e-reader advice and recommendations

lottie3000

I have very small amount of techie knowledge and after working my way from a standard kindle to a paper white, which I loved. I then went for a fire, which I like for the tablet part but regret for the book reading.

Just wondered if the nooks are up to much as they're so cheap and are they compatible at all with Amazon? Also if books are very available and cheap compared to Amazon? Or do I need to count my losses and buy another kindle?

Any advice welcomed.

culpepper

I have a sony ereader. If I want to read a book from another reader format, I can convert it using calibre(free program).
The paper white readers do look good don't they? Mine is from pre paper white days and you have to get the angle right to read it clearly.

lottie3000

I had a paper white and really regret selling it. It really was perfect for reading, I just don't know whether to buy another expensive one or get a cheapy nook for £30. Wondered if anyone actually had a nook and had compared them to the kindle?

lottie3000

Actually, looking at the nook site, I can buy one with a back light for £69 so that's a lot cheaper than amazon?? Any advice welcomed.

Chewbumpkin

I have the Nook Glowlight and am very pleased with it. The backlight is superb for reading in bed without disturbing my other half and it takes a micro sd card for even more books! I also use Calibre for changing the format of books to go on the Nook, and in fact recently did so to transfer books from my Sony ereader - it was effortless.
There are absolutely loads of sites for ebooks if you search online and a fair amount are free!

lottie3000

The trouble is that I have a fair few on my kindle and I don't think that I will be able to convert these? With the nook do you download the books direct to it or onto a pc?

lottie3000

OK, really looking at the Nook glow light now, I have downloaded a lot of my books into the calibre software, it it just as easy to upload them onto the nook?

lottie3000

Now i've tried to convert them and calibre says that they are DRM protected? Can anyone help with this?

mahlersmusicfan

you need to install the calibre kindle plug-in to convert the kindle books.

google: calibre kindle plugin

Reason I don't own a kindle is that kindle books are only rented/leased/borrowed. You may have paid for them but you don't own them.

malc_b

The £29 nook is similar to the basic kindle but cheaper. IMO it is cheap enough to take to the beach where as the kindle isn't. You can root the nook so it becomes an android which means you can then run kindle on it, and kobo, etc. if you want.

To me that makes it the ideal e-reader. It is e-ink so good for bright sunlight, weeks of battery life, cheap, and runs all e-readers. The later is very important since you local library will lend ebooks in everything but kindle but for buying books the biggest choice is probably kindle.

See here for rooting details. I wouldn't bother with amazon market place, nor search the market for google market place. Easier way to install apps is to do it from a pc. If you log in to google market place on PC with same email address then you can select download to phone. A lot easier than trying to work on the nook. Any apps you don't want you can un-install easy enough.

Backlight would be nice but for £40 I'll make to with a clip on light. I did splurge out 12.50 on a nice cover from argos though. Ebay have covers for £6/7 upwards.

It is possible to use calibre (with a plugin) to break drm (which doesn't always work I believe) however that is strictly illegal where as rooting isn't. So if you want a universal e-reader a rooted nook is your cheapest route.

macman

lottie3000 wrote: »

Now i've tried to convert them and calibre says that they are DRM protected? Can anyone help with this?

That's because the format of the titles you purchased from Amazon only gives you a licence for use on that platform. And Amazon's platform (AZW) is not compatible with the ebook format used by everyone else.
To stay strictly legal you'll need to buy DRM protected books in eBook format.