Nook lovers: what is your reason for choosing the Nook over the Kindle?

[Asawi]

Originally Posted by avid01

Thanks for your additional info. As the Nook is not supported internationally, I have to stick with Kindle, but your insights are interesting.

I'm in Sweden. I have a Nook. Many of my friends have Nooks. We can't buy book from BN, but none of us miss that at all.

[JeremyZ]

I have a Kindle 2. Was ready for another reader, as I accidentally left my K2 in China with my girlfriend, and since the battery was dying anyway, I didn't ask her to ship it back to me.

I was thinking of a Kindle Paperwhite; liked the small size and light. But then I remembered my K2 was kind of hard to hold onto, because it was so slick. (like iPhones without a case)

I went into B&N and checked out the nook SimpleTouch. Feels much better in the hand than a K2 or K3. Has a bit of friction and a nice curve to it. I decided in the end that the light was not worth another $40 to me, so I went with the basic one.

I also like the idea of supporting my local bookstore, as I don't want to see books become an online commodity only. I like having them around, like having the choice of browsing and buying paper books too.

I went in there the other day, and the nook recognizes when I'm in a B&N. Offers me free articles/books to read, free reading of ebooks for an hour while in-store.

If you're outside the US and don't want to root the device, I guess I can see why Kindle might be a better choice for you.

I did have a big hassle getting my credit card linked to my B&N account last week. The links to do it didn't work. I chatted with someone through the website, and they were 100% useless. Finally, I got someone on the phone who helped me fix it up. I had to get in through the back door link, and all was well.

Amazon sure made their syncing with the website a lot more seamless. Their Paperwhite is smaller, but has the same size screen, I think, so it is more pocketable, but this nook SimpleTouch is small enough to be very handy.

I haven't decided if I'm going to root my nook. I don't want it to become unreliable, or require a lot of tinkering to get it to work right.

You know, the thing they should do is make the batteries replacable, so the device doesn't become junk when the battery life comes to an end. As it is, we pay slightly more than paperback prices for new books, plus the cost of the device, which we can plan on replacing every few years. So we're not saving any money; only space.

Well, enjoy your Kindle. It's not a bad choice.

[janjanjan]

I get 90% of my reading material from the library. Even though many library books are now available in Kindle format, I still find about 10% of what I want to read available in either Adobe epub or open epub. I'm sure there is a way to convert the format, but this is simple and I never lack for books to read.

Similar reason that I still use a Sansa Clip Zip for audiobooks. However, here the story is even stronger--at least 30% of the books that I select are only available in the WMA format which is only supported by downloading to the PC and sideloading to a non-iPod device. WMA is also a more efficient format, typically using about 60% of the KB that are used when downloading an MP3 format download. Since we travel about 4 months a year, we often have access to a 1MB or slower download capability.

[Gazella]

Originally Posted by Asawi

I'm in Sweden. I have a Nook. Many of my friends have Nooks. We can't buy book from BN, but none of us miss that at all.

So the Nook works internationally?? I thought and I recall reading somewhere that when you turn on a brand new Nook, you're forced to register the device by providing a US credit card along with a US address and that you can't use the device until this step is done.

How do you buy your ebooks and sync them to your Nook?

[pwnn]

Originally Posted by Gazella

So the Nook works internationally?? I thought and I recall reading somewhere that when you turn on a brand new Nook, you're forced to register the device by providing a US credit card along with a US address and that you can't use the device until this step is done.

How do you buy your ebooks and sync them to your Nook?

You only need to provide an e-mail address (need not even be valid) to Register your Nook. If you want to buy from B&N then that's when you need to provide a US Credit Card and address. (or UK for the UK store)

You can buy or borrow epubs or pdfs from other sources, DRM Free or Adobe DRM and side load them via the usb cord. Just drag and drop or use Calibre.

Regarding the original question. I bought my first Nook (1st Edition) for Library access , Lending, In Store Reading, ability to buy DRM epub from other stores, and it had the least onerous DRM that required no outside activation or connection to work. (just CC# and Name) It was also cuter but that was a bonus.

When I bought the Touch, Kindle then also had the first two features but not the rest. The Touch also had expandable memory, the ability to make and read folders, and the ergonomics were great. It feels great in my hand and also gave the option of side buttons as well as touch.

[spedinfargo]

Physical page turn buttons on Nook is the big one for me. For some reason Kindle has abandoned this in their newer models.

I do wish that BN would come out with a higher DPI screen like the paperwhite one of these days...

[domani7]

I am certainly a Nook lover. It's a physical thing. Ha. Really it is. I just like holding it and reading on it, it's super comfortable to hold in one hand and change pages by pressing the physical buttons.

