Tuesday, December 28, 2010

A Nook!

I hope you all had a very merry Christmas and enjoyed your time with friends and family. We had a very relaxing and ate way too much good food. I even successfully tackled Ropa Vieja, the hardest recipe I've tried to date. (Though it was much easier than it looked once I got started.) It's only 364 more days until the next Christmas, but I'm excited to go back to pre-holiday life and start off a new year.

At our wedding, my brother and sister, best man and maid of honor, respectively, gave a toast, which encompassed the top 10 reasons I would be a good wife. It was very nice and funny and sweet. One of the reasons they gave was that if you ever wondered what to give me for a present, you could just pick out a book. And it's true. I imagine that for every Christmas, birthday, etc., I've gotten some kind of book or B&N gift certificate. And this year was no exception. I got several good cookbooks, a sewing book, and The Power Of Now, all of which perfectly complement my interests now. But, I also got an eReader, the Barnes and Noble Nook Color, to be specific.

I have had mixed feelings about eReaders and the impact they have on reading ever since they first came out and wasn't sure I would enjoy reading on one. Of course, I am often envious of people who have them on planes, because I would be able to have all of the books I'd ever want on one device, rather than packing them all in my suitcase and carry on bag. And it would be better than buying them in the airport bookstore.

In my current job, we have done some articles on eReaders, so I am familiar with the features and what to look for when shopping for one. Personally, I find them to be rather similar; the main features to look for are e-ink, screen size, color vs. black and white, format compatibility, etc. I personally like the Nook because it's from B&N, and uses that bookstore, in addition to having a good-sized screen and providing a clear picture. You might also consider connectivity options. Personally, I don't need 3G, because I have a smartphone for the Internet, and I wouldn't want to be able to buy books wherever I want. With the Wi-Fi, I'll be able to access the Internet when I need to buy books and then turn it off to save the battery life. However, if you want to b able to access bookstores and the Internet in more places, you'll want  And if you need something more full-featured, it does have a nice browser, the capability to play music, and a Pandora app.

I'm going to give it a week of reading before I write anything on the actual reading experience, but if you want a technological perspective, check out this one on CNET, the site I trust most.

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