, I'm the very core of what is wrong with America, I'm a worthless piece of scum, and everyone hopes I never procreate ... blah blah blah. Got it. Thanks!

You're an evil person, You are the very core of what is wrong with America, you're a worthless piece of scum, and I hope you never procreate ... blah blah blah.

Oh....and thanks for the useful info!!

[williamd]

My Kindle is great! Love the free and .99-1.99 books! Most I have paid is 2.99.

[JaMail]

kindle is good, i LOVE it for reading only, for school work, you might want to get the color nook so that the pictures will come through.

I like the 3g, since I read alot of wikipedia articles and it actually has a search function for wikipedia.

you can get calibre (http://calibre-ebook.com/) for which ever reader you want to build non protected library's. It makes it easy to send to the devices, since you just click on the book you want to send and shoot it to their personal kindle accounts email@free.kindle.com and it downloads over your home network.


Amazon has ton of free schoolbooks you can download for kindle. biology, algebra, all types. before you buy a reader, you might want to consider if those books make it worth it.

amazon also makes it easy to download the classics wihtout having to to go the gutenberg project page.

[DREADNOUGHT78]

My GF spent a while debating the Kindle or the Nook. In the end she got the Nook Color. She loves it. She gets all the books she wants and all her junk Magazines as well. She Facebooks from it as well as handles e-mail and other stuff. My 3 year old absolutely LOVES it. She downloads childrens books and apps for my daughter. All her bedtime stories are on it and you can choose to read them or the book can actually read the stories to her. She has counting and ABC apps. as well. It was pricey but it does way more stuff than the Kindle and it doesnt quite cost as much as an i-Pad. My GF's dad has the Kindle and he says he wishes he had the Nook because he has to use light to read his Kindle. Just my take on it as a parent but I think the Nook offers more. As for me I still love books. My girl always makes fun of me when I order a new book from Amazon she says things like " that will look good on the bookshelf"......

My daughter calls the Nook her "Big Phone" because it does a lot of things her i-Touch does (she calls the i-Touch her phone). Now if I can get her away from playing Angry Birds on the Nook I would be happier.

[JaMail]

to be fair to the kindle, it works better the brighter it is outside.. and the battery lasts for weeks even with reading it daily for hours at a time.

i carry a clip on light, just as i would if i was ready a regular book.