Product Review: Nook Color

So I'd been minding my own business, happily ignoring the whole e-reader craze. I'm not one of those purists who only wants to read books with pages made of paper, I'm just one of those cheapos that hates to buy books. So when I heard recently that on the Nook you can check out epub books online, my curiosity was piqued. Then when I checked them out at Barnes & Noble and found out you can browse the internet on them, I was sold.

The Pros:
*You can check out books online from your local library without leaving your house! For me this was the MOST important thing. I have three little kids, I work full-time, and my husband is in school, so my time for going to the library and browsing around is pretty limited. So to be able to just log on, look around, put some virtual books in my virtual cart, and then have them appear on my Nook is AWESOME. Even better, they magically disappear from your Nook when they're "due." No more late fees! Not that I um, ever got late fees at the library, of course.

*You can get online. My husband is in school and spends a lot of time on our laptop, reading and studying. It's nice to have another option for browsing the web, and it's a nice little size.

*Rumor has it that Barnes and Noble is going to start coming out with some apps for it. Not sure of the truthfulness of this, but it's a nice possibility. It does have some games (Sudoku, chess), and you can stream Pandora.

*The color is nice. I don't personally get magazine or newspaper subscriptions on it, but you can. Also, if you have a book that has pictures in it, it's nice to be able to see them in color. Also, there are cute kids books and the color is great on them as well.

*The books aren't actually expensive as I thought to purchase. A lot of the NY Times bestsellers are only $5, and most of the rest are up to about $10-$15. So not too bad.

*The backlighting - for me, I LIKE this. For others, it's a con. With the regular Kindle and Nook, the screen looks like a real book page. With the Nook Color, it's backlit, like a computer screen. I like being able to read in bed, or in poorly-lit areas (which we have a lot of in our house!).

The Cons:
*When people told me you can check out books online, I envisioned these large websites where you can check out anything, immediately. As far as I've found, they don't have that. You need to check out the books from your local public library. Fortunately, I live in an area that's very technologically-oriented, and they have a TON of epub books to check out. But not all libraries are that way. So you may want to find out what your local library has before you use this as a main motivation to buy a Nook.

*It's much harder to go back and find a certain part than it is with a real book. You can search if you want, but if not, you have to tap along a slider bar and sort of try to find the spot you want. This is irritating.

*I worry about how light and fragile it is. My kids know they are absolutely not supposed to touch it. But we all know how that goes sometimes!

So, all in all, I consider it a GREAT purchase. I have read more in the month that I've had it than I have the entire rest of my six years of marriage. I'm reading all kinds of stuff, like several books a week. And I love reading, so it's been great to be able to get back to this hobby. If you have any other specific questions, I'd be happy to answer them, just let me know!