Tag Archives: nook

Review of the Nook e-reader from Barnes and Noble

Here’s a report on the Nook WIFI Jackie got for Christmas.

The start was a bit rocky. Apparently, a lot of people got Nooks for Christmas. Some of the stuff that we thought wasn’t working was due to the B&N Nook website being swamped. We thought we had some settings wrong or that there was a problem with her unit but it was just that their website wasn’t responding properly.

In fact, she went by a B&N store a few days after Christmas and the “pro” there remarked that everyone was having trouble because of the over burdened website.

Another reason for the rocky start is that, while the Nook handles “Overdrive” books and audio-books from the library, the setup is far from intuitive. My feeling is that, while the capability is there, B&N really wants people to BUY books from them and not borrow books from the library or download free books from Google books or the like.

I spent a lot of time digging through the FAQ on the library website and then found a really good Youtube on the topic. (Just do a search for youtube, Nook, Adobe Digital Editions). It’s not hard but it I don’t think anyone would ever figure it out without spending some time searching the internet.

Beyond that, when we decided to try an audio book from the library, we ended up having to use yet another program, Overdrive, to check out the book and transfer it to the Nook.

Happily, once Adobe Digital Editions is installed, it handles the free, public domain books as well as the books on loan from the library.

Buying a book from B&N is easy enough, although you do have to go online and establish an account with them, including putting a credit card on file. She’s bought one book that way, and it “showed up” on her Nook a few hours after the purchase (again, if not for a slow web server I think it would have gotten there almost instantly).

So, here’s the deal:

  1. Buying a book from B&N: done directly from the Nook, pretty easy once an account is set up.
  2. Borrowing a book from the library: has to be done via a computer running Adobe Digital Editions (Adobe account and library card required) and then transferred to the Nook
  3. Borrowing an audio book from the library: has to be done via a computer running Overdrive and then transferred to the Nook
  4. Getting a free, public domain book from Google Books, etc.: has to be done via a computer and then handled by Adobe Digital Editions for transfer to the Nook

Now, the other side of it. Jackie loves reading from the Nook. The screen is great and it’s easy to use. It also plays audio files, music or books. We’ve already bought her a cable that lets her plug it directly into her car’s sound system. She’s looking forward to using it on her daily commute.