All For the Nook-y

I'm feeling like total, utter crap today. Which I suppose is an improvement of sorts, as I learned yesterday that the chest pain I've been secretly suspecting is the harbinger of an impending heart attack is actually "acute chest wall pain" brought on by... wait for it... upper body exercise. Suddenly, a little winter cold doesn't seem so bad! The sniffles still suck, though. I'd rather be at home, snuggled up with my fave chicken soup granules (#9), a snuggie and a good book.

Which brings me to my next point. You might have caught it in this post, but Andrew gave me a Nook for Christmas. Despite my assertion that these little electronic devices are the harbinger of doom for the world of print publishing, I have found myself loving mine. Probably similar to the way that I will one day feel about children, but I digress. I do, however, find myself annoyed that I'm suddenly spending so much money on books, particularly when I have two overflowing bookcases with at least an entire shelf's worth of tomes I have yet to read. Back in November, I made a pact with myself that I wouldn't buy any new books until I'd finished reading the ever-growing stack currently serving as a dust bunny brothel, but then this fancy little gadget came waltzing into my life and really, how could I resist?

Heineken green really suits my deathly pallor, no?

Miserly tendencies aside, I find it equally irritating that I've recently read two tales that I want to share with my friends (The Night Circus and Divergent), but since they all have Kindles and I have a Nook, I can't. Barnes and Noble and Amazon utilize two different platform formats for their eBooks, so it's not possible to share your purchases with people outside of your device. Similarly, not all books that you buy feature the "Lend It!" function, so even if I could share with my Amazonian friends, I might not be able to.

WTF, Barnes and Noble?! I understand your business plan and all, but could you kindly stop infringing upon my right to share my purchased literature with other bibliophiles? I'm not the one shelling out $3.99 for copies of mail-order bootlegged books from Amazon; I paid my dues. Let me share my books, damn it!

Of course, for every irritating con, there is an equally laudable pro. I love that I didn't have to lug all 1500 pages of Gone With the Wind (5 stars; worth the hype) around on the T with me anymore; I bought the Nook version and delighted each and every time that I whipped out my slick little eReader: "No, sir; no backaches for me!" I get to make snarky comments in my head about the "poor, unfortunate" paper-copy readers on park benches and at Starbucks counters. Angry Birds has made insufferable conference calls a thing of the past, and I can read any book for free for an hour a day at any Barnes and Noble store. As for my tendency to bend corners and break bindings as reminders of well-loved phrases and/or plot development? A thing of the past, my friend -- the Nook has a bookmark feature and even lets me make important notes such as, "interesting placement of color -- perhaps blue foreshadow?" and, "Love the sentence construction! So delicate!" (I'm a nerd; get over it).

And so, despite my hesitancy (read: need to be dragged kicking and screaming) to abandon the print publishing industry and embrace the 21st century, I must confess that my Nook is a pretty nifty gadget. I'm sure that in time, a lot of the little negatives will go away; Andrew and I have talked about how we suspect B&N will one day begin to offer some kind of deal where if you buy the eBook, you will be able to purchase the paper copy at a steep discount. There have also been murmurings of a universal eBook format afoot, which would make me really happy. Plus, truth be told, if I really love a book, I'm going to buy the hard copy anyway, because a little back-lit electronic box just won't cut it when I'm curled up on the couch, a box of tissues by my side and Gilmore Girls reruns on tv.

It's just not in my nature.

Are you down with the eReader trend? Kindle or Nook? If any of you have Nooks and wanna be friends, let me know!

PS - Congrats to my brother Brendan and his girlfriend, who welcomed their baby girl to the world yesterday! Auntie Caitie loves you all! And good luck to his twin brother Brian (my other brother) and his girlfriend, who will be welcoming their baby girl to the world tomorrow! 

PPS - I'm convinced I am descended from rabbits.