Kindle or Nook for my mom?

SandyBrooks · 08-24-2010, 02:49 PM

I broke my jaw in three places recently (fainted and hit my chin on the sink, doh!) and my mom took off work for several days to help take care of me and watch my son while I was in surgery/recovering. While she was here I showed her my nook and she thought it was neat and said that she might need to get one. Anyway, I wanted to do something nice for her helping me out so much.

Now that the kindle is here with the improved screen and lighter weight/less clunky looking, better battery life, I was considering ordering one of those for her and preloading with a bunch of ebooks before I give it to her. She's not the most technically inclined, but uses a computer at work, so I'm sure I could email her ebooks in the future and she could drag and drop into the right folder (I'm assuming you can do that on the kindle as you can on the nook...though I use calibre for the most part). For buying books, I'm sure she'd have no problem buying from amazon.

My main concern about the kindle is that it doesn't accept epub. How well does conversion in calibre work from epub to mobi (or whatever the preferred format for kindle is)? I know calibre can convert it, but does it look decent or is the formatting often screwy? The other thing of course is that she did like the nook and that I know there is a bit of a wait time before I can get my hands on the kindle 3. I'd also put a 8gb sd card in the nook 'cause I don't think she even has an mp3 player and might enjoy having some extra space for music.

Thoughts anyone?

Sandy

geertm · 08-24-2010, 03:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SandyBrooks

I broke my jaw in three places recently (fainted and hit my chin on the sink, doh!) and my mom took off work for several days to help take care of me and watch my son while I was in surgery/recovering. While she was here I showed her my nook and she thought it was neat and said that she might need to get one. Anyway, I wanted to do something nice for her helping me out so much.

Now that the kindle is here with the improved screen and lighter weight/less clunky looking, better battery life, I was considering ordering one of those for her and preloading with a bunch of ebooks before I give it to her. She's not the most technically inclined, but uses a computer at work, so I'm sure I could email her ebooks in the future and she could drag and drop into the right folder (I'm assuming you can do that on the kindle as you can on the nook...though I use calibre for the most part). For buying books, I'm sure she'd have no problem buying from amazon.

My main concern about the kindle is that it doesn't accept epub. How well does conversion in calibre work from epub to mobi (or whatever the preferred format for kindle is)? I know calibre can convert it, but does it look decent or is the formatting often screwy? The other thing of course is that she did like the nook and that I know there is a bit of a wait time before I can get my hands on the kindle 3. I'd also put a 8gb sd card in the nook 'cause I don't think she even has an mp3 player and might enjoy having some extra space for music.

Thoughts anyone?

Sandy

Calibre can only convert books without DRM. So if you want to share B&N books with your mom you would have to remove the DRM to convert them for the Kindle. So if you want to share books the Nook would be a better option.

thinkpad · 08-24-2010, 03:08 PM

As for converting .mobi to .epub I often find that the layout isn't the best. Still readable but not exactly as the original layout. Usually the margins get screwed up so you end up with large blank space on the left side. I don't know if there's a way to correct this afterwards since all I do is convert it through Calibre and leave it at that.

As for choosing a Kindle or Nook, since you've already got a Nook I would think you would be able to better support your mom with any questions she might have regarding the device. It's also nice to be able to lend books from the library. Hasn't the nook got a lend feature, if you buy a book you can later on lend it to your mother.

All in all I think any of the two devices would make here very happy. They're both very good devices.

kathyfitz · 08-24-2010, 03:11 PM

The books I have converted from epub to mobi have looked fine. And you can just drop them into a folder for Kindle, it is very easy. I am not familiar with the Nook, but the Kindle is very user friendly, especially since they added collections!

stargazertony · 08-24-2010, 03:33 PM

Hope your jaw is mending well. Either e-reader would be fine however, if you choose the nook for your mom, I believe you can share books with each other. If your reading tastes are similar, that might be a consideration.

superstitious · 08-24-2010, 05:40 PM

Since you already have the Nook, maybe you want to get one for your mom and register both on the same account to share books. Someone else already mentioned you can't convert DRM'ed ebooks bought from either Amazon or B&N using Calibre. Good luck with your decision.

SandyBrooks · 08-24-2010, 07:14 PM

I think I'm leaning towards the nook mainly because I don't want to wait like 3 weeks for a kindle if I order today

And someone mentioned upthread that I'd be better able to support her technically if I have the same device, which is a great point. I also checked and her local library lends ebooks and I think she might take advantage of that. I do love my nook, though I wish the battery life was better and that it was a little lighter. Neither of these things are a huge deal though.

And yeah, jaw is healing nicely, I now have metal plates/screws in my chin and am wired shut. On Friday the wires are hopefully coming off to be replaced with bands, so I'll be able to eat soft foods. As a PSA, if you feel hot/faint, resist the urge to go to the bathroom to splash water on your face. There's too much hard stuff to fall on in a bathroom.

Emmaleigh · 09-05-2010, 11:48 PM

If it was for my mom, I'd buy her the same reader that I have (Nook) so we could lend each other books or even possibly use the same B&N account to share the bookshelf. It'll be much easier for you to help her out if she gets stuck with something on the Nook, too.

Glad you are healing...

ProfCrash · 09-06-2010, 07:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by superstitious

Since you already have the Nook, maybe you want to get one for your mom and register both on the same account to share books. Someone else already mentioned you can't convert DRM'ed ebooks bought from either Amazon or B&N using Calibre. Good luck with your decision.

I agree. Stay with the Nook. I don't know how account sharing works on the Nook but on the Kindle I can read a book at the same time as my Mom reads a book. I imagine it is the same with the Nook.

