The 21st Century Principal

E-reading has matured to the point that the software for the PC and the apps for the tablets are extremely reliable, and offer users options to make reading electronically comparable, if not better, then reading a physical book. I am an avid reader, and I can count the number of "physical books" I purchased last year on a single hand, and those books were purchased only because e-books were not available. Reading an e-book can be a pleasurable experience if one chooses their hardware carefully, and takes advantage of multiple e-book apps their their features. What advice do I have to offer?

1. Choose hardware that allows you download multiple e-reading apps. You should preferably choose a tablet that allows you to access multiple e-book vendors to make sure you get good prices on the products and so that you can find e-copies for the books you are searching for. For example, I use an iPad and iPad mini simply because I can download multiple e-reader apps. I currently use iBooks, Kindle, Nook, and Google Play. By using multiple apps, there are times when I can't find an e-version of a book on the Kindle, but I am able to find it on iBooks or one of the other providers. My choice of hardware for e-reading is to have an iPad, iPad mini, and a Kindle reader. The iPads give me access to ebooks across apps, and the Kindle reader allows me to access my Kindle library with a back-up device in case all my tablets need charging. The majority of the books I have purchased are in my Kindle library anyway.

2. Use multiple e-reader devices to increase accessibility of your e-library. For example, if you only have a single tablet, if that tablet loses charge, you may lose access to your reading while it charges. If you have multiple devices, you can allow one to charge while using another. Sounds like a petty idea, but for someone like myself who picks up a book to read any time, having multiple devices means I can do just that.

3. Use the upload capabilities of the e-reader apps to upload PDF documents, journal articles, and web posts. This feature is available for most e-reader apps. How it works is simple. I uncover a journal article or even a web blog post that I want to read in depth later. I can upload that document to my Kindle app by using a Chrome extension easily. This allows me to peruse the web post or journal article later across any of my devices. Most of the e-reader apps such as iBooks also allows you to open and read PDF documents as well.

4. Use the highlighting, note taking, and copy-paste features of the e-reader app. All e-reader apps offer users the options of highlighting text, making notes on text, and copying and pasting quotes. For someone who relies on e-books, this is actually much easier than using a physical book. For example, in the Kindle app, with the click of a button, I can display all my highlights, notes and bookmarks. This means I can find my highlighted textual notes much more quickly. Using an e-reader app also provides a text search function that allows you to pinpoint topics very easily. When you paste a quote from the Kindle app, bibliographic information is automatically added to your pasted text.

5. Store your e-library in the cloud. This means I do not have to devote physical space to books any longer. While I have been a book fanatic for as long as I can remember, I can also remember the constant struggle of trying to find a place to store books. Now that my books are stored in the cloud, space and storage are no longer an issue.

6. Share favorite quotes on social media. This is one of my personal favorite features of e-book apps. I can select a quote and immediately share it out on Facebook and Twitter. Many of my Twitter conversations have started over a quote that I shared. This feature makes what was once mostly a solitary activity a social activity.

E-reading has matured in the four or five years I have been using it. I have also become a more sophisticated user of e-books as well. To make your e-reading experience work, you have to select the apps and the hardware to make it work for you. With time, once you have explored all the capabilities of these e-book apps, you can begin to make those features work for you.

Now that I have had the opportunity to test drive a Nook Tablet, I can say, without a doubt, if you’re looking for an e-reader, you may want to consider purchasing a Kindle, rather than a Nook.

First, not all the books I purchase through Barnes and Noble are available across all my devices. For example, I purchased a special edition of a book entitled Crucial Conversations, and I am unable to access that book on my iPad. There are also at least two other titles I am unable to access either on my iPad or through using the Nook desktop app. For someone like myself, who is an avid reader, being able to access books on all my devices is vital. Unlike the Nook and Barnes & Noble e-books, every title I have purchased through Amazon has been available across every device. In the age of e-books and those of us who are avid e-readers, having anytime-anywhere access is key and the Nook fails on that count.

