General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Tampa Bay Times Bill Maxwell laments "slow death of bookstores." I'm with him on that. [View all]DonCoquixote
(13,616 posts)I use a Nook because i know it is backed by barnes and Noble, which means I can go into the store, have a human being fix things, and use the ebook to preview books (The Nook lets you read all books when you are in their cafe, which of course is a clever way to get you to buy coffee and cake, but so what, better there than Starbucks.)
I love hardcover books, I like the fact they are physical objects you own. Ob the other hand, I like the fact that you own Barnes and Nobles ebooks, as opposed to the kindle, which lets you access titles, but never lets you OWN them. I love the feel of books, especially the leather backed, gold trimmed copies that Barnes and Nobles sells (and that Borders never did.) On the other, the Nook is easier on the eyes, letting me magnify text so that my older eyes can see. The nook also allows things like Project Gutenberg, a huge database of free books that are either to old to patent (Plato does not need my money to pay his rent right now) or published by new authors that are using it for free press. Of course, I often buy the books from Barnes and Noble anyway, namely because they designed their ebooks to look and feel like regular ones, taking into account things like fonts and background color. I want my yellow paper and antique fonts dammit, and I get it. I admit, I also defend ebooks because, while I am a book lover (and a former librarian to boot) I will admit that without the Nook, my house would look like an episode of "Hoarders" with all the books I have. On the other hand, I have told my family members that they will have to pry my hardback books from my cold, dead hands, doing my best Charlton Preston voice when I do so.