Tag Archives: books

Nook, an E-Reader

I have a Nook.


Standard Nook picture from the website.

My Nook with the Cityscape screensaver activated.  The touchscreen is behind my hand (sorry for the bad pic).

I refuse to call it a “Nook E-book Reader” (say it out loud fast for the effect).

It’s a great device.  It has a nice, large e-ink screen with a touch screen below it for navigating around the menus.

I’ll do a rundown of my likes and dislikes like I do with most of my other reviews…

Likes:

  • Dead simple to work with. The navigation is easy, the touchscreen just works (sometimes a hair slowly) and it’s a beautiful piece of tech.
  • Additional storage via SD card behind the back panel.  I can’t stress how awesome this is.  It basically allows for unlimited storage of ebooks, PDFs and music.
  • Speaking of music, the Nook has a built-in music player.  I haven’t tested it; I have a 8gb Walkman that I prefer to use for music.
  • The B&N store.  There are a ton of books to choose from.  I like browsing around.  I’ve only bought one book (The Chicago Way by Michael Harvey).  Granted, I use “bought” very loosely, as it was only $1.99.
  • The e-ink screen is super clear.  It’s really a joy to read stuff on this device; much easier than my laptop or netbook.  My eyes don’t get tired reading on this like they can on a computer.
  • It runs on the Android platform.  This means that it’s hackable.
  • The ability to side-load books.  I’ve been getting classics that I’ve been meaning to read forever and just haven’t.  Project Gutenberg, Manybooks, Baen Scifi and fantasy books, The Burgomeister’s Books, Fictionwise, and ePub Books are available in non-DRM ePUB/PDB format.  Many of the books available are also in Google’s repository of free, out-of-copyright books.  There will be overlap on all of these sites; browse around and see what you find.
  • Linux compatability.  It’s all drag n drop and stuff shows up right away.  It is awesome.
  • Free Fridays! Free ebooks on Fridays.  Mostly romance, but I’ve found a couple decent books this way.

Dislikes:

  • DRM.  The B&N store has mostly DRMed books.  I can see why, but I’d rather have a non-DRMed version.
  • The e-ink screen is a little slow, especially catching up to the touchscreen.  This is fine; e-ink is an awesome tech and so easy to read, I’ll deal with the slower refresh.
  • No inexpensive cases/covers available yet.  I didn’t see any in my local store, and there were none under $20 in the B&N online store.  I’d rather purchase from a brick and mortar store.  We have to support the actual shops that carry the merchandise.
  • A hair on the heavy side, but it’s much better than holding onto a huge hardcover book that can be very heavy.
  • Like any new tech toy, the buttons are stiff for the first few days. They’ve loosened up after a week of use.
  • No ability to add RSS feeds.  When you boot your Nook up, you’ll have a choice to go to “The Daily” and get the blogs that B&N provides.  I’d love to put blogs of my choice in there.  I’d probably add some of my techy full-article feeds to the nook.  I do like getting away from the computer every once in a while.

The Nook has some issues that may be taken care of with new releases of the software, mainly the e-ink speed and the adding of RSS feeds.  The button issue has taken care of itself, as has the cover issue.  My mother made me a very nice pouch for my Nook that protects the screen.  I can put it in my purse without worrying that my screen will get scratched.

This is a great product that can be improved with software updates.  I’m running the 1.2 version of the software, and it’s very robust right now.  I’d really like to see RSS feeds supported soon.

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E-Readers

I’ve been looking at e-readers for e-books.

I have a bunch of e-books that I’ve gotten off of Project Gutenberg and I’m not reading them.  Why?  Because reading on a computer screen is a pain in the butt for too long.

Yes, I know, I spend WAY too much time in front of the screen but I’d like to get away from the computer every once in awhile and opt for an e-ink screen.  I still read traditional books (I’m still in the middle of one I started awhile ago) and I love love love magazines.  I’d sub to more magazines if I could get them in digital form, I think, because, what the heck do you do with the mag when you’re done with it?

Anyway, I think this would be a neat thing to try out.

I’ve looked at the Kindle, the Sony e-readers, the Nook by Barnes and Noble, and a couple others made by other manufacturers.

The Kindle looks sweet.  I don’t know if I’m cool with the keyboard on the front of it.  It looks like a very nice gadget, but I can’t play with it or look at it before I buy.  And a picture on Amazon doesn’t count.

The Sony e-reader is massively expensive for the one I’d want (about $50 more than the Kindle or Nook).  The one that’s in my price range ($200) is much smaller than the Nook or Kindle, and has fewer features.

The other brands seemed very expensive with fewer options.

This brings me to the Nook.  There were a few bad reviews of this device saying it was slow, and that it had some quirks.  What really sells this reader to me is that I can play with it in the store (I did this the other day), that it has wifi and 3G connectivity, that it works automatically with Barnes and Noble (my local book chain), and that it will work with the books I’ve downloaded.  I’m hoping that there will be some new reviews up soon with the updates in the software.  There’s supposed to be PDF support; this is important to me because I have some magazines (Linux Journal and BSD Magazine) that I’d like to read on this device; they are in PDF format.

I’m thinking that I’d actually read more with this thing.  We’ll see if I actually get it.  It’s *only* $259.  I have a good selection of books to read on it, and I can stick it in my purse/bag to read when I’m out.  This would come in VERY handy when I go to Indianapolis in June; I’d have something to read when I’m waiting for people and other things.

