So, in my last post, I lamented about not posting movie, book or even my reviews of my e-reader, the nook.  So here is an all in one post.

This summer Barnes and Noble offered free classic e-book collections every week. While I had downloaded a lot of these from Project Gutenberg the books downloaded from Barnes and Noble seemed to have a little better e-book setup. My little nook now has over 300 books loaded and ready for reading at any time. I think that this has been one of my better electronic investments. I’ve been able to re-visit many of the books I read in my younger days, and I don’t even have to remember to put in a bookmark. Also Barnes and Noble has a wonderful ongoing program of free book Fridays. Every Friday is a new book. These can be old classics, new books in a series, or just other books that are offered for free. As you can tell, I’m all about free. Many books to read, and I wonder if I can get to them all.

But on the book itself. I just finished reading “King Solomon’s Mines” by H. Rider Haggard. The story was definitely dated. The treatment and understanding of non-white people was from the period the book was written, and it would not be tolerated in today’s publishing climate. Getting that out of the way, the story held my interest (even if I knew how it turns out) and I enjoyed the escape from the every day it gave me. And that got me to think of some movies with one of the heroes of this story.

King Solomon’s Mines has been made into a movie many times. Some were serious treatments of the book/story, while others were light-hearted romps. The narrator/hero of the story was Allen Quartermain. He also showed up in a movie based on a graphic novel/comic book. It was “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen”. I’ve already commented on that movie, so here is the one I remember.

Back in 1985 a movie came out called “King Solomon’s Mine” and playing Mr Quartermain was Richard Chamberlain. This was the fun romp of a movie. Most people at the time did not see this as a spoof of the very successful “Raiders of the Lost Arc” but it was. Indiana Jones could have been seen as loosely based on the Allan Quartermain character, and the movie “King Solomon’s Mine” definitely played on that connection. This movie even one-upped Indy, by having its hero dragged behind a moving vehicle, however it was a train. The movie also had daring escapes and of course dreaded Germans. WWI instead of WWII Germans, but they were still there (no mention of any German troops in the book).

I really enjoyed the fun time at this movie, and I’m again reminded of the wonderful company I had when watching it. I think it is time to watch that movie again.

I remember back when “The Last Crusade” came out that we thought it would have been fun to have another Allan Quartermain spoof. That didn’t happen. Oh well.

I made a purchase for my nook reader over the weekend that made reading with the Nook just one step closer to the books it is replacing. And it does have the smell of a new leather bound book.

I picked up a protective cover for it. A nice leather cover that opens up like a book. Holding the leather gives the Nook a different feel. Less like a piece of electronic equipment, and yes more like a book. I was surprised at how close to a book it was when I tried to turn the page. I actually tried to flip non-existent pages in an electronic book. I’m not sure if it was the feel of the cover, or the material I was reading.

Anyway the book I was reading was another free download from B&N. The author is Lee Child and the book was the 9th in a series of murder mysteries with the lead character being Jack Reacher.

It was a gripping novel that had me not wanting it to be time to sleep. Very hard to put down. It also made me want to look up other works of this author. While I haven’t been disappointed in any of the free books I’ve had the chance to read, I did notice the special free selections seemed to be aimed at getting the reader to buy other books. Excellent marketing ploy. Free books to download on Fridays and for a limited time more free books to download when you go into a B&N store. Most have been a good first representation of a particular author/style. A couple have been books I wouldn’t normally look at, but I try at least the first chapter to see if I care for it at all.

Not much in the way of a book review, but I thought that it was interesting that I tried to turn a physical page after I put the Nook in a cover.

Barnes and Noble is really making headway with their book reader. Today I just got a software update for my Nook. They made somethings easier like connecting to Wi-Fi sites and loading music. And they added a thing or two. The first was a section for Games. So far there are only two games, but I’m sure they will add more. I’m sure part of it will be a money maker for them too. I can see them charging for ‘Game’ apps. They said they did some changes to make the page turning quicker. All good right!

Then there is the big change. I can now access the internet on my Nook. I was able to read blog posts, check up on email and some other things you can do on the web. I don’t think it is made to play movies or things like that, but it does handle basic text and graphics very well. I don’t think I would ever use it for more than quick replies. The data entry is a bit rough for me. I did try to reply to a blog, but it said I was posting from a spam site, even when I was logged in as me. Hmmm.