Not to mention, having the same device means that you can help your Mom if she has any problems.

SandyBrooks · 09-06-2010, 11:31 PM

Would you believe I still haven't decided? I keep hoping to hear something about when the nook 2 is coming out. She's going to be surprised no matter when I send it to her so I guess no big rush

SeaBookGuy · 09-07-2010, 01:50 PM

If you think she'd use library downloads, kind of a no-brainer on nook.

08-24-2010, 02:49 PM	#1
SandyBrooks Member Posts: 24 Karma: 12 Join Date: May 2010 Location: Austin Device: Sony pocket	Kindle or Nook for my mom? I broke my jaw in three places recently (fainted and hit my chin on the sink, doh!) and my mom took off work for several days to help take care of me and watch my son while I was in surgery/recovering. While she was here I showed her my nook and she thought it was neat and said that she might need to get one. Anyway, I wanted to do something nice for her helping me out so much. Now that the kindle is here with the improved screen and lighter weight/less clunky looking, better battery life, I was considering ordering one of those for her and preloading with a bunch of ebooks before I give it to her. She's not the most technically inclined, but uses a computer at work, so I'm sure I could email her ebooks in the future and she could drag and drop into the right folder (I'm assuming you can do that on the kindle as you can on the nook...though I use calibre for the most part). For buying books, I'm sure she'd have no problem buying from amazon. My main concern about the kindle is that it doesn't accept epub. How well does conversion in calibre work from epub to mobi (or whatever the preferred format for kindle is)? I know calibre can convert it, but does it look decent or is the formatting often screwy? The other thing of course is that she did like the nook and that I know there is a bit of a wait time before I can get my hands on the kindle 3. I'd also put a 8gb sd card in the nook 'cause I don't think she even has an mp3 player and might enjoy having some extra space for music. Thoughts anyone? Sandy

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08-24-2010, 03:08 PM	#3
thinkpad David Posts: 1,808 Karma: 8916183 Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Norway Device: Kindle, E.Edge (sold), Irex Iliad (retired)	As for converting .mobi to .epub I often find that the layout isn't the best. Still readable but not exactly as the original layout. Usually the margins get screwed up so you end up with large blank space on the left side. I don't know if there's a way to correct this afterwards since all I do is convert it through Calibre and leave it at that. As for choosing a Kindle or Nook, since you've already got a Nook I would think you would be able to better support your mom with any questions she might have regarding the device. It's also nice to be able to lend books from the library. Hasn't the nook got a lend feature, if you buy a book you can later on lend it to your mother. All in all I think any of the two devices would make here very happy. They're both very good devices.

08-24-2010, 03:11 PM	#4
kathyfitz Electronics Whore Posts: 115 Karma: 162 Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: The Mountains of Southern California Device: Kindle Paperwhite, iPad, iPad mini, iPhone5, Kindle3	The books I have converted from epub to mobi have looked fine. And you can just drop them into a folder for Kindle, it is very easy. I am not familiar with the Nook, but the Kindle is very user friendly, especially since they added collections!

08-24-2010, 03:33 PM	#5
stargazertony Connoisseur Posts: 92 Karma: 906 Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: SouthWest Pensylvania Device: Kindle 3, iPod Touch, Pre-electronic devices	Hope your jaw is mending well. Either e-reader would be fine however, if you choose the nook for your mom, I believe you can share books with each other. If your reading tastes are similar, that might be a consideration.

08-24-2010, 05:40 PM	#6
superstitious Addict Posts: 206 Karma: 7270 Join Date: Aug 2009 Device: K3 wifi	Since you already have the Nook, maybe you want to get one for your mom and register both on the same account to share books. Someone else already mentioned you can't convert DRM'ed ebooks bought from either Amazon or B&N using Calibre. Good luck with your decision.

08-24-2010, 07:14 PM	#7
SandyBrooks Member Posts: 24 Karma: 12 Join Date: May 2010 Location: Austin Device: Sony pocket	I think I'm leaning towards the nook mainly because I don't want to wait like 3 weeks for a kindle if I order today And someone mentioned upthread that I'd be better able to support her technically if I have the same device, which is a great point. I also checked and her local library lends ebooks and I think she might take advantage of that. I do love my nook, though I wish the battery life was better and that it was a little lighter. Neither of these things are a huge deal though. And yeah, jaw is healing nicely, I now have metal plates/screws in my chin and am wired shut. On Friday the wires are hopefully coming off to be replaced with bands, so I'll be able to eat soft foods. As a PSA, if you feel hot/faint, resist the urge to go to the bathroom to splash water on your face. There's too much hard stuff to fall on in a bathroom.

09-05-2010, 11:48 PM	#8
Emmaleigh Enthusiast Posts: 26 Karma: 12 Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: St. Augustine, FL Device: NOOK	If it was for my mom, I'd buy her the same reader that I have (Nook) so we could lend each other books or even possibly use the same B&N account to share the bookshelf. It'll be much easier for you to help her out if she gets stuck with something on the Nook, too. Glad you are healing...

09-06-2010, 11:31 PM	#10
SandyBrooks Member Posts: 24 Karma: 12 Join Date: May 2010 Location: Austin Device: Sony pocket	Would you believe I still haven't decided? I keep hoping to hear something about when the nook 2 is coming out. She's going to be surprised no matter when I send it to her so I guess no big rush

09-07-2010, 01:50 PM	#11
SeaBookGuy Can one read too much? Posts: 2,015 Karma: 2487799 Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Naples, FL Device: Kindle PW 3, Sony 350 and 650	If you think she'd use library downloads, kind of a no-brainer on nook.

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