Classic Complete Beginner Questions For The Nook, Especially About Downloading Free Books

[sun surfer]

Just got my nook wifi about a week ago and am loving it. The books I've downloaded from B&N are working great, no problems. I do have quite a few questions and problems I'm trying to figure out though. And, I'm a complete beginner with this stuff so these might be really elementary!

1 - I'm having trouble with google books. You know it comes on the B&N website for free books, but it's just confusing to me. For example: I've been trying to download Middlemarch. On the B&N website there are a bunch of free results from google books and I have no idea which to download of the choices as they seem the same. But, when I've chosen one and download it, I open it up on my nook only to discover it's not the whole book! It starts in the middle. Then I tried another...and same thing, but it started from a different point in the middle of the book. Then I tried another - and it happened again! What's going on with that? Is that normal and how can I get it right and figure out which results are actually "good"?

2 - I also tried to go directly to the google books website and it was even more confusing. I guess a bunch of results on that website can't be downloaded for free, but even if I could find one that was - how do I get it on my nook? Because I've been just putting stuff on my B&N library, then it goes wirelessly to the nook. And I tried using the website on the nook but google books loaded way too slowly because it has a lot of stupid book pictures so I gave up trying that way. Can I get downloads not from the B&N website on the library there for wireless downloading? All this trouble is starting to make the $3 B&N Classics edition look tempting LOL but I'm sure that was their evil goal!

3 - Since I've been obsessed with figuring out my google books problem, I've been trying to figure out the difference in pdf and epub. I know the basic difference - pdf is image. But for instance, if I get a pdf ebook from google books, can I still resize the text, change the text size and all that? And if it's epub, which I think the ones I downloaded were but I'm not sure, I thought it was text only so how did it show the pictures of the first few pages of the physical book? On google books itself, you have the choice of downloading pdf or epub, but on the B&N website if you're downloading a google book, it doesn't tell you if it's pdf or epub. Is there any way to tell which one it is after you download it? And do they generally go with epub or only use the epub or is there any logic to which version they give you? I'm assuming epub is the better format.

4 - Besides google books, what are other good websites for free ebooks and even non-free ebooks that have compatible file formats with the nook? I know I've seen such a list somewhere before, but when I try to find it of course I can't. And also, if the list is big, which do you guys recommend using when I have the choice? I will be buying newer books for sure too (and I already have), but I'm especially planning on downloading a lot of free older books and classics from scratch, so that's why for such a beginner I'm trying to learn and get all this down right, so I can do it the best and fastest way possible and get the best versions that are free.

5 - I'm planning on trying to read up on calibre and learn how to use it. From what I gather it's like a library tool, like my B&N library. What I want to know is, if I use calibre, how am I going to get books onto my nook? I prefer to do it all wirelessly if possible. Is there some way once I've put sorted things on calibre, I put it on my B&N library so I can get it on my nook or what?

6 - Do you guys know of any tutorials or ebooks/ereaders/nook for dummies type of thing? I'm such a beginner but I can learn and I want to know at least the basics of everything with the downloading/finding stuff/all the basic extras like even converting stuff and all that. The physical use of the nook once things are on it I'm fine with. I'm trying to learn this stuff now but I just find a lot of random info and a lot of it sounds complicated and I'm not sure what to try to dive in first. What I have dove into so far, it just gets me more confused!

Thanks!

[aagstn]

I get many of my free public domain ePubs here at Mobileread and some from Feedbooks. I don't think I have ever actually downloaded anything from Google books. I would start at those two searching for free epubs you might want.

[BVLarson]

Free can often times be a danger-zone, as the packagers of "free" might not have your best interests at heart. That said, I give away free ebooks regularly on my site to get people started with my series. Since I'm trying to give out a "taste test" I've got an interest in making it a good experience for the reader.

