Book VS Nook

 This is my first review on a product so here it goes. If it is needed, I do not work for any of these companies nor receive payment of any sort. (I guess that makes it official now but if anyone wants to start paying me, I am alright with that).

I am a BIG book person. I find them everywhere. You can find me walking around at a “new” book store browsing through the books and magazines-just checking things out. I also love going to a used book store and finding treasures I have not read yet for half price or less. I can even spend hours at the library just wondering around. Yard sales are even better since I may pay .25 to .50 a book and discover a new author. Since I have many books, I need book shelves to hold them all and a few at that.

I love to read. A good book will take me places. As I read the words, I also see the characters interact, the cities they live in and the world or worlds they travel to. This is almost as good as going to the movies.

I enjoy opening a book for the first time, smell the paper and ink, feel the texture of the cover and the anticipation of starting this particular gem. I will read a favorite book a few times. I know I have memorized some of them.   On the other hand, I am not crazy about when they get older, the color of the paper changes a little, the font is too small-or shrinking on me in my old age and the worst thing is when the book starts to falls apart.

Books have been a big part of my life, until last Friday when I purchased a Nook Touch E-reader. I know, I know, an electronic gadget to read a book? Why would anyone want to do that? Well, let me tell you why. I usually do not read just 1 book at a time. I have had up to 4 or 5 going at once. That sometimes is hard to keep track of when the marker falls out and you forget what page you were on. Also, when going on vacation, I would need to pick only a few books I wanted to bring with me. They are a little heavy. Also the text on some of the books are a little small.

Well, I did research and between all the popular book readers: Kindle, Nook, Nook color, Kobo, Sony and one from Google that just came out. I have a membership to Consumer reports plus reading quite a few reviews on the net. The top 2 in consumer reports and most reviews that I have read were for the Kindle and the Nook. They both are great readers and compare closely.

The Nook Touch finally won out due to a long battery life (both Nook and Kindle have up to 60 days per charge-the Nook color was 8 hours). Also you could rent books from the library and put them on the Nook – the Kindle does not have this option yet but there is to be an update to their software at a later date. The Nook does offer WiFi but not 3G. I can also add my own PDF files on it to read. The font size on both can be adjusted since we all know how it shrinks when we age.

I have only had it for a few days but LOVE it so far. It is easy to navigate on and the touch screen is very nice. The thing I am loving the most on the Nook is I can be reading multiple books at one time and put them on a “book shelf” to keep track of them. When I open any book, it automatically goes back to the last page that I read so no more bent pages or lost book markers.

Presently I have around 50 books (both free and purchased) and even can download samples of books to try them out before I buy. The Nook weighs less a little more than a pound with the case I purchased and not much bigger than a paperback so super easy to take on a vacation and I don’t have to decide between which one I want to bring with me.

I have not totally given up on Books and magazines. I will still keep some and convert a few of my favorites to an electric copy and then start buying less of them. I still see them hanging around for future generations.

If you have not fallen asleep by now, let me know what your view on this is.