I am thinking of getting an e-reader, but I can’t really buy books very often so I am looking to be able to get most if not all of my books free. I think the B&N nook has some free books, the Sony models have access to the public domain google books and can do libraries, but I don’t really understand how all that works. I am considering the sony digital reader pocket and touch editions, and the B&N nook (not kindle do to price). What one is going to be best for my $200-$250 in terms of access to free books?
Hmm, I guess I either read the price for the kindle 2 wrong or maybe I was looking at the DX by mistake.
Do you highly recommend the kindle? What are the drawbacks of the kindle 1 technology?
What happens when a Kindle 2 battery dies?
The attraction to the Nook for me at the moment is the prospect of being able to use Barnes and Noble gift cards to purchase books (and being able to walk into a barnes and noble and see the sample model before I buy.) Most of my books are gifts from old people who are not amazon savvy, though if the Kindle were far better in the long run I could be convinced. I definitely think it’s the superior reader, I just have to find the one that suits my purposes best and I am just not sure.
I don’t recommend to get the Sony Reader, books on it are more expensive and it doesn’t have good selection of books.
I’m not sure if it helps, but actually you can get quite a lot of free books on Amazon Kindle. Here are some sites (and even in the Amazon Kindle site itself) that you can get free books:
http://manybooks.net/
http://gutenberg.org/
http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fs%3Fie%3DUTF8%26node%3D154606011%26redirect%3Dtrue%26p%255F36%3D0-0&tag=ereader-2-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=390957
I’ve done some comparison between the Kindle and the Nook, so let me bring it up here for you to decide yourself which one to get.
From the official page of B&N, here is how the Nook compares with the Kindle:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/nook/compare/
Since Barnes and Noble page is only mentioning the advantage of the Nook over the Kindle, let me try to tell more about the benefit of the Kindle 2 over the Nook:
- There is no internet browser for the Nook. So even with Wi-Fi, you can only use it to purchase book. You cannot do searching in Google, Wikipedia, check email, etc., like what you can do with the Kindle.
- The Amazon Kindle has international free 3G wireless which covers over 100 countries. So even if you’re in places like the UK or Australia, you can access the internet with the Kindle free of charge. The Nook has wireless only within the U.S., and is limited for use of buying books only
- The Kindle is available outside the U.S. (it ships to 176 countries), while the Nook only ship within the U.S. at this moment.
- The Kindle has text-to-speech function, so it can treat an ebook like audio book. This function is not present on the Nook.
- The price of ebooks for the Nook on Barnes and Nobles are more expensive than the ebooks on the Kindle. This can make quite a difference in long term, the price difference adds up as you buy more books.
- Amazon is already doing some change after the Nook is announced (still more than one month for it to be available). They dropped the price of their International Kindle even further. And they are going to release a PC software which can read their Kindle books. They also added native PDF support for their Kindle 2.
One more thing to be aware is that, at first glance you may think the Nook can read ebooks with color touch screen. But indeed the color touch screen is only a small screen beneath the greyscale eink screen, and seems it is only used to browse the cover of ebooks.
In my opinion, it is a tie between the Kindle and the Barnes and Noble. But if you may travel and you enjoy reading during your trip, you should go for the Kindle for sure. Moreover, I trust the Kindle will come up with some strategies very soon, like improving their lending book function. The Kindle is the biggest player in the ereader market right now, and I believe it will put enormous effort to hold its position. Finally, if you’re an avid reader, price of ebooks will also be a big concern, as ebooks on the Nook are more expensive.
I recommend this article as well, it is the best review on ebook readers I’ve ever read:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Freview%2FR3QM7LGL62MZ4X%3Fie%3DUTF8%26ref%255F%3Dcm%255Fcr%255Frdp%255Fperm&tag=ereader-2-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=390957
Just check up their homepage to see the latest price of the devices. The price is most up-to-date, and if there is any price change it will be reflected immediately on their homepage. BTW, the Nook seems to be in stock only in Jan 2010, so you’ll not be able to get it in X’mas…
Hope this helps you decide.