Sara Edmonds | The World Of E-readers... the Nook

If you are like me, you have wondered and contemplated buying one of the e-readers on the market, but have yet to make the plunge for various reasons. To help you in your hunt, I have evaluated a bunch of the best features of the various e-readers on the market.

First, there are features that technology and competition has given every reader:

-They now all use e-ink technology, which helps the text you are looking at look like a real book page. The problem for some - there is no backlighting and it will not have the look and speed of other electronic devices, like your iPhone;

-There is at least a 6" display screen for the standard e-readers. The pocket e-readers are smaller of course, and Kindle is trying to put distance between them and everyone else with a new bigger display screen, but more on that later;

-They all have a light weight of about 10-11oz and are less than .05" thick;

-Lastly, they all have some adjustable features, such as changing the font size to make it more comfortable to read.

And now for the differences-

I start by examining the new e-reader from Barnes & Noble, the nook. The basic lowdown on specs can be found below. What I want to focus on is the differences that make the reading experience different than that of the Kindle or Sony Reader.

This October, Barnes & Noble introduced what may perhaps be the closest competition to Amazon's Kindle. The best feature of the nook is its touch screen. The nook has a color touch screen and has a virtual keyboard if you need it, a difference from Kindle's stationary keyboard. The nook also allows you to flip through a book's cover art in color, something else the Kindle does not focus on. This makes the nook sleeker and takes away the extra frame.

One foot note to the touch screen however - it's only available on the color part of the screen. In other words, you can flip through your menu and options in color and with a touch, but you can't touch the text screen or turn the pages with just a touch. Sony keeps ahead of the nook here- you can turn pages with just a touch on their e-reader, but their options and menu is all in black and white.

Another great feature of the nook, is that it is wireless and uses AT&T's 3G wireless network. Barnes & Noble's stores also allow complimentary Wi-Fi in their superstores.

The nook is also great for readers who like to trade books with friends and family. It allows a reader to lend a book free of charge to someone else for up to 14 days. What if the person you want to lend the book to doesn't have a nook? No problem- books can be sent to someone's iPhone, iPod touch, select BlackBerry and Motorola smart phones, or a PC or Mac with the free downloadable Barnes & Noble eReader software. And no awkward asking for your books to be returned, as after 14 days your book comes back to you. Kindle users can in some cases share items, but it involves sharing accounts and you may not be up to having some you don't want on your Kindle account.

Some of the other features of the nook include: bookmarking so you don't loose your place, reading the same book on the nook, and then at home on your PC and back right where you left off, and the ability to transfer PDF format documents from your computer to access and read on your nook.

Barnes & Noble's vision is to give their readers the ability to feed their love or reading while keeping up with technology. Books no longer have to be a part of a bygone era. Barnes & Noble has gone out of its way to give readers the same experience of reading a physical book without having to carry them everywhere, feel the guilt of cutting down a tree, or feel too detached from actual books by letting you look at the covers, and view the nook's screen with a software that still makes it look like you are looking at the book's actual page.

And the nook still has one up on Kindle - the ability to still browse your local bookstore and talk to your local bookseller. A person can take their nook to a local store, get recommendations, and download the book to their nook to preview it before they buy it. What Barnes & Noble is doing right is taking the bookstore experience and kicking it into the next century. The vision is to have yourself with an e-reader going into your local store, grabbing a cup of coffee, browsing isles, downloading the first chapters of some possibilities, and buying what you want without waiting in line. It is the future and Barnes & Noble does not intend to be left behind. And for a book lover like me- this is a big deal.

In a last affront to Kindle, the nook is sold at $259, the same price as Amazon's first Kindle. The only thing you can't do with the nook is get it in time for Christmas, as Barnes & Noble has sold out of all their nooks. And don't be too hasty in pre-ordering yours now, Barnes & Noble will soon be introducing the next generation of the nook soon.

If you have a nook- please feel free to comment your thoughts on yours.

For the quick facts:
Size: 7.7 in x 4.9 in x .05
Weight: 11.2 oz
Display: E Ink Vizplex Display
Display Size: 6in
Operating System: Android 1.
Battery Life: Without wiFi turned on, 10 days.
Memory: 2GB, holding about 1,500 books
Additional Memory Available: Yes
Audio: MP3 ability with headphone jack
Wireless: Yes, using AT&T
Supporting File Types: Any book carried by Barnes & Noble, PDFs and MP3s. You can also download JPGs for a personal screen saver.
Shareable Devices: Downloadable desktop software available for free to allow reading books on your desktop and to continue reading on your nook at a later time.

Sara Edmonds
DFW Tea Readers Group