Barnes & Noble NOOK Color E-Reader Review

I bought the Nook Color Book Reader two years ago. I was amazed. My family had just recently moved and I was completely irritated with all the books we had to move with us! If you are a reading enthusiast and you have ever moved, then you know exactly what I am talking about. Packing your books is the easy part, but when you go to lift that box and the other twenty five to fifty boxes of books, ugh! I thought, "We have GOT to get rid of some of our books!" My family freaked out. I loved our books too, but what could I do to reduce our book load?

The Nook by Barnes & Noble was new on the market, so I thought we should check it out.

I was aware that my kids and I would be able to read books on the Nook. I was not aware of all the other feature's this awesome little device offers!

Weighing in at 15.5 ounces the Nook Color measures 5" by 8" by .5". There is a fully functioning world inside. Somehow B & N shoe-horned a pc into a nutshell.

Here you can download the complete manual for the Nook Color.

When you start the Nook for the first time you must go through a set-up process that takes a good twenty minutes or more to complete. The set-up includes registering your Nook and which requires opening an account with B & N. It's all password protected so you don't have to worry about kids or friends downloading a bunch of books without your permission. The Nook won't work until you go through this process.

Once your Nook is set-up you're ready to go.

The first screen you'll see is the Nook Home Screen. This screen offers the latest books offered by B & N and books that may be of interest to you according to your shopping habits.

You can read the same book on your laptop or computer that you're reading on your Nook. When you read a book on your laptop the Nook will synchronize with it so you won't loose your page. The Nook updates and synchronizes every time the wifi connects on the Nook.

With a touch of the Shop button you can download magazines, newspapers, video books, kids picture books, these include interactive books also or your favorite novel! Your purchases are saved into your Library on the Nook. The B & N website has all the latest releases, best sellers and today's newspaper. You can also surf the web and download books at your favorite website. If you enter, "0.00" in the shopping search box B & N will display all their free books and free previews of books. After two years I haven't read all the free books I'm interested in. There are new one's uploaded all the time. Novels, kid's books, non-fiction, there's huge selection of free stuff.

There are all sorts of Apps available for download. Everything on my Nook was free. There are apps you can purchase, but be sure to check out the free one's also, there is are some really cool stuff there.

Also, in the Apps menu, you will find an email icon. Here you can set up your email to be downloaded right onto your Nook! Write, send, save, with multiple email accounts. If you receive a lot of email the Nook can handle it. Just scroll the screen to see all of your mail (video below demonstrates scroll).

When you're reading a book on the Nook, touch the center of the screen and a menu will appear at the bottom that allows you to customize the book for easier reading and formating. You can also touch a word on a page and a menu offering the definition and look-it-up features are displayed.

The Nook menu also has a universal settings option. Below is a table with the various options offered on the settings screen.

The battery lasts f-o-r-e-v-e-r it seems like. I can charge it in the morning and it will last the day easily. Recently one of my kids stepped on the edge of the Nook with the charger plugged in and it bent the charging adapter, so I opened it up (not recommended! I know electronics) and straightened the charging port and it went back together just fine and charges perfectly now. I do have a car and home charger for convenience. The charging port is similar to several cell phone chargers, so check your cell phone charger before buying a specific charger for the Nook, they might match.

I didn't buy into the protective covers for it. I thought they were cute but a little pricey for us. To my amazement it has lasted just fine without a cover.

The Nook Color is one of the best purchases I've ever made. It's lasted two years with three kids (all under 13 years), traveling everywhere we go (from the beach to the snowy mountains) and, believe this, it was accidentally left on the ground outside for eight weeks in the middle of winter!! When we found it I thought, "Oh, no, it's ruined." But we brought it in, let it dry out for a couple of days and VOILA' it started up just like it should!! Unbelievable!

The Nook still looks like it did when we first bought it and it works like new too.