Nook Friendless

Now that I have the damn thing a Nook e-reader, I thought I'd check out the lending feature and share e-books I buy with friends. Only turns out that none of my friends in the real world has a Nook, or any e-reader at all. I know my sister has an ancient Kindle, but I'm not sure it will let her borrow anything from me (disclaimer: I've yet to find any official info on if inter-device lending is even possible. I had to comb through B&N.com's Nook forums for half an hour before I found out how the LendMe thing works.)

In the process of investigating how all this lending stuff works, I came across Rick Broida's cnet article Four Matchmaking Services for e-book Borrowing and Lending that lists four online sites that evidently help match you up with another reader who wants to swap e-books and/or allow you to lend and borrow e-books for free (I've yet to personally check out the terms and conditions on any of the sites so if you do want to give them a test-drive be cautious and read up on their small print first.)

I'm also not sure how many Nook friends I really want to have. I haven't bought a lot of books for the e-reader, so my library is still pretty tiny. I'd be okay with lending books, but for my part I'm more inclined to pay for a book than borrow one (that way I own it and I can read it whenever I want.) And the whole "friend" aspect really annoys me; why do they have to use that word? That's the reason I've avoided LiveJournal and Facebook; I have a very different definition of the word friend. I think your e-reader "friends" can ask you to lend them books, too; what if I'm reading it and say no? Will they decide we're not friends anymore?

It makes my head hurt just to think about it. I also suspect one can easily go overboard with this sort of thing and become a slave to your e-reader lend-me-borrow-me whatever list. It's not something I want to do or check every day or even every week. If anything I'd like to build a small, private circle of like-minded book lovers who like to swap books a couple times a year. More like a private e-book club, minus the meetings.

I'm still learning, and I know 99% of you out there are way more knowledgeable on these things than me, so if you have a moment I'd appreciate some advice. Have any of you come up with a workable system to handle lending out your e-books? Do you have a small circle of e-reader friends, do you just lend to family, or have you tried one of these e-book matchmaker services? Also, how is the whole lending thing working out for you? Let me know in comments.

They Finally Got Me

It's mine, thanks to my lovely family, who decided to drag me into the twenty-first century and the E-Future by giving it to me for my birthday. So now I have to learn how to use one.

Here's a peek at the first book I bought (which is ridiculously easy, and now I get why people are buying so many e-books):



Works of e.e. cummings, which is not a complete works (which I would have preferred) but includes The Enormous Room, the one novel he wrote that I've never read. I also wanted Edward to be the first author on my e-reader; he's always brought me luck.

My other purchases: Marjorie Liu's Hunter Kiss novels, because that's the one series I want to take with me wherever I go, and I assume this thing will be traveling with me. I also invested in Carolyn Jewel's Free Fall as my first indie author buy.

So now I'm curious -- if you have an e-reader, what was the first book you bought for it, and why?

3 Hot Contests

Our blogpal SciFiGuy.ca is giving away two copies of author Kim Harrison's newest release Black Magic Sanction over at his place, and all you have to do is comment there on the following: "To enter tell us which Kim Harrison Hollows book is your favourite play on a Clint Eastwood movie title."

At the end of February author Lisa Valdez will be giving away a copy of her much-anticipated second novel, Patience, to a member of her Yahoo group (and there's a widget under the announcement where you can join it.)

To celebrate the release of her new novel Broken, Shiloh Walker is holding a contest for a brand-new Nook. You get 100 entries in the contest for pre-ordering the novel, or buying it during release week (see contest post for more details) but you can also have a no-cost shot at winning by posting a bit of promo on your blog.