Nookie

My husband was just gifted a Nook by his company, which in turn means I was gifted a Nook by my husband. I like that it is slim and sleek, although I wish it had a color screen because I think it might be best for magazine and newspaper reading since I love having a real book in my hands. I also think it is wonderful for travel since you can bring a ton of books without overloading your luggage - gone are the days of filling my suitcase with five novels only to be finished by day three of my vacation.

Upon using it, I was surprised to find that I didn't miss the tactile sense of having a book. I thought that pushing a button and waiting for the next page to load would be annoying, but it really wasn't, and it wasn't any more uncomfortable holding the nook than holding a book for hours at a time - and I could do it one handed WAY more easily. reading only one (small) page at a time did slow down my rate of speed somewhat (I typically read about 100 pages an hour), but not so much that I wasn't still able to finish a 322 page book in one day.

So far, there is only one aspect that bothers me about the nook. Typically, I just browse the book shelves for something that appeals to me and pick it up on a whim - usually in the chick lit or thriller categories. Sure, there are books with reviews so intriguing that I just have to read them for myself, but in general it is pretty random when I buy a book. And I know that after I read it, if it isn't something I see myself rereading over and over, I can sell it back to the half price bookstore, or share it with family if it is good enough. I can't do that with the Nook. Sure, there is a program where you can lend the downloads for two weeks or so, but you don't have anything physical to lend, and you definitely can't sell it back and get money to buy a new book. Which means that the money I spend on ebooks is literally only for the WORDS of the book. Which means I better be damn sure I want to read that book, because I'm not "investing" in anything physical that I can maybe recoup some of my expense from. And that level of pressure has made it very hard to choose what to download. I don't plan of ever giving up real books, so when browsing the ebooks I find myself thinking, "no, not that one, my dad will want to read that too" or "that one is too frivolous and stupid to merit a download." It seems like only the most important and personal of books are going to fall into the slim category of being download worthy, and that is really not how I read.

Although, I am admiring the fact that nobody can see what it is I'm reading. Maybe I'll take up romance novels.