Classic PC eBook Reader

[The Old Man]

I thought some comments on the B&N PC reader would be appropriate.

This is a free download and it installed easily on my Windows XP SP3 computer.

It does place a remove option in the Control panel. I have not tried that yet.

The interface takes a little getting used to but is not that difficult to figure out.

The download comes with a couple of public domain books and several more are available once you sign up for a B&N account. They are stored in Documents and Settings/username/Application Data/B&NeReader User Data/Book Data and have a kz extension. The name of the book has a number so seeing what book is listed with MS Explorer is not easy to determine except by date downloaded.

There is a free dictionary can you can highlite a word and look it up in the dictionary.

It will remember where you are in a book and return you to that spot when you open it again. This is true even if you open another book to read. It seems to remember the place in all books you have opened.

You can highlite and add notes.

My main complaint is that it seems to accept only kz files. Lit, prc, pdf can not be loaded into the PC Reader.

I hope a few others will try and report on the B&N eReader.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by The Old Man

They are stored in Documents and Settings/username/Application Data/B&NeReader User Data/Book Data and have a kz extension.

My main complaint is that it seems to accept only kz files. Lit, prc, pdf can not be loaded into the PC Reader.

The .kz file seems to be a metadata file generated by eReader, like the .mbp file for MobiPocket Reader. The actual ebooks are .pdb files in My Documents\My BN eBooks. Don't forget that .pdb can contain lots of kinds of contents, so not all .pdb files are eReader ebooks.

Calibre can convert many DRM-free ebook formats to eReader format.

[The Old Man]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

The .kz file seems to be a metadata file generated by eReader, like the .mbp file for MobiPocket Reader. The actual ebooks are .pdb files in My Documents\My BN eBooks. Don't forget that .pdb can contain lots of kinds of contents, so not all .pdb files are eReader ebooks.

Calibre can convert many DRM-free ebook formats to eReader format.

Thanks for the info. I missed this. I'll try some pdb books.

I have had the program crash once when trying to look up a word not in the dictionary.

I wonder if PDF files (books) when in the actual Nook will use hyperlinks to Bookmarks within the same document? Is there a "jump" forward and backward as in a browser?

[The Old Man]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

The actual ebooks are .pdb files in My Documents\My BN eBooks. Don't forget that .pdb can contain lots of kinds of contents, so not all .pdb files are eReader ebooks.

Calibre can convert many DRM-free ebook formats to eReader format.

Calibre will convert to pdb file that the eReader will load but with no hyperlinks. This makes News fetches, html, and other books I already have pretty useless.

The ePub file Calibre creates will not load into the B&N eReader.
Of course I may be doing something wrong. It has happened once before - I think.

I wonder what will happen with the actual Nook?