Guess What I Got .... A NOOK!!!

I got a nice belated birthday present this weekend.  A Nook!!  I know there is an ongoing debate of the Nook vs. the Kindle, her is how I decided on the Nook.

The last week I saw that e-reader prices had dropped.  First the Nook and then the Kindle.  I had not looked at e-readers previously.

1. I was not sure I was ready to convert.  I have to say it is nice coming home with a book and cracking it open. 
2. I was not ready to shell out of $200 to be able to read, and on top of that have to buy items to read.  I am an avid library person.
3. I think subconsciously, I knew if I started playing with one in the store I would want one.

Once I saw this price drop, I started looking online at the different features of the Nook and the Kindle.  And then I went into the Barnes & Noble store to get some coffee and look around.  And I looked at the Nook.  Bad idea, from that moment I wanted one. 

But let's take a step back.  Let me tell you how I chose the Nook over the Kindle.  (And I am sorry to say the Sony e-reader was never in the running, so I did no research on that.)   If you look on the Nooks website it does give you some comparisons of the Nook and Kindle.  They both have the same screen E INK technology made by the same company, text size adjusting, built in dictionaries, ability to read newspapers and magazines, and ability to listen to audio books or music.  Books can be purchased on both the e-reader devices by their distributor, (i.e. Barnes & Noble and/or Amazon depending on the device).  

Now to the differences between the two.  With the Kindle you have access to everything Amazon carries.  I don't do not how much, if any books are free over Amazon.  (I have read there is none, but did not take much time to look into this.  So, don't take my word on it.)  On the Nook, I am able to download e-books from my library and load them on the device.  My library does not currently support the Kindle, and I believe there are very few that do.  I am also able to download books from Google Books, or other sources that carry free books.  And Barnes & Noble also has a variety of free e-books on their site. 

Honestly, that was the biggest selling point the Nook had for me, free books.  I love the library because of this.  Books can get very expensive. 

The other benefits I saw to the Nook are hardware benefits. They both have 2 gigs of memory out of the box,
approximately 1500 books.  Now that is a lot of books.  But say I become a speed reader, (doubtful, but hey),  with the Nook I am able to add addition memory with a mini SD card.  I read online, that many people use this as a way to organize their books.  The Kindle does not have this capability.  The other thing with the Nook, is the replaceable battery.  The Kindle is like the IPhone, it will need to be send to Amazon to be replaced if the battery dies.  

So my final decision was the Nook, and lucky for me, I came home Saturday from an appointment, and had one waiting for me.  I was extremely excited and broke it out.  It is far to early to do a review, but so far I love reading on it.  I will do a review(s) in the following weeks and months about my experience with it.