Kindle Vs. Nook....yet another question, I know!

[mrsw94]

So I think I might be able to convince my hubby to get me an e-reader, but I have a few questions.

1. I know Amazon often has free books, and I've seen ones that look good. Will they work on a Nook, or only a Kindle?

2. Does B&N have free books? Are they good titles?

3. How does downloading from the library work? How do I find out if my library does it?

Thanks for all your help!!

 

[dhardawa]

1. I know Amazon often has free books, and I've seen ones that look good. Will they work on a Nook, or only a Kindle? Without stripping off the encryption and reformatting, they will only work on the Kindle. The Kindle is very proprietary in hopes that you'll buy the Kindle and then buy all your books from Amazon. You can go online and download the scripts to strip the DRM encryption which leaves it in MOBI format and then use Calibre to change it to ePub format though.

2. Does B&N have free books? Are they good titles? Yes, they do. Many of the titles are the same.

3. How does downloading from the library work? How do I find out if my library does it? On a Kindle, it would be extremely hard. Libraries use ePub format (all ereaders except the Kindle allow this - see question 1 for why) so to do it, you'd have to download it in ePub and then use something like Calibre to change it to a pdf. Then, it is iffy if it will work on the Kindle because pdfs can be huge files or can have tiny text. If you have a Nook, you download the book in ePub format and it will load directly to the ereader.

 

[jjan]

I know that you can't use the Amazon books on your Nook as is (you may be able to convert the files, but I'm not sure), but there are tons of free books on B&N for the Nook. They aren't all listed under the free ebook category either. Usually when the ebook is free on Amazon, if it is available on B&N- it is free. They also offer a Free Friday ebook each week. I've only had my nook for 1 week now and I already have well over 50 free books from B&N.

 

[ExPirateShopGirl]

Free books are available for all e-readers in their respective formats. Regardless of whether you buy a Kindle or a Nook, anything you buy from Amazon or B&N will only work on the e-reader it supports.

The Kindle is lighter, smaller, has the better screen, longer battery life, and you can categorize all your books into folders. It's a better device, plain and simple. Some people get Nooks because they can read library books on them, but the library books are very limited and there are waitlists. Library books can be downloaded and read on any computer. Check your library to see what is available before you purchase an e-reader for this feature alone.

 

[3boymthr]

One thing about the nook vs. kindle and free books; if you have a Nook, when looking for free books, you can also check Borders.com and other websites. For example, Border's free e-books will work on the Nook as well as the e-readers that Border's sells. Be aware also that most of the books that are offered for free by most booksellers, are older, no longer copyrighted titles, ie, classic titles such as Sense and Sensibility, etc. or really short stories that no one would want pay for to read or just blah - seriously, I've download a ton of free stories that were literally under 20 pages and a number were under 10 pages and a good portion of the stories were so poorly written/edited that if they weren't in electronic format they never would have made it to the general public.

However; every week most e-book retailers offer a different set of free "current" titles. I was able to download 26 current titles from Borders for free (keep in mind these books were not available from B&N or Amazon for free but rather would have cost me about $175), and they work on my Nook without conversion and the whole process only took about 20 minutes including the time to scan thru and find them all, download them to my computer and then side load them on to my Nook. This would not be the case if I had a Kindle as I would have had to send them off for conversion.

However; since the Nook/Kindle debate can get very, very heated on the DIS I also recommend you check out this page: http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/E-book_Reader_Matrix

 

[dhardawa]

Free books are available for all e-readers in their respective formats. Regardless of whether you buy a Kindle or a Nook, anything you buy from Amazon or B&N will only work on the e-reader it supports.

The Kindle is lighter, smaller, has the better screen, longer battery life, and you can categorize all your books into folders. It's a better device, plain and simple. Some people get Nooks because they can read library books on them, but the library books are very limited and there are waitlists. Library books can be downloaded and read on any computer. Check your library to see what is available before you purchase an e-reader for this feature alone.

This is not exactly true. Kindle books can easily be converted to ePub books and used on the Nook. B&N books will work on the Nook and every other ereader on the market and books from other places (Borders, Books A Million, etc.) will work on the Nook.

