Wena’s Thoughts On The nook.

When word first got out about Barnes and Noble coming out with their own eBook reader, I was mighty curious because I’m a B&N whore. I live in Torrance, California and if you live in Torrance then you guys know about the Barnes and Noble that’s just a few years old at the Del Amo Mall.

It’s such a pretty bookstore and my cousin works there so if me and my friends are heading to the bookstore, odds are…we’re hitting up B&N at Del Amo.

Isn’t it purty? I love that place. Their romance section is one giant wall filled with the latest and greatest in the romance world and every time I go there, it takes me to my happy place. I’ve noticed in the last couple of months (well mostly since B&N announced that they were launching the nook) all of the nook stuff available in my store. It’s pretty neat. They have book covers with prices that range from $20-$200. The more expensive covers are total name brands from the likes of Kate Spade (wow) and Jack Spade. All beautiful but nothing I would ever purchase. My bank account laughs at me for lusting after those anyway.

After I found out about the release of the nook on Twitter, I plied my cousin with every single question I could think of about the new device. Has she played with a nook yet? Where the heck did the name “nook” come from and who in the world thought that would be cool? Is the entire thing in color? Will we be able to buy eBooks from anywhere and still read them on the nook? How many different formats will be compatible with the nook? How many people can register with a nook? You name it, I probably asked her and when we got the nook for review here on the blog…I called up my cousin again and plied her with yet many more questions.

I will say this, there hasn’t been a B&N employee that I’ve come in contact with who didn’t know their way around a nook. My cousin said that they had to attend a mandatory training and that training definitely came in handy.

As for the nook itself, it’s a beauty.

The packaging is very pretty. I had a bit of trouble trying to get it out of the packaging because it was stuck in there good but that didn’t take away from my excitement. I was at work when the package arrived so as much as I wanted to play with it, I couldn’t so I had to wait until I got home.

When I re-opened it again at home, my sisters were surrounding me and they oohed and ahhed right alongside me. I took the quick little nook tour that is already downloaded to the nook and just played with it for a while. I browsed through the wireless store, I played with the settings and really, I had a blast while discovering the little things that I heard Holly and Casee talk about on their reviews here and here. I don’t have a Kindle to compare the nook to so my opinion is strictly focused on the nook and its features.

Now before I get on with my review of this lovely device, I need to tell you guys that I’m not the most savvy of persons with electronics. I love them but talking about specs and all that other stuff, well, let’s just say that you won’t find much of that here. Mostly, I’m going to try not to squee in delight over every little thing.

What I like:

• Connecting instantly to the bookstore, wirelessly. I’m not much of a traveler, I tend to stick close to home and I’m fortunate that connecting online from pretty much anywhere local is easy. It was very easy for me to sit in McDonald’s the other day and browse B&N wirelessly and buy a couple of books while eating my lunch with the kids running around. I love this feature because with my eBookwise, I had to have my cord and I had to download the eBookwise Librarian and then convert the files to whatever format was compatible with the ebookwise device. It could be a pain in the ass but with the nook, it’s easy and very user friendly as well.
• The look, the touch, the feel…the fabric of our, haha..just kidding. I love the look and the feel of the nook. It’s not heavy, it’s easy to hold in my hands and there’s arrows on both sides of the nook to turn the pages. My niece is a lefty and she complains a lot about how she has to adjust herself to everything because everything is made for right handed people. I appreciated that this device was made easy for both right handed and left handed people, woot!
• The covers on the touch screen panel. I’m a cover snob, it’s true so it came as no surprise to me that I absolutely adore being able to see the covers in COLOR on an ebook reading device.
• The Lend Me Feature. I love that you can lend eBooks to your friends without being tarred and feathered for it. I think this is a step in the right direction for eBooks and I was really glad that I could buy a book (that my sister forced me to buy) and then loan it to her so that she can read it on her iTouch.
• The eInk. I really like the whole E-ink deal. I love that when I’m eating my lunch outside at work that my eyes don’t have to adjust to the reading device. Though I miss the back lit of the eBookwise for reading at night time, I can easily get used to the eInk business.

What I Don’t Like:

• The page turn flicker. Every time you turn a page, there’s a very distinct flicker. I don’t necessarily like it as at first it was quite distracting but I don’t actually hate it either. I got used to it after a while but when others ask to see the nook, it’s very noticeable and the first thing everyone comments on.
• The not being able to tag thing. One of my favorite things about the eBookwise was the ability to tag my books by genre (Contemporary, Historical, Paranormal, etc.). I was able to separate my books by genre and I really loved that. I loved that all of my contemporaries were bunched together and all of my YA books and my historicals and so on and so forth. That way, I can browse through titles by what I was in the mood for. I loved having them all separated that way but I can’t do that with the nook and it’s something that I hope gets fixed.
• Freezing. In the couple of weeks that I’ve been playing with this thing, it froze up a total of 6 times. I’m not sure what happened each time that it froze up on me but it did and I was annoyed because once, I was actually reading a book and then bam! Freeze.

Overall, I absolutely adore the nook. I think it’s great and I couldn’t be any happier with it. It’s the perfect eBook reader for me. There are more things that I like about the nook than things that I don’t like and I would totally recommend this device to every reader out there, well if you’re in the United States. It’s a great eBook reading device and seriously, it rocks my socks!

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