[tracings]

My husband is looking to upgrade from an eInk reader (Kobo Touch) to something that allows him to surf the web and read books. The current sale on the Nook HD has me thinking that this may be just the ticket for him -- but I have a few questions:

* What is required at set-up? Do we need to connect to Barnes and Noble and register the device? I've heard you need to enter a credit card number on Nook devices, even if you never shop from them.

* How hard is it to sideload books from Calibre? We've been reading books on two different Kobo devices, and I've just sideloaded the ones he'd like to read to his device. Will I need to use a Alf add-on to allow him to read epubs on the Nook HD? Will this be confusing when I go to add the epub to my Kobo Glo?

Any advice on how to handle a new Nook HD is greatly appreciated. If someone can provide an overview of the steps we need to go through after unboxing a Nook HD, I'd be eternally grateful!