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Writing, Podcasts, iTunes, and Music

Writing:

I need to get writing.  I need to actually complete my fanfic that I started a year ago.  I’ve still got that L/H one out there that is sitting with Lynley and Havers going to Heathrow to pick up some FBI agents.  *sigh*  Gotta get on that.

I’ve got a NCIS fic that I’m also trying to complete.  Writing for NCIS is not the easiest.  I thought I knew the characters well enough, but It’s not easy at all.  I’m trying to get Ziva and Tony together, but I don’t really know how to do it.

That’s where I’m at on writing.  I’ll try to get those done in the next month or so…  I really want to get them posted so people can read and critique them.

Podcasts:

I’ve found a couple of podcasts that I want to keep up on:  Car Talk, Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, and World Cafe.  I’d like to find the one for Women in Music, but that seems to be almost impossible.

iTunes:

New obsession.  iTunes is awesome!  It’s easy to use and easy to rip music with.  I’m particularly happy with the quality of the music it rips.

Music:

I’m on the second crate.  Damn.  It takes forever to rip.  I’m on the “F’s” now… Fountains of Wayne.

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Now Reading

I’m now reading You, Inc.  It’s about selling yourself.

From what I gather, it’s reiterating what I’ve heard and read about in the past:

  • Listen to what people say
  • Show up on time for meetings
  • Be short and sweet in your speeches (includes interview stories)
  • Treat people with respect
  • Be polite
  • Master one skill well (even if you have a large skill set)
  • Use body language properly
  • Set goals to learn about yourself and others
  • Motivate people with your speaking
  • Moderate your speech to match your audience (especially important in interviews)
  • Believe what you’re selling
  • Do what you love
  • Etc.

I’m glad I got the book from the library.  Paying 25 bucks for a book that can be finished in one day and tell you what you already know is a little uneconomical.

Anyway, I decided to try it (because I need help selling myself, and no, that doesn’t mean what you may think it means…).  It’s not a bad book, but it’s too easy to read.  It moves along with huge type, short paragraphs, bullets and major points bolded at the end of each section.  Not a bad idea, but it screams “You can’t read small print, nor digest difficult ideas, so I’m going to simplify things for you!!”.

I guess I don’t like being talked down to in a book.  It was written for business majors, I guess…  Inference your own ideas here…  Heh.

I guess it seems a little vague.  The book promises to tell you what you need to know about selling yourself, but it accomplishes nothing.  All you end up reading are a bunch of generalities that make you nod and go, “Yes, I need to do that”, but it doesn’t really motivate you to change.

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Book Review

I’m reading Metropolis by Elizabeth Gaffney.  Normally, historical fiction isn’t my thing, but I decided to give it a try.  Of course, my mom finished it in less than a week (it’s her thing) and I started on it.

It moves like an elephant on opium.  In the mud.  Sheesh, is she ever long-winded.  I’m skipping whole bits of dialogue, and I understand what’s going on.  To add to the fun, there are pages missing.  Good thing we paid less than seven bucks to buy it.

Mr. Griffiths of amazon puts it well:

While slogging through some 450 pages of “Metropolis”, the reader may wonder exactly what Elizabeth Gaffney is trying to convey in this plodding saga of post-Civil War New York City. At its core, it is the tale of a young German immigrant on the lam after being framed in the arson of P.T. Barnum’s American Museum. He soon finds himself in the throws of the “Whyos”, a secret Irish gang of New York’s infamous Five Points, through which he finds work first on a road crew, later as a sewer man of New York’s famed subterranean maze, and finally as a member of the construction crew building the Brooklyn Bridge. Such ambitious fare certainly holds much promise for the historical novel fan, but Gaffney clutters the plot and the history with a ham handed dose of feminism and related social topics. To make matters worse, the utopian Whyos who, we are to believe, have maintained their stealth and secrecy by communicating through a complex language of song. While Gaffney portrays the Whyos as tough and ruthless, these ludicrous singing bandits seem closer to “The West Side Story” than to “The Gangs of New York.” Our young German hero – let’s call him Frank Harris – the last of his several aliases – falls in love with the redoubtable Beatrice: pickpocket, whore, sometime murderer, and mol of the Whyos boss. But in Gaffney’s New York, girls like Beatrice are the salt of society, the true brains and fabric of both legal and illegal New York, held back only by men and the puritanical Victorian social mores of the day.

Continue reading →

Reading

I haven’t been reading as much as I’d like to.  Between my new DS, my Super Mario Sunshine game, and fiddling with Kubuntu, I haven’t taken the time to sit down and read a book.  But I did start one yesterday.

I started The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan.  I’ve wanted to read this book forever, but I never got around to it.  They didn’t have it at the library (Auburn Hills or Saginaw) so I had a hard time getting my hands on it.  Finally, last spring, we found it in the mall in Midland.  I bought a copy and have finally picked it up to read it.  I’m just through the preface and starting the first chapter, so I’ll tell what I think of it in future posts.

It has lots of controversy surrounding it.  I do love reading controversial books, so I thought this one would be a good one to pick up and read.  It also has a very important role in how women are percieved today.  My mother has read this book, and I want to take a look at it, and get into it as much as she has.