Unfortunately Nook's major weakness is that it doesn't communicate with Calibre and organizing books into bookshelves on the Nook is extremely frustrating and takes w long time. However, I have come to the conclusion that I'd rather hate my reader a whole lot for an hour or so while I do the sheves and then love it the rest of the time rather than dislike it every time I'm reading on it because it's not perfect physically.

[Marcy]

Epubs. External SD card.

My library is approaching 4000 books. I am not converting these all to mobi.

Since I like to have my entire library on my reader, an external SD card is a necessity. Plus, if something goes wrong with my reader and I need to replace it, I only have to pop out the SD card, put it in the new reader, and all my books are already there. Sending that many books to your reader takes a very long time. It took me months to get my library on this SD card, granted in smaller chunks of time, not at all day sittings or anything.

The one thing I really want in a reader is the organization system that was on my old Sonys. Being able to sort my books by series and tags was the best ever. I can't believe any of the other big companies don't support this spiffy feature.

[vugtitan]

Originally Posted by bobcdy

I

As for interface, I don't like it for the unrooted Nook. -can't organize epubs according to a folder system.

are you serious?

my nook glow using the my files menu shows folders and folders within folders too.just like a pc.

[Rich_D]

Originally I had a large number of ebooks in the pdb (Palm) format and the First Gen nook supported it. I also liked the expandable memory and hated the keyboard on the first Kindle. I've stuck with nook because I like the reader. Should the nook brand go under, I'll probably switch to Kobo, just to stick with epub.

[Mex5150]

Originally Posted by avid01

I want to hear about your opinions on why the Nook is more compelling to you?

For me it was the £30 deals that were doing the rounds a little while ago that got the idea in my head. Every comparison between the Nook Simple and Kindle I read put the Nook first in every category (with a couple of exceptions on the number of books available category).

I'm particularly interested in your insights on the user interface differences between the Kindle and the Nook. Which do you like better and why?

I can't say much about the UI, because I only used it for an hour or so before rooting. I have a large SD where I keep a synced copy of my Calibre library (same as my phone, so I can jump between them), that usually gets used in conjunction with Moon+ reader (although the default Nook reader is still there, and the Kindle software is installed too if needed). Having recently had a play with my Mothers Kindle Reader to compare, I did not find a single area where I preferred the Kindle.

I have just bought my wife (who is an avid reader, but dislikes technology) a Nook Simple too, and rooted it for her. Her setup is much simpler than mine, and she absolutely loves it.

[aagstn]

Originally Posted by Rich_D

Originally I had a large number of ebooks in the pdb (Palm) format and the First Gen nook supported it. I also liked the expandable memory and hated the keyboard on the first Kindle. I've stuck with nook because I like the reader. Should the nook brand go under, I'll probably switch to Kobo, just to stick with epub.

This was also my reason for owning the original nook. Now my books are all ePub so owning a Kindle will never be an option.

[sweetcream]

Originally Posted by Mex5150

For me it was the £30 deals that were doing the rounds a little while ago that got the idea in my head. Every comparison between the Nook Simple and Kindle I read put the Nook first in every category (with a couple of exceptions on the number of books available category).

Price was also my main ammunition although I agree technically I cant see the Kindle being greater than it. I don't have any problems like other users with organisation since I like doing my own organising to be honest (actually hate that Calibre dosen't let you choose how to organise)

Also I dont understand why everyone thinks converting all their old books into one format is really complicated?! Just plonk it all into calibre and select convert. Leave it overnight if need be. That's hardly alot of "work" involved...

For most mainstream users who are not good with the PC, I can see how they would prefer the Kindle since the library is also bigger and they just want to be able to buy and read with no other messing around.

[megthered]

I started out with a Nook first edition, then went to the Nook Color. That went to my son when I bought a Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1. That is my dream tablet but it is difficult to hold and read, it gets really heavy after a while. So my husband gave me his Nook ST when he got a Galaxy Tablet. I really like it, but I wish it was the Glow, to read at night. Long story even longer, I bought a Nook HD for my birthday and really like it. It's small enough to read for long periods of time and the screen is amazing. I have watched some movies and they are beautiful. I put the N2A card in so I have a duel system, but the nook side is great. I got it for $129 and think I got a great deal.

[bill_mchale]

The combination of page turn buttons and touch screen interface makes the Nook really nice in my opinion. On the kindle you have to choose between the basic reader with just buttons or the paper white with just a touch screen.

Personally I find the Nook DRM to be a little friendlier.. though neither is hard to deal with as long as you stay with in their designed eco-systems.