All About EBOOKS

I'm sure you've all seen countless "Ebook vs. Physical Book" posts and videos, so this post is going to skip over that and move straight on to talking all about the different ereaders. And for those of you blessed souls who haven't dealt with at least one said "ebook vs. physical book" post, ebooks are more convenient but physical books are still preferable.

So now for my ereader life story.

A few years ago, I bought something very similar to this nook. (Note: this is an newer, nicer, updated version of my nook.) At first, I loved it, and most of what I read I downloaded from OverDrive courtesy of my public library. If you haven't checked OverDrive out, you should. If you belong to a library or are a K12/College student, you most likely have access to OverDrive through that. But anyway, I was checking out all my desired titles from OverDrive, downloading the ePub file to my nook, and enjoying my endless supply of books. And if OverDrive didn't have my desired title, I could simply request the book with a push of a button, and typically within the month it'd be added to the collection. Then after a year or so of this, my Nook started acting crazy.

Now, what you must understand is that my nook had never been the easiest piece of technology to use. I spent many a night looking up articles and forums to figure out what was going on with my nook. However, this time my nook was simply not working, and it's been stowed away in my junk drawer ever since.

Have I completely given up on ebooks? No, dear friend, I have not. While I certainly prefer reading physical copies of books, being a book blogger, I often get digital copies of books for review. And quite honestly, it's easier to take ebooks for review, because I don't have to worry about it coming through the mail.

So how have I been reading ebooks? Well, my phone.

While I was using my iPad mini to read ebooks for a while, I've since made the switch to reading ebooks on my phone, because I always have my phone with me! I have the Kindle app, and all my ARCs are just downloaded to the app. It's a piece of cake.

So now you know my history with ereaders. Why don't we get into the fun part?

"Nooks are junky and unreliable, and probably won't be around in the near future." 

Who remembers Borders? The bookseller? It used to be up there with BooksAMillion and Barnes &Noble? If you aren't familiar with Borders, they're a bookseller that went out of business. So Nooks are a tablet manufactured and sold by B&N, which means that if B&N were to ever go out of business (following the trend of Borders) Nooks wouldn't be around either. Of course, the day B&N closes up will be a day of mourning for me, but it's not unlikely.

Plus Nooks just aren't that great! Mine was always having software issues. Really annoying ones that were hard to figure out. There were times when it would completely reset, and I would have to set it up like a brand new user. And it would erase all the ePup books I'd checked out! I didn't have the best nook on the market, but I think that still says something.

Plus owning a nook is expensive. I only actually bought one book on my nook, everything else I borrowed from OverDrive/My Library. However, if you are the type of person to buy the ebooks you read, you're buying them from Barnes & Noble. And I'm not going to be shy about this when I say that Barnes & Noble ebooks are expensive. So not only are you paying for the tablet, but you're paying for the $10 ebooks too.

So if you're going to buy an ereader, don't go the nook route.

"Kindles are Amazon, and Amazon is a good thing."

The other major ereader you hear about is the Amazon Kindle. As you know, Kindle is manufactured and sold by Amazon, along with all the ebooks you'd buy for it. Not only are Amazon's ebook prices better, but they frequently run awesome $1-$2 deals on all types of books- even YA bestsellers and things you wouldn't expect they'd run a discounted price for. And you can still download OverDrive books to your Kindle for free, it's just a whole lot easier than when you try to do it on a Nook.

Plus Kindle is Amazon, and Amazon isn't going to run out of business like B&N has the potential to in the future. So you're Kindle will be around for a long time.

Even better, Kindle digital format is so much easier to use than the Nook's. And there's an awesome app that'll convert any document into Kindle format for you to read on your Kindle. (Which is helpful when I'm getting a review copy of an unfinished book.)

As far as the quality of the actual device, I can't say much as I've never owned one. However, they seem to hold up well according to people I know.

"There's an app for that; because don't you already have a tablet?" 

Chances are, you already own an iPad, Samsung, or some other type of tablet. So why not just download the FREE Kindle App, like myself, and enjoy not having to pay for another device.

Besides, there's nothing a Kindle can do that an iPad can't.

So in the end, don't buy an ereader, just use your phone, tablet, or even your computer to read via the Kindle app. 

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What are YOUR thoughts on ereaders?