Why I'm Keeping My Nook (and some author pimpage)
So, I've made the decision to keep the Nook. After reading an e-ARC on it with tremendous success and using it for Substrate (with bookmarks, since I hadn't figured out the notation function yet--I'll get to that), I was pretty well determined to keep it. In the last week, I discovered that the secret to making notations on side-loaded content (content not purchased/gotten from B&N) is to have them as ePub files instead of PDFs. Ah ha! What can you convert to an ePub? Word docs, PDFs, etc., etc. What program do you use to do so? The much raved-about Calibre e-book manager.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have a solution to my complaints.
Now, would I have liked to have an e-book reader that just magically had all the functionality I'd desired? Well, sure -- who wouldn't? But since it sounds like a lot of folks are using Calibre to make their e-readers work the way they want them to (including Sony Readers, though I'm not sure about Kindle, since Kindle doesn't use ePubs), apparently Calibre was designed to make machines that didn't have that magical functionality suddenly work better. I'm pretty excited.
Now, that said, a quick comparison: I got copies of Rachel Vincent's (rkvincent) My Soul to Lose novella from two different places when it was being offered for free as a teaser into her YA series, "Soul Screamers." One came from B&N itself in the B&N format. One came in PDF. I thought I'd look at both on my nook and compare. In short, the B&N version is much prettier, though it has a much smaller cover image when you open it. The PDF version has the same page break issues I described earlier -- they're easy enough to read around, but the B&N format fills the whole screen, so each "page turn" is a new full-screen image. I can change the font in the B&N version (two font options, five size options). The B&N version then shows me how many "pages" (as in, full screens) I have until the end of the document. In my experimenting, this could vary between 114 and 130 pages. None of the pages were numbered uniquely, the way they are in a print book or a pdf. The pdf edition might take me two clicks to get through a page, but it does have both the Nook page count at the bottom (87 pages, with two turns keeping me on the same page) and the pdf/print page count at the top of each unique print page. This doesn't matter so much to me for reading-for-fun type books, but if I were using a book for a class? I'd probably make sure I downloaded, then side-loaded, a pdf version through an alternate e-book source so I'd be citing the same pages as everyone else. For the pretty factor, though, the B&N edition wins -- it's easier to adapt, and each page turn works as a unique page in the reading experience, even if it doesn't correspond to print.
At any rate, there's my long review. If I end up having more to say later, I'll mention it!
On a tangent, did anyone else see the iPad reviews today? Was anyone else shocked that they're not using e-ink for their e-book reader function? Maybe that's impossible if you also want to use the display for other things... but to me, the e-ink display is what makes e-readers superior to reading on a computer. I was pretty darn surprised that Apple hadn't embraced it.
And now, for some author pimpage. You guys know mdhenry, right? The guy who writes the Amanda Feral (aka Sex in the City + Zombies) novels? His third book is coming out in February, and in part due to the recession (and possibly in part due to the success of similar campaigns for network TV shows), he's sponsoring a "Save Amanda Feral" campaign. Click the banner below to find out more!
Ladies and gentlemen, we have a solution to my complaints.
Now, would I have liked to have an e-book reader that just magically had all the functionality I'd desired? Well, sure -- who wouldn't? But since it sounds like a lot of folks are using Calibre to make their e-readers work the way they want them to (including Sony Readers, though I'm not sure about Kindle, since Kindle doesn't use ePubs), apparently Calibre was designed to make machines that didn't have that magical functionality suddenly work better. I'm pretty excited.
Now, that said, a quick comparison: I got copies of Rachel Vincent's (rkvincent) My Soul to Lose novella from two different places when it was being offered for free as a teaser into her YA series, "Soul Screamers." One came from B&N itself in the B&N format. One came in PDF. I thought I'd look at both on my nook and compare. In short, the B&N version is much prettier, though it has a much smaller cover image when you open it. The PDF version has the same page break issues I described earlier -- they're easy enough to read around, but the B&N format fills the whole screen, so each "page turn" is a new full-screen image. I can change the font in the B&N version (two font options, five size options). The B&N version then shows me how many "pages" (as in, full screens) I have until the end of the document. In my experimenting, this could vary between 114 and 130 pages. None of the pages were numbered uniquely, the way they are in a print book or a pdf. The pdf edition might take me two clicks to get through a page, but it does have both the Nook page count at the bottom (87 pages, with two turns keeping me on the same page) and the pdf/print page count at the top of each unique print page. This doesn't matter so much to me for reading-for-fun type books, but if I were using a book for a class? I'd probably make sure I downloaded, then side-loaded, a pdf version through an alternate e-book source so I'd be citing the same pages as everyone else. For the pretty factor, though, the B&N edition wins -- it's easier to adapt, and each page turn works as a unique page in the reading experience, even if it doesn't correspond to print.
At any rate, there's my long review. If I end up having more to say later, I'll mention it!
On a tangent, did anyone else see the iPad reviews today? Was anyone else shocked that they're not using e-ink for their e-book reader function? Maybe that's impossible if you also want to use the display for other things... but to me, the e-ink display is what makes e-readers superior to reading on a computer. I was pretty darn surprised that Apple hadn't embraced it.
And now, for some author pimpage. You guys know mdhenry, right? The guy who writes the Amanda Feral (aka Sex in the City + Zombies) novels? His third book is coming out in February, and in part due to the recession (and possibly in part due to the success of similar campaigns for network TV shows), he's sponsoring a "Save Amanda Feral" campaign. Click the banner below to find out more!