The Kindle is not a better device. It is a highly proprietary device that attempts to limit users to only purchasing books from Amazon and not being able to share with friends. The idea is that you'll buy a Kindle and after that Amazon has forced out the competition. The screen on my Nook is great, the battery life is wonderful, and it is easy to categorize books on free software like Calibre.

 

[DVCLiz]

This is not exactly true. Kindle books can easily be converted to ePub books and used on the Nook. B&N books will work on the Nook and every other ereader on the market and books from other places (Borders, Books A Million, etc.) will work on the Nook.

The Kindle is not a better device. It is a highly proprietary device that attempts to limit users to only purchasing books from Amazon and not being able to share with friends. The idea is that you'll buy a Kindle and after that Amazon has forced out the competition. The screen on my Nook is great, the battery life is wonderful, and it is easy to categorize books on free software like Calibre.

Kindle users can share books with other Kindle owners just as Nook users can - it is a new feature and Amazon has announced it will begin soon. Additionally, Kindle users can have several devices linked to their account and all devices linked to that account can have access to all books purchased on that account. I have 3 people on my Amazon account and we can all read the same book at the same time for one purchase price.

I do think the Pearl screen on the Kindle 3 is much, much better than the screen on the earlier Kindle 2 and on the Nook if B&N has not upgraded to that screen.

Consumer Reports thinks Kindle is a better device and I do, too.

 

[ExPirateShopGirl]

Unfortunately the Nook can't by itself categorize anything. Which basically means scrolling and scrolling until you find something or bringing your pc along with you. Muy inconvenient.

Amazon allows the sharing of ebooks the same way B&N likely does. Lending an ebook will be available in December. I can recall when the Nook was introduced and people touted the fact it was android based so apps would be right around the corner. Instead, what B&N has done is lock up the OS to prevent that. How is that not proprietary?

And, finally... Amazon (more often than any other ebook retailer) has the lowest price on any randomly chosen title (on studies conducted on ebooks carried by every major ebook retailer). Yes, greedy monsters...

This is not exactly true. Kindle books can easily be converted to ePub books and used on the Nook. B&N books will work on the Nook and every other ereader on the market and books from other places (Borders, Books A Million, etc.) will work on the Nook.

The Kindle is not a better device. It is a highly proprietary device that attempts to limit users to only purchasing books from Amazon and not being able to share with friends. The idea is that you'll buy a Kindle and after that Amazon has forced out the competition. The screen on my Nook is great, the battery life is wonderful, and it is easy to categorize books on free software like Calibre.

 

[JaymeC]

This is not exactly true. Kindle books can easily be converted to ePub books and used on the Nook. B&N books will work on the Nook and every other ereader on the market and books from other places (Borders, Books A Million, etc.) will work on the Nook.

The Kindle is not a better device. It is a highly proprietary device that attempts to limit users to only purchasing books from Amazon and not being able to share with friends. The idea is that you'll buy a Kindle and after that Amazon has forced out the competition. The screen on my Nook is great, the battery life is wonderful, and it is easy to categorize books on free software like Calibre.

If you're converting Kindle books to read on other devices, you're doing it illegally. And I don't just mean because of Amazon's format,, it's not the format but the DRM. And EVERY book store has that. They all have proprietary formats in DRM. So if you're reading a kindle book on a nook, you're doing it by stripping the DRM on it and converting it. Which I'm sure can be done, but is illegal. I'm all for complaining about Amazon's techniques, but not untruthfully.

Incidentally, I've never had a problem finding free/cheap source material for my kindle. I use manybooks.net and Project Gutenberg a lot and simply load them. My husband has loaded his work documents to his kindle often. And honestly I could not care less about being able to share a book ONE time ever for 14 days.

It's also nice to have the built in 'libraries' now. I had a kindle before that was available and oh my the book list was insane...