I'm just saying that finding a good free ebook can be like downloading a good free file editor, you will have to wade thru a lot of garbage first...
-bvl

[nyrath]

Originally Posted by sun surfer

3 - Since I've been obsessed with figuring out my google books problem, I've been trying to figure out the difference in pdf and epub. I know the basic difference - pdf is image. But for instance, if I get a pdf ebook from google books, can I still resize the text, change the text size and all that? And if it's epub, which I think the ones I downloaded were but I'm not sure, I thought it was text only so how did it show the pictures of the first few pages of the physical book? On google books itself, you have the choice of downloading pdf or epub, but on the B&N website if you're downloading a google book, it doesn't tell you if it's pdf or epub. Is there any way to tell which one it is after you download it? And do they generally go with epub or only use the epub or is there any logic to which version they give you? I'm assuming epub is the better format.

Well, actually, PDF are not always images. Only sometimes. Some crude home-made PDF files are just pictures of each entire page, but generally commercially made PDFs are not.

The bottom line is that PDFs look terrible on a Nook. This is because PDFs are intended to show how each page will look. The trouble is that a 8.5" x 11" page cannot be displayed on your Nook (if you squeeze in the entire page, the words will be too tiny to read, if you only show part of a page, the Nook has to "re-flow" the text, and PDFs do not want you to do that)

epub format books can have pictures in them.

For your Nook, epubs work best.

[nyrath]

Originally Posted by sun surfer

4 - Besides google books, what are other good websites for free ebooks and even non-free ebooks that have compatible file formats with the nook?

Project Gutenberg (old books that are out of copyright)
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

Baen Free Library (Free Science Fiction books, they hope you will be tempted to pay for more books in the series)
http://www.baen.com/library/

Be sure to download the epub versions.

[nyrath]

Originally Posted by sun surfer

5 - I'm planning on trying to read up on calibre and learn how to use it. From what I gather it's like a library tool, like my B&N library. What I want to know is, if I use calibre, how am I going to get books onto my nook? I prefer to do it all wirelessly if possible. Is there some way once I've put sorted things on calibre, I put it on my B&N library so I can get it on my nook or what?

Calibre can also convert ebooks in a variety of formats into epubs that the Nook can use.

I am unsure if there is a way to have Calibre wirelessly load books onto your Nook. I usually just plug my Nook into my computer. On Calibre, it will tag all the books in your library that are also on your Nook with a blue check-mark. Books you want to add to your Nook can be selected, and sent by pushing a simple button.

Note that on your Nook, there are two "libraries." One is of official Barnes & Noble books you've purchased. The other is your own documents library, containing ebooks you've manually added to your Nook.

[bookwerm]

Originally Posted by sun surfer

1 - I'm having trouble with google books. You know it comes on the B&N website for free books, but it's just confusing to me. For example: I've been trying to download Middlemarch. On the B&N website there are a bunch of free results from google books and I have no idea which to download of the choices as they seem the same. But, when I've chosen one and download it, I open it up on my nook only to discover it's not the whole book! It starts in the middle. Then I tried another...and same thing, but it started from a different point in the middle of the book. Then I tried another - and it happened again! What's going on with that? Is that normal and how can I get it right and figure out which results are actually "good"?

Welcome to Google books! From my experience, this is why the 'over 1,000,000 free books!' from Google is crap. Unfortunately, it's trial and error. If you search a particular title, and get multiple options, there's no way to know which one will have decent formatting and be complete. It's why people like me pay B&N $2 & $3 to buy the classics, because for $2, I don't have to waste time trying to find a complete, well-formatted book.

2 - I also tried to go directly to the google books website and it was even more confusing. I guess a bunch of results on that website can't be downloaded for free, but even if I could find one that was - how do I get it on my nook? Because I've been just putting stuff on my B&N library, then it goes wirelessly to the nook. And I tried using the website on the nook but google books loaded way too slowly because it has a lot of stupid book pictures so I gave up trying that way. Can I get downloads not from the B&N website on the library there for wireless downloading? All this trouble is starting to make the $3 B&N Classics edition look tempting LOL but I'm sure that was their evil goal!

You can only load books wirelessly to the nook if you purchase them from Barnes & Noble. Everything else (including google books acquired through google.com) needs to be sideloaded. Sideloading is when you connect the nook to your computer via USB. You'll see a folder 'nook' open on your computer, with a series of sub-folders. Drop the books you've downloaded/purchased into the 'My Documents' folder. When you disconnect the nook, it will automatically refresh and your books will appear in the My Documents library on the nook.

