One Reader's Journey

[Calenorn]

For people who love to read, the idea of carrying a library in your pocket can be compelling. It is for me. Some of you here know what I mean.

A few years ago I chose a NOOK Simple Touch to try to do this. Everything about it was suited to the purpose. The epub format expanded the potential sources of books; the memory card slot expanded the storage capacity; the eink screen expanded the battery life. I admired the device so much that I bought a second as a back-up.

But Barnes & Noble isn’t interested in helping customers build personal, portable libraries. They’re interested in revenue streams. First they stopped updating their eink firmware, then they omitted the memory card from the new model, then they removed the download function.

To be fair, B&N is probably equally unhappy with me as a customer, since I don’t provide them much of a revenue stream. Let me just say, without whining, that disposable income is hard to come by.

Okay, that being the case, I explore the free books at the B&N site. Ugh! What a swamp! Copies and copies of the same title, crappy scans from Google Books or archive.org, amateur porn. Disappointing just doesn’t cover it. Disgusting is a better term. The company exerts absolutely no quality control over the things sold on their site.

See, if B&N had provided a good experience for people looking for free books, then I never would have had a reason for climbing over the garden wall. It’s their own fault.

But leave I did. First stop, Project Gutenberg; then, sites like this one. The Gutenbergers are good quality, but they have some quirks. I quickly discovered that if I changed the title of the epub file, that action didn’t change the title as displayed in the ereader. I had discovered metadata.

Mind you, I’m not a computer hobbyist; I have no background in HTML whatever. So it was back to the internet, learning about things like Calibre and Sigil.

Step by step, I started to learn how to change epub files. Tweak, polish, improve; I find it to be very satisfying, making a book display the way I want it to on the ereader.

At the same time I began to discover how much high quality public domain material is available. Free books, far superior to the cruft Barnes & Noble allows in its e-store, were not difficult to find.

Why, this site alone could keep me reading for years and years! Check out the finely crafted, fully illustrated versions of Jules Verne’s Extraordinary Voyages posted here by Tired 'N Grumpy. Visit the handy omnibus editions created and generously contributed by the folks here. If you’re reading this then you know what I mean.

At other sites, smaller vendors don’t seem to have a problem producing quality free epubs. For example, consider the beautifully rendered plays of Shakespeare offered by feedbooks.com.

All told, being able to find quality ebooks from other sources means that I really don’t need to connect to Barnes & Noble at all. And what I hear lately about ‘new and improved’ ADE software convinces me to keep the wifi turned off for good.

So, goodbye mother ship. I hope you survive, and even thrive, but don’t expect me to open a financial vein for you.

[Dr. Drib]

Tired 'N Grumpy's compilations are wonderful.

I thoroughly enjoy looking through those Jules Verne titles he's put together.

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by Calenorn

See, if B&N had provided a good experience for people looking for free books, then I never would have had a reason for climbing over the garden wall. It’s their own fault.

While I agree that B&N has been running their Nook business badly for years and to the detriment of e-book readership in general (yeah, still bitter about Fictionwise), I will point out that for years, they have hosted their official Free Fridays weekly blog feature, which continues to offer at least one decent-quality spotlighted free book, usually from a traditionally-established publisher, often with a comment and favourite reading recommendation by the featured author, and has now expanded to offering a weekly free app and TV episode.

This actually puts them above most of the other retailers*, who usually don't bother to spotlight any freebies at all beyond occasionally lumping them in to one giant megacategory if they even bother with a dedicated Free Books listing/filter at all instead of making you hunt through the slushpile or figure out the arcane advanced search terminology.

Aside from that, IMHO their implosion is pretty much a result of everything else they've been doing wrong, which outweighs this one thing they've been doing right.

* I'd say they're about par with iTunes, who in several countries do a Free Book/Music/App/TV show of the Week feature, minus the sporadic author commentary, and have also removed the easy ability to download DRM-free ePubs in a usable format for anyone who's ever opened the iBooks application on their Mac.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by Calenorn

Why, this site alone could keep me reading for years and years! Check out the finely crafted, fully illustrated versions of Jules Verne’s Extraordinary Voyages posted here by Tired 'N Grumpy. Visit the handy omnibus editions created and generously contributed by the folks here. If you’re reading this then you know what I mean.

Thanks for the compliment Calenorn. I created some of the omnibus books. It had irked me that mobipocket (owned by Amazon) had sold me omnibus editions of classic author's works (like Dickens and other PD authors) but that I couldn't then load them directly into my Kindle and read them. I'd bought the books from them and now couldn't just read them on my present ereader (I used my franklin ebookman back then) even though the maker of the one owned the other. So I figured I'd make some user friendly omnibus editions that were free of charge to boot. Score one for the little guy.

[Calenorn]

Originally Posted by crich70

I created some of the omnibus books.

You're very welcome, crich. You, and crutledge, and HarryT, and many others, you've all been so generous with your time and talent. You folks make this site a terrific place.

