These are important existential questions.
(Also important: Knowing that the “n” is always lowercase.)
A few weeks ago, generous donor Donna from Denver donated several e-readers, including two 1st generation nooks.
I’ve been playing around with one of them. My initial review: I sort of like it! (Please don’t tell the 139 Kindles.)
What I Like
– There’s a color touchscreen on the bottom. It’s playful and more user-friendly than the early generations of the Kindle. Everyone likes a touchscreen, especially my students.
– It has page numbers. The nook gives you what page you’re on, rather than a “location.” This seems more human.
– The menu is easier to access. It’s easy to skip to another chapter and more intuitive to do some other key things.
– Dave Barry wrote the user guide. This actually doesn’t make a difference, but I liked some of his tips for taking care of your nook. (1) “Never put your nook into a blender without a really good reason.” (2) “Keep your nook away from raccoons.” (3) “If an armed person says, ‘Your nook or your life,” surrender your nook.”
What I Don’t Like
– The screen isn’t great. It’s a first generation device, so I wasn’t expecting a great screen, but I found it harder to read on than the early Kindles.
– It’s not easy to look up words. There’s no five-way controller, so it takes forever. If I were a student, I’d just skip the word and read on.
– The touchscreen isn’t sensitive enough. You really have to press down with significant force. And don’t try to type out a note; it’ll take forever.
Overall, I think the nook is solid. I’m going to get the two nooks out to students and see what they think. My hunch is that they’ll like them a lot and maybe prefer them to Kindles.
But for right now, at least, I’m not ready to ask for nooks or change my little program to the Kindle and nook Classroom Project. The biggest reason is that Amazon already has my allegiance, and books on the Kindle don’t work on the nook, and vice-versa. It just doesn’t make sense to purchase both the azw3 and the epub versions of each e-book.
Another reason is that I still think that Barnes and Noble is going to go out of business. Amazon may discontinue its E Ink Kindles, but the company itself, despite its limited profits, isn’t disappearing anytime soon.
Please let me know what you think. Should I open up donations of nooks? If so, what would be the benefit? Thank you!