6 - Do you guys know of any tutorials or ebooks/ereaders/nook for dummies type of thing? I'm such a beginner but I can learn and I want to know at least the basics of everything with the downloading/finding stuff/all the basic extras like even converting stuff and all that. The physical use of the nook once things are on it I'm fine with. I'm trying to learn this stuff now but I just find a lot of random info and a lot of it sounds complicated and I'm not sure what to try to dive in first. What I have dove into so far, it just gets me more confused!

I know it's kind of annoying - I was a bit surprised that the nook didn't come with a physical manual in all that clunky packaging. There is an ebook though, on the nook that's a user guide - you'll find it in My Documents. You can't delete it (I don't think), so it's always there for your. In addition to the user guide, there's also a nook tutorial loaded on the device as well. I did the tutorial when I first got my nook, and found it to be helpful.

Other than that - definitely spend time lurking in the mobileread and bn boards. There are some great people here with a lot of knowledge, and you'd be surprised the cool stuff you can learn just by browsing different threads.

HTH!

[bookwerm]

Originally Posted by nyrath

Calibre can also convert ebooks in a variety of formats into epubs that the Nook can use.

I am unsure if there is a way to have Calibre wirelessly load books onto your Nook. I usually just plug my Nook into my computer. On Calibre, it will tag all the books in your library that are also on your Nook with a blue check-mark. Books you want to add to your Nook can be selected, and sent by pushing a simple button.

Note that on your Nook, there are two "libraries." One is of official Barnes & Noble books you've purchased. The other is your own documents library, containing ebooks you've manually added to your Nook.

No, you cannot load books wirelessly onto the nook through Calibre. You have to connect the nook to the computer via USB, then you can, through Calibre, move the books onto the device. The books will show up in 'My Documents' library (not the B&N library).

[curio]

Originally Posted by bookwerm

No, you cannot load books wirelessly onto the nook through Calibre. You have to connect the nook to the computer via USB, then you can, through Calibre, move the books onto the device. The books will show up in 'My Documents' library (not the B&N library).

You can, however, use Trook if you softroot your device to obtain them from Calibre via Wi-Fi.

[rebguy]

I am having trouble using calibre to send books to the nook. Just got it today. I managed to send one book over but now it apparently doesn't recognize that the eBook is connected. Does anyone have any ideas

[ThomasMc]

Originally Posted by rebguy

I am having trouble using calibre to send books to the nook. Just got it today. I managed to send one book over but now it apparently doesn't recognize that the eBook is connected. Does anyone have any ideas

Make sure you properly eject/unmount the device before you physically unplug it from the USB port. That makes sure that any pending disk writes that are still buffered are actually written to the device. If they aren't you could have a corrupt file there, which the system can't read and deal with. In Calibre, you can use the eject icon where it shows the device. In Linux, you can use your file manager to unmount, or if it appears on your desktop, you can do it there. In Windows 7 you right click on the device, and select eject. Earlier versions of Windows allowed you to click on an icon in the system tray to "safely remove device." I haven't a clue how to do it with a Mac.

You might try to do a reset:
http://bookclubs.barnesandnoble.com/...ook/m-p/429558

or hard reset, if that doesn't fix it:
http://nooktalk.net/nook-faq/article...m-restore.html

Then again, I'm a new nook user too, so perhaps someone here can give more specific advice.

[afa]

Originally Posted by ThomasMc

I haven't a clue how to do it with a Mac.

Click "Eject".

[Poppa1956]

Originally Posted by sun surfer

Just got my nook wifi about a week ago and am loving it. The books I've downloaded from B&N are working great, no problems. I do have quite a few questions and problems I'm trying to figure out though. And, I'm a complete beginner with this stuff so these might be really elementary!

1 - I'm having trouble with google books. You know it comes on the B&N website for free books, but it's just confusing to me. For example: I've been trying to download Middlemarch. On the B&N website there are a bunch of free results from google books and I have no idea which to download of the choices as they seem the same. But, when I've chosen one and download it, I open it up on my nook only to discover it's not the whole book! It starts in the middle. Then I tried another...and same thing, but it started from a different point in the middle of the book. Then I tried another - and it happened again! What's going on with that? Is that normal and how can I get it right and figure out which results are actually "good"?

