The Arena barges into Off Topic - a Nook vs Kindle smackdown

NottaSackville

NottaSackville

Valinor
Well, the Sackvilles are seriously gearing up to arm the entire family with some sort of e-reader, but the debate rages on - Nook or Kindle? For those of you with a preference, which do you prefer, and why? Or which do you hate and why?

I've had the Kindle app on my phone for quite some time, and like it a lot.

One common use method for us would be library books, which are now available on both platforms (though I'm unclear if the selection is the same). Interestingly, it looks like the lending period for e-Pub books (Nook) is 3 weeks, while the lending for Kindle books is 1 week. Maybe that will settle out once Kindle books have been available for longer (they just became available through libraries last week).

I'm open to input on other forms of e-readers such as netbooks or tablets, though we've personally already eliminated most of them due to cost (we're likely buying 4, so any additional cost/item adds up) or weight/size considerations.

What say you?

Notta
 
I do a lot of reading in the car (when someone else is driving, of course). That's why I got a Kindle in the first place: I had a the emulator on my netbook, but I couldn't read the screen in the car. I don't have much experience with the Nook, but I've heard that its screen is more reflective.
 
Since the screens work via reflection technology, more reflective could mean "easier to read", or it could mean "has more unintended reflections so is harder to read".

I'm assuming you meant the latter?

Notta
 
From what I've read, the Nook is more like a computer screen. The Kindle really feels like paper when you read it. So much so that when I've had a spot of mist collect on it, I've been surprised for an instant to see the spot still there when I "turn" the page; my mind thinks I'm reading a book with paper pages.
 
I am highly resistant to giving up books. I love books for their own sakes. I like looking at them in my bookcases. BUT . . . they are getting so expensive. On the other hand, I think authors deserve SOME payment for writing them. How much does an author get when someone purchases a real book, versus downloads one onto an e-reader? Anyone know? Lily?
 
I doubt there's much difference in author pay. It may even be more with e-books, since there's no overhead to speak of. I notice that the latest Terry Pratchett book, which I just preordered (in hardback) is $14 in hardback and $13 for the Kindle edition. I've been collecting some of the Pratchett books in electronic form, but my daughter is the Keeper of the Pratchett in our family and when a new one comes out I get a hard copy for her bookshelf.

I'm a bibliophile too, and I still buy real books from time to time. But my books fill my basement, and most of them are double-shelved, and I really am running out of room. The Kindle has made me see them a little differently. But I did recently buy a book almost entirely for the sake of the graphic design: Mysterious Messages. I enjoyed the content, but the yummy layout was the main reason I ordered it, after checking it out of the library.
 
The idea of instant gratification from my livingroom via a large selection of library books is what swung me over to the e-reader idea.

I'm very bad at getting to our local library and finding the next book I want. Plus, it has a fairly poor selection of Sci Fi/Fantasy books, so my risk/reward equation always points to "don't go". And somehow, waiting for interlibrary loan seems worse than waiting for Amazon free shipping - that probably says something bad about me.

For a specific book, cost for the reader doesn't seem to be much of a driving factor. As Aunt Dora points out, you pay about the same anyway - and in fact, once you consider used books, the e-book might be the more expensive option.

Notta
 
And I really like it.

I didn't know they'd finally sorted out the library thing. I'll have to look into that!

I have a friend who swears by her Nook, because it is color and does all these extra things, like games and online access and a bunch of other junk, but I just wanted a book reader, so I don't need all the bells and whistles. The high end Kindle might have all that extra stuff, too, but I didn't investigate that because I wasn't interested in it.

I also didn't spend the extra money for 3G (4G?) access, because I decided I could live with waiting until I get home to my wireless network to download stuff.
 
He really likes it. I'm thinking of getting one myself. We just removed a bookshelf in our house to make room for a kitchen remodel, so that made me think of going to the e-readers. We'll still buy "real" books, but only for super special titles.

If you end up buying a Kindle, get the one that doesn't have the ads. It costs a little more, but those ads are highly annoying and make me want to throw the thing across the room. They call it "Special Offers & Sponsored Screensavers". *barf*
(Or maybe get those for the kids, since they are about 25 bucks cheaper with the ads. [;)][evil])
 
Well, like with so many questions, the answer to how much an author gets from a paper book vs from an e-book is complex. But....

A paper book published via a publisher, as distinct from one the author publishes him/herself, will earn roughly 6-10% per copy, depending on whether it's a hardcover or paperback. Of course a publisher-published book will probably sell more copies, thanks to publicity, distribution, etc.

If the e-book is also published by a publisher, the royalties aren't much better, despite the expenses being much lower. (No paper. No shipping. No warehousing. There still needs to be an editing and cover-art process, though.)