To answer the OPs questions, how many freebies there are depends on how you view it. Amazon doesn't list their classics, etc. as part of their library and they don't tend to sponsor the people who upload them like the nook does. The nook lists all of those as free and it would definitely win on that front... but those books can be had many places. Amazon from what I've seen (I follow multiple blogs, etc. that list ALL the free books) tends to offer more deals on freebies and if you don't mind reading works from new authors the 'Indie' authors there usually have books from $1-3, which is great.

Yes, Kindle books will only work on a kindle. Not on a nook. Hopefully 20 years down the road this will be less of an issue than it is now, but for now all the e-book sellers are trying to lock people into their store as much as possible.

 

[ssawka]

Honestly, I would go with the Kindle. The future of B&N is currently in question and the company is up for sale. That's not to say that they will go under anytime soon or that a future buyer will not embrace the nook, but for the $ I would trust Amazon.

For the record, I own neither and I am not an avid reader. I'm just saying I would be reluctant to buy a proprietary device from a company whose future is in question.

 

[ExPirateShopGirl]

I read yesterday where iPhone/iTouch/iPad owners will now be able to download Epub books wirelessly to their devices directly from their libraries with a brand new (free) app beginning in December. This eliminates the need for even a PC to get a library book on your device. It's nice to see developers working around the Flash issue.

Can't wait to see the app!

 

[dhardawa]

If you're converting Kindle books to read on other devices, you're doing it illegally. And I don't just mean because of Amazon's format,, it's not the format but the DRM. And EVERY book store has that. They all have proprietary formats in DRM. So if you're reading a kindle book on a nook, you're doing it by stripping the DRM on it and converting it. Which I'm sure can be done, but is illegal. I'm all for complaining about Amazon's techniques, but not untruthfully.

Incidentally, I've never had a problem finding free/cheap source material for my kindle. I use manybooks.net and Project Gutenberg a lot and simply load them. My husband has loaded his work documents to his kindle often. And honestly I could not care less about being able to share a book ONE time ever for 14 days.

It's also nice to have the built in 'libraries' now. I had a kindle before that was available and oh my the book list was insane...

To answer the OPs questions, how many freebies there are depends on how you view it. Amazon doesn't list their classics, etc. as part of their library and they don't tend to sponsor the people who upload them like the nook does. The nook lists all of those as free and it would definitely win on that front... but those books can be had many places. Amazon from what I've seen (I follow multiple blogs, etc. that list ALL the free books) tends to offer more deals on freebies and if you don't mind reading works from new authors the 'Indie' authors there usually have books from $1-3, which is great.

Yes, Kindle books will only work on a kindle. Not on a nook. Hopefully 20 years down the road this will be less of an issue than it is now, but for now all the e-book sellers are trying to lock people into their store as much as possible.

Yep, I sure am stripping the DRM and converting it. If I buy the file, I should be able to read it on any e-reader I choose. Apparently I'm missing where every book store does this. I can buy a book from B&N and upload it directly to any other e-reader because it is straight ePub format that can be read anywhere. To my knowledge, Amazon is the only company that encrypts and won't accept the universal format on their device. The fact remains, I can buy books anywhere and read them on the Nook. The Kindle can't do that.

 

[Suz725]

Nook is releasing a software update this month and being able to catagorize books is one of the new features....

bottom line...everyone loves the EReader they have...one is NOT better than the other...

 

[dhardawa]

Unfortunately the Nook can't by itself categorize anything. Which basically means scrolling and scrolling until you find something or bringing your pc along with you. Muy inconvenient.

Amazon allows the sharing of ebooks the same way B&N likely does. Lending an ebook will be available in December. I can recall when the Nook was introduced and people touted the fact it was android based so apps would be right around the corner. Instead, what B&N has done is lock up the OS to prevent that. How is that not proprietary?

And, finally... Amazon (more often than any other ebook retailer) has the lowest price on any randomly chosen title (on studies conducted on ebooks carried by every major ebook retailer). Yes, greedy monsters...

Every e-book I have purchased has been the exact same price between Amazon and B&N. The problem isn't that Amazon is charging too much, it is that they are locking their customers into not being able to shop around. It would be like buying a car from Ford that only could use the special gas sold by Ford.

