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Originally Posted by tecweston
I have a Kobo wifi, and I'm either going to get a Kobo touch or Nook touch. I went to Barnes and Noble to see the Nook but the lady I talked to didn't seem like she knew all the answers to my questions. 1.
Can you get library books on a Nook? Most of the books I read are library books, so this is important. It's the only reason I'm not getting a Kindle.
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The native format for the nook is epub, which is the format generally available for library books, so yes. However, I've seen a lot of comments about how it can be a little troublesome to get ADE working on your PC (books have to go through that to get them in a condition the nook can deal with), so read up on Adobe Digital Editions.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tecweston
2. Are there free public domain books for Nook? I downloaded the Nook iPhone app but I cannot find any free books. I read a lot of classics and these are all free on the Kobo.
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It can read any uncrypted epub (and most encrypted ones, if you follow instructions), and there are many, many, many free books in epub format. Take a look at
Project Gutenberg for the biggest respository. Many publishers have various freebies (often, but not always, public domain) as well. If you like science fiction and/or fantasy, take a look at
Baen's Free Library and browse the list of CD images available at
The Fifth Imperium (this is perfectly legal - Baen distributes a lot of first edition hardcovers with a CD containing unencrypted copies of a bunch of similiar books, and there is permission to make and distribute copies printed on the CD - so long as you do not charge money for them). I believe there's a section of this very web site that lists good sites for free books, too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tecweston
3. Can you get free samples of books to read, and read them on the Nook? On the Kobo you can only get free samples in the iPhone app, you cannot read them on the Kobo, and they only include the title page and copyright page. I want it like the Kindle, where you get the first chapter or two.
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That's really up to the publisher, and most allow it. B&N's web site for nook books has samples for many titles (under the Buy Now button, there will be a text link for "Get Free Sample"). If you're browsing on the device, there will be a button under the price button you use to buy the book. (Note that this downloads the sample to the device, and while it's easy to get it off the home screen, the only way to
remove it - even after you buy the book - is through your account page on their web site. It's a small irritation, but it is annoying.)
The lady at B&N said there are substantial previews, but I can't find any in the iPhone app. [/QUOTE]
Quote:
Originally Posted by tecweston
4. The formatting on the Kobo is horrible. They dont look like printed pages, they look like Word documents; with double spacing, no paragraph indents, and no justified text. The book I saw on the Nook at B&N had proper text formatting, but are they all like this?
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That is, to some degree, up to the publisher, but in my experience (with a nook color and an original nook), pretty much all books look the same formatting wise. (PDFs are another matter, they're
very mixed, and more often than not look like crap because the native PDF reader is crap). epub is basically a variant of HTML, so the visual appearance is mostly up to the software you're reading on, and nook's seems to be pretty good. I'm quite happy with it, anyway.