We did it. We took the plunge. We have opted to boldly go where no one – except, perhaps, a few hundred thousand other brave souls – have gone before. We bought an electronic reader.
Welcome to the digital universe, “book style.”
Last month my wife and I purchased a Nook, the Barnes & Noble version of the increasingly popular e-reader that, if manufacturers and distributors can be believed, will revolutionize the way we acquire and read books. Not just new books, either. The Nook and its cousins, the Sony Reader and amazon.com’s Kindle (and maybe some others I haven’t heard of) have the capability of downloading and storing thousands of books in a little hand-held device that is light and relatively easy to store away.
nook™ by Barnes & Noble
www.BarnesandNoble.com/nook
Gone are the days when you needed a sturdy backpack to carry around your summer reading. The instructions that come with the Nook claim you can store 1,500 books on the device – and thousands more on a memory card that is easily inserted and removed. Our Nook is about the size of a large index card and less than an inch thick. It’s lovingly encased in a padded carrier (which costs extra) that flips over the top like a steno notebook, with a magnetic strap that allows you to stand it up like an easel. Other carriers open up just like books, so those who desire the “feel” of traditional reading can feel right at home.
So why buy one of these devices? Here’s the advantages I’m finding with our Nook (I presume other readers are similarly equipped):
• There’s a built-in gizmo (a term that reveals my technical expertise) that allows you to download books directly to the device.
• It’s remarkably easy to purchase that new best-seller once you set up an account with Barnes & Noble. (Again, I suspect amazon.com and other vendors make similar arrangements.)
• You’ve a wide array of choices, since millions of books come in electronic format now. So if you missed a Patricia Cornwell mystery published ten years ago, or if you want your very own copy of Pride and Prejudice ‘at hand,’ you can get it on the Nook almost instantaneously. Through www.books.google.com you can get what might be as many as a million titles, some free, others for only a buck or so.
• Maybe a secondary benefit: You won’t need to line your walls with bookshelves to store the thousands of volumes you just can’t bring yourself to part with.
• You’ll probably save money in the long run if you’re a frequent buyer of new books. For comparison: A hard-cover of David Baldacci’s fall 2009 True Blue retails for $28. You can order it at a discount from amazon.com for about $18. The e-book is only $9.99. After awhile, the savings should add up.
Lest you think I’m getting a commission for promoting these products, let me express two cautions:
• The e-reader is not a book. It provides the same texts that books do, but it does not have the heft and familiarity that those of us over forty (or fifty, or seventy) have come to cherish. I’m not sure how the aesthetic experience will be when I “curl up with a good Nook.”
• These things can be pricy. We spent nearly $400 for the device and the ‘must-have’ accessories my wife identified in her extensive research. Recently I saw a Sony e-reader in a big-box retail store on sale for $400 – and that was the basic price.
SONY Reader Official Site
www.SonyStyle.com
Kindle™ - Official Site
www.Amazon.com/Kindle
But while I’m not shilling for the industry, I don’t think “this e-reader thing” is a fad. The ease with which you can get the books you want will far outweigh the loss of familiarity we now have with handling printed books. What’s more, the generation now going through our K-12 system will find e-books “normal” when they’re adults. So if you’re adventuresome – or if you just hate toting around a sack full of weighty tomes – you might check out this new way of enjoying your favorite authors. “Happy reading!” … or is it “Beam me up, Scotty” …
Want to know more?
Kindle vs. Nook – read what Business Week has to say about both devices.