However....

An e-book posted on Amazon or Smashwords or Barnes and Noble (Sony, Diesel, etc.) by the author him/herself can earn as much as 70% royalty. No middle-person. No accounting department.

The consensus is that e-book prices must be lower than paper book prices in order to sell well. Many of us who've posted electronic versions of our previously publisher-published books have made a point of setting the prices at $2.99-$3.99 or so. Some of us whose publishers still have the rights to handle their e-books are gnashing their teeth at the publishers' high prices, not least because readers often blame the authors for them.

I know authors who are now paying their mortgages from what they've made from self-publishing their backlist e-books! (I'm not, but I'm sure making more than I was when those books were out of print and unavailable.) Some authors who already have a reader-following can make a fortune from new books as well.

Need I add that authors and publishers are having loud arguments over e-book rights? Any author who has the rights to his/her own books is in much better shape than one whose publisher has kept the rights.

I hope this is sort of an answer for you.
 
My husband, who loves to read but is a bit of a technophobe, let me give him a Kindle for his birthday last week, pre-loaded (at his request) with complete works of Shakespeare, Dickens, L. M. Alcott, Jane Austen, and Rudyard Kipling, plus 6 issues of the Strand Magazine.

He specifically liked that Kindle was small, light, and simple, and didn't have capabilities he didn't want (color, games, 3G, etc.). So, my conclusion is that Kindle is the device of choice for someone specifically looking to read as opposed to wanting a multi-purpose device.

We were delighted to find a vast number of works (such as I listed above) are incredibly inexpensive. The Delphi Classics Editions are $2.99 each (complete works of many classic authors, including those I listed above and more). There are some similar "complete" editions that are even cheaper or free, but you have to be careful: the scanning software is error prone, and the quality of the book depends a lot on the level of individual effort that went into proofing and tweaking the result. The Delphi series does a particularly good job of this.
 
I think Gutenberg.org does a pretty good job with accuracy, too, but I haven't actually read all the titles I've downloaded from them yet.
 
It's all volunteer labor, and some volunteers are fussier than others. There are reviews of the individual products on Amazon, which are worth reading.
 
They only show up when the Kindle is sleeping, and as a small banner at the bottom of the menu page. They're not on the reading pages at all. I hardly ever notice them. But then I hardly ever notice ads in the newspaper or on the internet either.
 
I wish I could pay those prices, even with the NZ exchange rate. I bought an NZ paperback (large size) a fortnight ago, which was discounted down to $45 (from $50).

Thankfully a friend tumbled me to bookdepository.co.uk. If I want a book I'll check there first, as the prices are so ridiculously low.
 
I don't have either one and don't plan to right now :)

I'm getting old, I fear, when I'm thinking there's way too much technology trying to move in on me. Facebook, Netflix, Kindles, Ipods, Iphones, texting... so many things to contemplate when I'm already having trouble just keeping up with email and TORn :) I've almost got my cellphone figured out, and I still yell at the tv news shows that tease me with news items and then tell me to see the whole article on Facebook. *sigh*

Good luck on your ebook hunt! The people I know who use them really enjoy them immensely!! :D
 
It was marked as originally $25. I was going to wait and get it used, but at that price I went ahead and preordered it.

I've been buying his books for Kindle one at a time as I read them, at about 7 or 8 dollars each, for the older ones.
 
I have the basic version, and I haven't tried the Nook or Kindle, but I do know the screen size on a Kobo is comparable to a Kindle. The screen is non-reflective as well, so it's more like paper and easy on the eyes. You likely won't find much difference in weight or size of different companies' e-readers. They're all pretty lightweight (lighter than your average hardcover book.)

With the basic version, it's black and white, only accepts files for Kobo books or PDFs, and doesn't have a keyboard. The more complex versions can accept more of a variety of files, have keyboards, color, etc.

I'm quite happy with mine. I haven't yet purchased any new books yet, because it came preloaded with 100 books.

I think the choice really depends on where you want to buy your books. Do you want to buy them from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc? I think so many of the e-readers are so comparable these days, that in reality, what matters more is what company you prefer to order from, rather than the e-reader itself.

My suggestions are, no matter what reader you choose, make sure you purchase a carrying case. A friend of mine packed hers in her luggage without a protective case, and it broke. I have a hard leather carrying case for mine, and I also got an adhesive screen protector to prevent scrapes or other damage to the screen. Some of those screen protectors come with long-term guarantees.
 
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I'm like you in everything you said.

I watch my 13 year old GrandPatty using her I - touch, downloading stuff--movies, music etc. and I am incredulous. I know I'm more than a little behind the times.[unsure]
 
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