Hi everyone! I have returned to the blogging world! This has been one super busy summer for me, and it's not over yet! In my next blog entry I will tell you all about my summer events (and include pictures!). This entry is dedicated to the new Nook I just bought two days ago. I am still getting used to it, and haven't figured out how I truly feel about the Nook.
Before I express my feelings about the nook, let me express how I feel about books in general. It's hard for me to wrap my head around reading a book off of an electronic device. I love walking into Barnes & Noble or Borders, and just seeing all the books. I love holding the books, looking at the covers, reading the backs of books, information about the author, and scanning through the book to see if it looks exciting. I love holding the book in my hands, seeing how much I've read, being able to flip the pages. To me, a book is something magical. It holds all these special characters, events, and words. Books hold information about the author. They are also a separate, special world. Whether it take place on Earth or underwater, or in space, we are transported to that location. We are able to leave our worry and stress behind and enter into this new world. We, the reader, visit new locations, make new friends with the characters, and learn about ourselves. Open up any of my favorite books, and you will see colorful highlighting, blue underlying (yes blue, I have OCD when it comes to marking up my books) and notes in the margins. Those marks aren't there just because a paragraph is important to the story, but because it meant something special to me. Yes, the nook offers all of this, you can even highlight, but it is not the same. When I begin to think about books being replaced by the nook, or the kindle, or whatever device, I become depressed.
But now back to the pros and cons of the nook. Yesterday I went into NYC to meet up with a friend. I took a bus and subway to get to the meeting location. It was great having my Nook. I have ruined many bags by carrying around heavy books. The nook is nice and light, and fits very well in my bag. I also enjoy the fact that my nook remembers my spot in the book. I am very bad with bookmarks (I always lose them). All I have to do is turn on my nook, press a button, and it goes right to my spot. Fabulous. I also like the nook because I can hold thousands of books on it. I am the type of person who can read more than one book at a time. I usually read two books at a time. I will either alternate days, or depending on how I feel at the moment, I will decide which book to read. With the nook I don't have to worry about carrying around two books with me. I can just carry one device, and read whatever I want.
As for what I do not enjoy about the nook, I still can't believe I spent $150 when I can go down to the library, take out a book for free, and read it. And even though I still have the nook, I will be visiting the library very often. There are a lot of new books out that I would love to read, but I don't want to spend the money unless I know how great the book is. I also do not like the fact that you can only borrow books from friends for 14 days. Some books take longer to read than others, especially when I have schoolwork to do. If I don't finish that book in the 14 days, than I either have to buy it, sit in Barnes & Nobles and finish the book, or rent it from the library. I am not opposed to the last two, but it would be a lot easier if I could just keep it on the nook for a little longer.
Now that I am done with my issues about the nook, I will move on to my issues with electronic reading devices. Since I am going to school to be a teacher, we hear a lot about illiteracy, and schools and families not having the money for books. Since these electronic reading devices are so expensive (plus the cost of books), not everyone will be able to afford them. Also people who have electronic devices will stop buying books, meaning there won't be as many books to donate to schools, shelters, libraries, etc. I feel like in 10 years people will be judging each other based on if they read from books or from electronic devices. Hopefully I am proven wrong.
I feel a lot better now that I have vented. All these thoughts about the nook have been swirling around my head. One minute I feel guilty for buying such an expensive device when I can just go to the library. The next minute I am excited to whip out my nook, and read through. Since there is less space in the window than on the page, I feel like I am reading a lot more quickly. This makes me happy. I would love to know how other people feel about their nook and electronic reading devices.
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