I’ve finally turned my husband into a digital reader. If you know my husband, you’d know this is a feat worthy of a ceremony with a shiny gold medal and the national anthem playing in the background. Or, at the very least, a cookie.
My husband is a little technology-challenged. He has master electrical, universal HVAC and gasfitter licenses, so he’s no dummy, but email? Forget it. To put it into perspective, there has been a Windows PC in our house for about eight years and CTRL-ALT-DEL escapes him. If there’s an email to be sent, I send it. Of course, if I have a 4.6 pound chunk of meat that has to cook for 20 minutes per pound, he has to tell me how long to cook it, so it all evens out.
First up was the iPod Touch. He refuses to even look at it. If I want to show him something, like a funny ICHC picture, he has to hold it and turn it and squint at it until he can see it. The idea of reading a book on it didn’t go over well.
Then came the Sony Reader 505. I actually got him to read a short horror story on it and he didn’t mind it too much. I probably could have converted him then, but I backed off. Why? At the time, our library wasn’t doing digital library books yet. And while my iPod Touch and I scour the ebookstores, finding bargains and rebates and best prices and whatnot on my fairly inexpensive reading choices, he reads big, hardcover thrillers. The new Reacher. The new Davenport. Etcetera. Given a choice between checking those hardcovers out of the library or buying them for the Sony, I chose not to push the digital reading.
Enter…the nook.
I enjoyed the nook for several months, but more and more often found myself reaching for the iPod Touch again. Then I started buying books for the iPod again. And the nook more and more often sat on the shelf. But if you don’t use and charge the nook regularly, I’ve heard the battery goes to crap pretty quickly. I thought about selling it. Waffled back and forth. And then the nook price drop came. I bought mine in February for $260. The new ones now are $199 and $149. I’d have to take a bath on it.
So I baited the nook with a digital library copy of the new Reacher novel and dangled it in front of my husband. He bit. Read it faster than I’ve ever seen him read a book. When he was done, I waved the 2-ton hardcover copy of Stephen King’s Under the Dome at him, then told him there was a digital copy on the nook. (I have the hardcover plus two different digital formats. They certainly got their money out of me on that book.) He’s been reading every day on the nook and he’s almost done with it.
So my fifty-four year old technophobic husband is now a happy nook user.
Of course, I handed it to him with the book open to the first page. And if he nods off and accidentally activates the touch screen and messes it up, he bellows. Shannon, I lost my damn book again!
But it’s a start! And bonus: now when I look at reading gadgets and he points out I already have a nook, I can explain that he has a nook. Not me. 
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Since I just got a nook, I’m wondering why you went back to reading on the iTouch. I like my nook but I don’t love it and it’s not too late to return it….
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I’d already been reading on my iPod for about 14 months (and I was exclusively digital, no paper) when I got the nook and I think, in the end, the iPod was too much of a habit to give up.
It’s always at hand. It’s backlit. It’s small enough for a coat pocket or my purse. (I don’t carry a big purse.) The nook’s just big enough so it’s not really portable for me. I didn’t have it in waiting rooms or school pickup lines or restaurants, but I always have my iPod.
And during the winter, when I was snuggled on the couch, the nook was fine, light-wise. But I realized the first time we went to camp and it started getting twilight-y and I couldn’t read anymore, that wasn’t going to cut it. And bringing the nook and the cord and a separate light to camp instead of slipping my iPod in my purse didn’t really appeal to me.
I spend more time reading in bad lighting than in good lighting. And since I never sit out in the sun or go to the beach, the fact you can’t see the iPod’s screen in the sun doesn’t bother me.
When I go sit out on the porch to take a break, on the iPod I can do a quick check of Twitter and email, then read. With the nook I had to take two devices or else I’d forget to bring the nook out and after checking Twitter and email, I’d play Word Warp.
Kindle’s cheap and easy. The Calibre & Stanza relationship is awesome. I’ve got a B&N app and a Kobo app (I don’t really use) and now a (fairly useless) Borders app.
I like the nook’s e-ink screen and it was nice while reading a book like the last Gabaldon. And it’s a really nice device. But I love my little backlit, one-handed, fits in my pocket device.
Why don’t you love your nook?
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I’m not sure why I don’t love it. Like you, I’ve been reading on my iPhone and like the versatility and portability. The back light bothers my eyes after awhile, though, so I thought the e-ink would solve that, and it does. I guess it feels a little redundant, since I have most of the apps you mention on my phone. Also, it’s harder to find the books on the nook than on the phone.
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If Barnes & Noble ever got off their asses and did the nook/BN app last-page-read sync like they claimed they were (and like the Kindle and Kindle app do) it would have been a different ballgame. But they haven’t.
Even then I’m not sure I would have stayed with it because the cool nook features only work with the B&N library bought from them, not books sideloaded to the Documents folder and I bought very few directly from B&N.
I know one thing you want to use it for, though, is library books and (right now) you can’t do that on the iPod. (There are rumors Overdrive’s coming out with an app, but I don’t know if that will mean library books or just ability to read books from places they power, like eHqn.) If they’ve got a good selection and you think you’ll use it a lot, the nook might pay for itself in library books.
Which iPhone reading app do you use the most?
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I used eReader the most because I bought a TON of books from Fictionwise. And it looked decent on the phone. Stanza never worked right for me, and I can read those .pdfs a lot better on the nook. And I’m SPOILED by the ability to just send them to the phone instead of having to connect the device.
I was disappointed that the sideloaded documents weren’t as cool, too. I’ve bought maybe 10 from B&N.
The app I found for Overdrive is just to reserve the books, not read them.
But now I can start getting books from eHQ, right?
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“And bonus: now when I look at reading gadgets and he points out I already have a nook, I can explain that he has a nook. Not me. “
This made me chuckle. (grin)
Good that you got hubby hooked on the nook. My sis is also tech challenged. I lent her my reader (I have a Sony which I love) last year when she was visiting to read some books only in ebook. She enjoyed it. Now this year on her visit she’s been eyeing my reader a lot. She even asked me how much a reader cost and how she would get books for it. I explained it to her and she actually seemed very interested.
Hmmm… looks like I know what to get her for her b-day or Christmas.
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MJ, I’ve always hated PDFs, so I’ve never tried to read those on the iPod. But I do know they render a LOT better on the e-ink devices. Plus, you can read library books. AND, yes, you can read Adobe ePub directly from eHarlequin.
Taige, none of my siblings have ever bought me gadgets for my birthday! Must be nice.
To be honest, my husband is tech-challenged to the point he wouldn’t read digitally if he had to do it. I’m here putting the books on it and all that. If your sister isn’t going to get into sideloading books via the USB from multiple bookstores or the library, I’d get her a refurbished Kindle (can’t beat that price).
I think when it comes to turning it on, buying a book and reading it with no tech-issues, Kindle’s a sure thing.