Secondly, the Barnes & Noble Nook tablet e-reader software makes for a “buggy” reading experience. On several occasions my reading has been interrupted with a screen inexplicably going blank, and I usually have to back out of the book I’m reading and reload it to get the text back. Also, on several occasions, the text I highlight either does not highlight, or I am unable to select specific words due to software glitches. In addition, on a few occasions, when I have tried to advance a page, the page simply would not advance. There also have been occasions when the “highlight text selection bar” freezes on my screen and I am unable to clear it. When e-reader software has this many bugs, it can make for quite a miserable reading experience. In contrast, with my Kindle Fire, I have never had any of these experiences. Avid e-readers like myself don’t mind a few bugs and quirks in the software, as long as they don’t unduly affect the reading experience. So far. my experience with the Nook e-reader software on the tablet has been borderline miserable.

Finally, the Nook PC Desktop software has many problems too. It suffers from many performance issues. It runs extremely slow in comparison to the Kindle PC software and takes much longer to load. It also suffers from strange, buggy behavior like the Nook tablet software. On several occasions, titles I have purchased, suddenly ask for credit card numbers to verify I have purchased them, even though I have purchased them. This especially happens after you download and install an update. It can be quite frustrating to have to uninstall and redownload purchased books again and again, but that is what I’ve had to do with the Nook desktop software. There are also titles I’ve purchased that I can read on my Nook tablet, but can’t access through my desktop app. Being able to read all of my purchased books on my desktop is important to me. The Nook desktop software is also prone to freezing on occasion as well, and this shouldn’t happen because I have more than enough memory and processing power. In addition to these issues, there are timee when  I highlight text and make notes on my handheld devices. These do not sync with the desktop app. This is important to me because I often highlight, read text, and make notes while using my tablet, then refer to those on my PC, but with the Nook desktop app, this is impossible. In contrast, any notes I take or textual highlights made using the Kindle handhelds appears in the Kindle Desktop app too. Over all, the Nook PC desktop app suffers from performance issues, buggy behavior, and syncing problems.

Overall, Amazon e-books and the Kindle offer readers a much better reading experience than e-books purchased through Barns & Noble and read on Nook devices. Barnes & Noble e-books and the Nook tablet suffer from performance issues that make for one frustrated reading experience.

The news is clear: the conversion to widespread use of e-readers and e-books continues apace. Textbook publishers and publishers of all types better have plans to offer e-book versions of their products or they will find their audiences limited.

Today, I personally discovered a phenomenon about this e-book transition while using a physical book. I actually caught myself trying to change the page in a book using the finger-slide method I use with my e-reader devices. That leads me to offer up this list of signs you are a converted E-reader Reader.

1) You try to turn the pages by sliding your fingers across the paper page or turn pages the way you would with your e-reader.
2) You try to highlight text by sliding your finger across the physical text in a book, and you actually wait for the pop-up selection box to appear that allows you to copy or highlight text.
3) You know you purchased a book, though you can't remember whether it was in e-book or physical form, but you look first in your e-reader device.
4) You do number 3, and you become disappointed to discover that it was a physical book which means you have to read it the old-fashioned way.
5) Someone suggests a book you need to read, and you become greatly disappointed when you go to the web site to order for you Kindle only to discover it isn't available as a e-text.
6) You buy a e-book version of titles you already have physical versions located on your bookshelves.
7) Months pass before you set foot in an actual bookstore.
8) When you do go to a bookstore, the purpose is to look for books to purchase for your e-reader.
9) You won't purchase a book until it is available as an e-book.
10) You fall asleep with your e-reader lying on your chest in the same place that once was occupied by your favorite, latest paperback novel.

The truth is I was like many out there, slow to adopt the e-reader. I had this fixation about the smell of pages, the touch of book paper between my fingers, and weight of a book on my chest when I would fall asleep. It hasn't taken long for me to get over all of that with all of the added functionality of an e-reader device.