If I get an e-reader (Barnes and Noble Nook) or something like kindle, will I someday lose the books I buy?
I always thought e-readers were stupid because I like to sit down with a good old paper and ink book and have the item solid in my hand, so when the thought of buying the Kindle crossed my mind, I immediately thought better of it. But I just saw the new Barnes and Noble Nook, and…it looks awesome. It’s hard for a book lover not to want it, and with the books on it being sold cheaper than they are in paper form, the item will eventually pay for itself. I have a huge concern though. Will I be able to keep the books forever? Like…will I still have the books in 40 years if I keep my Nook? Or will the Nook just stop being sold however many years from now and have all the books I bought just…gone. If your not sure about the nook, will it work that way with the kindle? I plan on having my books for ever and ever, and I really don’t want to buy an e-reader just to buy books that will be lost one day. That’s like…just buying a whole bunch of books and just deciding to burn them one day. So…can anyone give me some advice?
Tags: Barnes, Books, Ereader, Kindle, like, lose, Noble, Nook, nook book reader, nook ereader, nook reader, someday, something
December 8th, 2009 at 1:43 am
I am wondering the same thing. Since technology changes so fast, wouldn’t it be obsolete and unusable at some point? Sort of the way cassettes have (almost) become, or the VCR, slide projectors, etc.
That’s why I don’t want to buy one. I also don’t want to have one more valuable gadget with me that could be stolen or that I could lose. Oh wait, thieves aren’t interested in books.
December 8th, 2009 at 1:46 am
Try a Microsoft Reader (.lit format) It is Free. Then Go to websites and search for the books you might want, You download them ONTO your computer so you never loose them.
Plus, there are some websites like 4shared.com you can find some free.
Its a great little program, and you read it by flipping pages like a normal book.
Good Luck.
December 8th, 2009 at 2:21 am
From what I understand about the Nook in particular, you can put all your books on a memory card similar to what your cell phone or digital camera uses. As long as there is technology capable of reading the information off the memory cards, you’ll still have your books.
December 8th, 2009 at 3:20 am
40 years is a long time for a digital format to survive. You might be able to someday convert and back them up but I doubt it is simple at the moment. Maybe Barnes will keep them for you but then you are stuck with vendor lock-in. I suggest you just stick with books since you seem to like them.
December 8th, 2009 at 3:33 am
First off, they’re only currently cheap because hey are subsidizing the ebook prices in order to sell readers. Soon as they have sold enough readers to have momentum, the prices will go up.
Secondly, right now, you re buying the book only for use on that reader. It isn’t even the “five computers” deal that itunes used to work with. So no you aren’t buying an electronic form of that book forever, You’re buying it for that particular reader.
December 8th, 2009 at 3:41 am
As far as I know, you can backup the books you get to your computer for both the Nook and the Kindle, so no need to worry about losing any books.
And between the Kindle and the Nook, 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.
- 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.
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.
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
Hope this helps you decide.
December 8th, 2009 at 4:12 am
No, you won’t. They won’t delete your books. And you can always copy your books to PC computer. Like the Kindle, here is how you can backup your books:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fgp%2Fhelp%2Fcustomer%2Fdisplay.html%3Fie%3DUTF8%26nodeId%3D200375630&tag=moreinfo-po-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=390957
I own the Kindle 2, so let me give you some more of my opinions. If you ask me to choose again now, I’ll still go for the Kindle instead of Nook, because I think the web browsing function is rather important. The free internet (and now it is free international internet) plus the web browser allow me to look for information whenever I’m in need. It is really a cool feature that cannot be missed.
I remember I read this review when I decided to get my Kindle:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Freview%2FR2DUM7S4XW06QN%3Fie%3DUTF8%26ASIN%3DB00154JDAI%26nodeID%3D%26ref%255F%3Dcm%255Fcr%255Fpr%255Fcmt&tag=moreinfo-po-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=390957
Hope it helps
December 8th, 2009 at 4:42 am
Don’t worry, you won’t lose the book. Even you cut the wireless access of the ebook reader, you’ll still able to read books inside. So no one will be able to remove your books, they will be kept on the device forever…
I’ll also say choose the Kindle because internet access is so important. This is a review from a top reviewer and a book lover, see how she says:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Freview%2FR9J54TZ1541OR%3Fie%3DUTF8%26ref%255F%3Dcm%255Fcr%255Frdp%255Fperm&tag=more_info-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=390957
Hope this helps.