Google books seems to have links to various means to purchase the books in question. Seeing some of your quesitons, —and noting that many of the epubs I've downloaded from google books, either directly or via the B&N site— were fraught with OCR-generated errors. The Complete Works of Flavius Josephus comes to mind, especially since the B&N stated that it was definately not filled with OCR errors.
I searched for Middlemarch using InkMesh and turned up a nfree epub from FeedBooks located here. It looks complete, and I saw no errors on the first few pages.

2 - I also tried to go directly to the google books website and it was even more confusing. I guess a bunch of results on that website can't be downloaded for free, but even if I could find one that was - how do I get it on my nook? Because I've been just putting stuff on my B&N library, then it goes wirelessly to the nook. And I tried using the website on the nook but google books loaded way too slowly because it has a lot of stupid book pictures so I gave up trying that way. Can I get downloads not from the B&N website on the library there for wireless downloading? All this trouble is starting to make the $3 B&N Classics edition look tempting LOL but I'm sure that was their evil goal!

3 - Since I've been obsessed with figuring out my google books problem, I've been trying to figure out the difference in pdf and epub. I know the basic difference - pdf is image. But for instance, if I get a pdf ebook from google books, can I still resize the text, change the text size and all that? And if it's epub, which I think the ones I downloaded were but I'm not sure, I thought it was text only so how did it show the pictures of the first few pages of the physical book? On google books itself, you have the choice of downloading pdf or epub, but on the B&N website if you're downloading a google book, it doesn't tell you if it's pdf or epub. Is there any way to tell which one it is after you download it? And do they generally go with epub or only use the epub or is there any logic to which version they give you? I'm assuming epub is the better format.

Most of the PDF's I've d/l'd from googlebooks have been scanned in a way that makes each page a sort of picture of the original (I can't think of any that were not thus). What I've determined to do in some cases is to either:

1. download the PDF and the epub, edit and correct the epub in Sigil. This would be driving me to the brink of madness it it were not for the fact that I took that trip l;ong ago. (It was actually quite a short, refreshing walk.
2. Download the PDF, either from GoogleBooks, or some other site, and use it for reference as I type the text in OpenOffice, or MSWord. This is actually quite a bit less frustrating than option [B]1[/b, but at least as time consuming. I am neither a fast nor accurate typist.
3. Suck it up and purchase the book. Always, Always, ALWAYS, get and look at the Sample b ook first. B&N does not allow returns of electronic books.

4 - Besides google books, what are other good websites for free ebooks and even non-free ebooks that have compatible file formats with the nook? I know I've seen such a list somewhere before, but when I try to find it of course I can't. And also, if the list is big, which do you guys recommend using when I have the choice? I will be buying newer books for sure too (and I already have), but I'm especially planning on downloading a lot of free older books and classics from scratch, so that's why for such a beginner I'm trying to learn and get all this down right, so I can do it the best and fastest way possible and get the best versions that are free.

MobileRead is one, you can find others here

[QUOTE]5 - I'm planning on trying to read up on calibre and learn how to use it. From what I gather it's like a library tool, like my B&N library. What I want to know is, if I use calibre, how am I going to get books onto my nook? I prefer to do it all wirelessly if possible. Is there some way once I've put sorted things on calibre, I put it on my B&N library so I can get it on my nook or what?[/QUOTE}

To the best of my knowledge, wirelessly ain't gonna doot. You can "Sideload" files on and off your Nook via Calibre.

6 - Do you guys know of any tutorials or ebooks/ereaders/nook for dummies type of thing? I'm such a beginner but I can learn and I want to know at least the basics of everything with the downloading/finding stuff/all the basic extras like even converting stuff and all that. The physical use of the nook once things are on it I'm fine with. I'm trying to learn this stuff now but I just find a lot of random info and a lot of it sounds complicated and I'm not sure what to try to dive in first. What I have dove into so far, it just gets me more confused!

No book that I know of. Read the User Manual, really. It is actually often helpful, and only has a modicum of misinformation. Other than that, browse the forums here at MR, and other Nook forums (on the B&N site, as well as others.)

Thanks!

'Tain't no thang.

[Kumabjorn]

How do you figure out which books on Google Books are download books? And where is there a link to actually downloading it?