 

[ExPirateShopGirl]

Latest ebook pricing survey.

http://inkmesh.com/blog/category/ebook-pricing/



If you are busy stripping the DRM off of Amazon ebooks that leads me to believe you're buying them there because a) you can't get them elsewhere or b) they are lower in price. Otherwise, why on earth would you?

Nothing prevents Kindle owners from purchasing or borrowing ebooks from other retailers and converting them into mobi for use on the Kindle. Same thing you're doing already.

Every e-book I have purchased has been the exact same price between Amazon and B&N. The problem isn't that Amazon is charging too much, it is that they are locking their customers into not being able to shop around. It would be like buying a car from Ford that only could use the special gas sold by Ford.

 

[lorajohn1984]

The problem of kindle (for many users) is you'll have to stick with Amazon to buy or download your books,
but still for a person like me i don't consider that a problem because i can find every title i am looking for on Amazon
so i don't have to look elsewhere for that matter and from what i saw there is tons of free books on Amazon.
I don't think books downloaded from Amazon work directly on nook.
One good feature of nook is you can read library books on it. But aside from the amount of free books that can be found
for nook or kindle, kindle i think is better thank nook because of the other features it has. For example reading on kindle screen is
more comfortable than nook, my eyes get tired after reading on nook screen for a while but i didn't notice that with kindle.
Also battery life is longer which is one of my important concerns for me of a good e-reader, and also kindle is lighter than nook and i get
more paper-like feeling using it it. So in my opinion when it comes to kindle vs nook, kindle wins the competition.

 

[jms920]

I'm loving reading this info as I am torn between the 2. Still can't decide if I should just get one now or wait a little longer and see what new models they come out with.

 

[Fyrefly]

Ugh, the number of lies that always fly around with Kindle irritate me. If people love their Nooks, fine. But don't spread lies about the Kindle.

No, it doesn't read ePub. But any book you find on Manybooks or the other free ebook sites can be downloaded right from the site in most cases as the equally open-source .mobi files, which the Kindle reads without a problem. Download the file, plug in your Kindle to your computer, drag and drop.

It's equally possible if you really want to, to buy the books from B&N or some other website where you pay, change the formatting using Calibre or some other software, and put it on your Kindle. Not sure why you would bother doing that unless you find the book cheaper. So far I've found Amazon has the same selection as any other seller for the same price, because as PP mentioned, these prices are regulated. And Nook owners can do the same with Kindle books if they want to.

I follow pixelofink.com to find my daily free Kindle books, and I find there are many other blogs that help me find free stuff too. I can't speak on the free book community for Nook users. But I have about 30 books on mine currently and I have only paid for two of them, and both of them were less than $2. So finding free books is absurdly easy with Kindle.

As for loaning between users, that is a farce no matter what device you are on. Publishers limit that feature to one loan, once ever in the life of the file. That's one instance where if you swap books with friends a lot you're better off with a paperback! But please, Kindle has been allowed to do this for months. Stop saying it's a Nook-only feature.

Finally the last lie that continues to be perpetuated, only Nook can do library lending. Please see this official press release from April that says Kindle will be working with Overdrive (the library ebook system) by the end of the year.
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1552678&highlight=

Truly, the devices are functionally identical. Both have free books. Both can be manipulated with software to get the books that aren't proprietary to your particular device. Both allegedly will be able to sort books with Nook's upcoming upgrade. Both can lend books. By year's end, both will get library books.

Go to the store, play with them a bit, and see which one you like better physically. Screen, button location/size. Are you a touchscreen or a keyboard user? Do you like the sorting on one better than the other? Battery life? Wireless/3G features? The hardware is really the only thing you have to make a basis on. You'll do fine with whichever one you buy.

 

[Darcy03231]

Just to throw another one into the mix - I have a Sony and love it! I can download books from the library, or buy my books from Sony, Borders, Kobo or a number of other sites. The Sony site has a lot of free e-books. I just downloaded another 6 last night.

I haven't bought anything from Barnes & Noble or Amazon as I don't want to get into having to strip them and reformat them. The books tend to be all the same price on the all the sites.

 

[jms920]

Thank you Fyrefly for the clarification. That is very helpful.