Big problem though, the Web seems to eat battery life. I guess I will need to keep my charging cord available at all times if I want to scan the web often.

I just hope the abiltity to store my books in files, or give them tags will be available soon.

Third post on this, are you tired of it yet?

Well, I now have hundreds of books at my disposal on my new Nook E-Book reader. From Neverland to Wonderland and on the way to OZ. I have books set in the orient, on the moon and in oceans. Books from Baum, Barrie, Doyle, Carroll and Kipling. Lesser known authors for most like Rhomer, Simak and others. So at my fingertips I have reading for weeks or maybe months. Yes I read a lot.

Here are the things I like best about my new e-reader.

It is very easy to download books onto the machine. It would be easier to get them directly from Barnes & Noble, but I can load all of the books I have from Project Gutenburg and feedbooks through the USB port. I like having a wide selection to look at.

It is easy to read the screen in all types of light. I can adjust the font larger if I forget my reading glasses. It does need light to read, just like a book, so it doesn’t get as tiring as a computer screen.

It is easy to mark my place or get back to the exact location I finished reading. The automatic bookmark will keep my current spot in the book I’m reading. You can leave the book, open another and come back to the exact spot you were reading.

I have an unlimited storage capacity. OK, it is limited by my bank account. I can only buy so many memory cards. I haven’t put books on all the ones I have yet!!!

I can have a new book anytime of day, from almost any place. More good news for me.

It is easy to carry the reader around. It is about the size of a paperback book, and about the same weight. I don’t have to lug my laptop around for the books stored in it.

I got to try it out before buying it. The biggest selling e-book reader is a bit harder to try out, unless you know somebody with one.

I can share my books with other Nook owners or people with a (free) Nook reader on their computer. You can loan books for 14 days.

The service from B&N has been great. I really can’t say enough about that. That service made the purchase for me. I will go there again (yeah, I know I was going there before the service.) Guess what guys, I will actually talk about that experience. They are getting free advertising from me.

Now for the down side..

Hey, it is expensive. I could have purchased a lot of books for the price of this machine. Not that I have the shelf space for them, but it is a lot of books

I am not a big fan of the entry screen for note taking or any typing. My fingers are almost too fat to get the keys correctly. It doesn’t look like it will work with a stylus either. Some of the other screens to move around the books are almost too small. If you have larger than average fingers, I would suggest book reader with real keys.

It is a little slow to turn pages. And when it comes to speed, if you have a lot of books on your reader, it takes a bit to load them in.

I’m not 100% certain, but it doesn’t look like you have a good way to organize your books. I would like to break them up by classification. Science Fiction, Mystery, Children’s Classics, History, ect. If I find a way to do that easily, I will let you know.

That about does it. Two thumbs way up for this book reader.

Ok, my initial reactions to my new book Nook. I like it a lot, as long as I am using it with books downloaded in the proper format. This would be the standard format for readers. PDF files of some of the older books that are straight scanned don’t work too well. I haven’t found a way to enlarge pictures, so some of the text is not readable. I was wishing for a magnifier function.

I now have over 100 different books loaded on the machine and I get to pick my way through to see which ones I will keep. It will play mp3 music files, and since I can actually save my plays in that format, I could use this in place of my recorder. I could set it up to read a script and play the audio at the same time.

More to come as I find out more about it…

I was looking at getting an e-book reader for some time. I’ve been loading old classics on to my computer and reading them from the screen. There were a couple of problems with this. The first was that if I wanted to take the book with me, it meant that I had to have the book on the laptop and the laptop with me. The second was that the laptop was not conducive to late night reading in bed. I would just do other things on the laptop. Can’t do that with a book.

So, I picked up a Barnes & Noble Nook reader. It had some advantages over the other readers that I really liked, so I decided to get one.

I will give a full review after I’ve had time to go over the ins and outs of the device. I will say that I am very happy with the service. I happened to get a bad device. It just would not turn on after I turned it off. The people at Barnes & Noble were wonderful in 1) trying to find out what was wrong with the device and 2) making sure I left the store with a working device today. I’m certain that the problem with my machine was a fluke, but it was handled in a very professional and friendly manner. My hat is off the the Barnes and Noble crew.

I have my first book loaded on the machine, So, I’m now going to settle back and read a chapter or two.