And the ability to craft something beautiful adds so much to the reading experience.

[crich70]

And of course one of the biggest contributors (if not the biggest) was Patrica Clark in whose memory the library is named.

[Nabeel]

Originally Posted by crich70

And of course one of the biggest contributors (if not the biggest) was Patrica Clark in whose memory the library is named.

Nice to see that Pat is still being remembered. It's four years now. She did enjoy contributing to MR.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Calenorn

A few years ago I chose a NOOK Simple Touch to try to do this. Everything about it was suited to the purpose. The epub format expanded the potential sources of books; the memory card slot expanded the storage capacity; the eink screen expanded the battery life. I admired the device so much that I bought a second as a back-up.

Pretty much sums it up for me. I still think the Nook Simple Touch is one of the most comfortable eReaders to use and hold. (Why is everyone obsessed with tiny bezels and no comfortable way to hold your device?)

Feedbooks may not have the biggest selection of Public Domain books, but their formatting is excellent.

[Calenorn]

Originally Posted by rcentros

Feedbooks may not have the biggest selection of Public Domain books, but their formatting is excellent.

Precisely! Everyone offers copies of the classics, why not choose the best formatted? Feedbooks values craftsmanship; I respect that.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by Calenorn

Precisely! Everyone offers copies of the classics, why not choose the best formatted? Feedbooks values craftsmanship; I respect that.

They also have some very nice covers on their PD books over there unlike the generic pic that Gutenberg slaps on their ebooks. That's one thing that the books here at MR also have of course. Traditionally the cover was the 1st thing a prospective reader saw and I can't understand putting such an ugly looking thing as what PG uses on as a cover.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by Nabeel

Nice to see that Pat is still being remembered. It's four years now. She did enjoy contributing to MR.

Has it really been that long already? How time does fly by. I remember when the topic of naming the library in her honor was 1st broached. It was just a short while after her passing as I recall. I didn't get the chance to know the lady myself. She wasn't on much I don't think near the end and it was around that time that I started being online I think.

[Dr. Drib]

Here's the link to our Library -

The Patricia Clark Memorial Library:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=132

[sakura-panda]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

While I agree that B&N has been running their Nook business badly for years and to the detriment of e-book readership in general (yeah, still bitter about Fictionwise), I will point out that for years, they have hosted their official Free Fridays weekly blog feature, which continues to offer at least one decent-quality spotlighted free book, usually from a traditionally-established publisher, often with a comment and favourite reading recommendation by the featured author, and has now expanded to offering a weekly free app and TV episode.

This actually puts them above most of the other retailers*, who usually don't bother to spotlight any freebies at all beyond occasionally lumping them in to one giant megacategory if they even bother with a dedicated Free Books listing/filter at all instead of making you hunt through the slushpile or figure out the arcane advanced search terminology.

Aside from that, IMHO their implosion is pretty much a result of everything else they've been doing wrong, which outweighs this one thing they've been doing right.

* I'd say they're about par with iTunes, who in several countries do a Free Book/Music/App/TV show of the Week feature, minus the sporadic author commentary, and have also removed the easy ability to download DRM-free ePubs in a usable format for anyone who's ever opened the iBooks application on their Mac.

I did not know about the Free Fridays and going through the past posts explains the random NOOK books that I have gotten when making other purchases at B&N. There never seemed to be any rhyme or reason to the books that were getting added to my account when I was making a purchase! (I assume that I can get them even without purchase; I just didn't know to ask.)

I thought I was signed up for all of their emails, but I don't get anything about the in-store NOOK promotions. (Like this and the 2 for 1 weekend NOOK deals.) I only find out about them from reading the deals forum here.

I always come to the MobileRead Patricia Clark Library first when I'm looking for a particular PD book to read. Most of the time, I have been able to find the book I want here, as well as other books by the same author, if I decide I want to read more. I find that the book being in the library here -- with comments by the person that posted it and others who post to those threads -- are a better recommendation that 500 random Goodreads reviews.

(I'm currently reading The Black Tulip by Alexander Dumas, which is not in the epub library. However, it is in all of the other formats, uploaded by Patricia. I wish I'd thought about Feedbooks; I would have downloaded a copy from there, but now that I am halfway through, I think I'll just keep going with the version I have from the Sony store. I will keep them in mind for the future though.)

[conan50]

God Bless all the folks here who provide nicely formatted ebooks. I've downloaded a number of them and they are superb.
Barnes & Noble just seem sad to me nowadays. I will not invest another dime in their ebooks. For public domain books the Moon+ Reader and an Android tablet works nicely. I do like the nook Simple Touch, perhaps the best ereading device they ever made or ever will make. I'll keep it around but have little faith in B&N future at this point. Even their brick and mortar stores seem to have books as an afterthought, with toys, dvds, cds, and other junk taking up the main floor.
I'm pretty much an Amazon and Android guy with Kindle books and epub pd books being my main source for reading. It's too bad that Google seems little interested in promoting and improving their book store and app or I would be leaning in that direction.