Kindle or Nook?

Kindle or Nook?

Ah, a very serious question for me indeed. One that has consumed the better part of my Internet surfing hours this weekend.

Bookworm, bibliophile, bookaholic. Yep, that's me. I had seen a Kindle in the past, and read about the Nook as well, but I always maintained that it would be next-to-impossible to replace the feel of an actual book in one's hands, its solid weight comfortingly real. E-books held their own attraction, but nothing could pull me away from the good old-fashioned book.

Then I started to pore over the specs of these e-readers. I was hooked, the quasi-techie that I am. Each has its own pluses and minuses: Amazon's Kindle has its much-vaunted Pearl E-ink technology, with a display very closely approximating the printed page, and this goes very easy on the eyes, literally. Reviews state that downloading books is a cinch, even in the Philippines, there is free 3G access, and that battery life lasts for 3-4 weeks. Of course, all of these are over and above the fact that the Kindle is Amazon's #1 bestseller at the moment, with the most number of 5-star reviews. As it aims to replicate the physical-book reading experience, the display comes only in black (and shades of gray) and white. There is no expandable memory, although 4 GB is certainly nothing to sneer at.

The Nook Color is a beauty, no question about that. With full-color display and an expandable memory (up to 32 GB), this would've been a hands-down choice for me. These features come at a slight premium over the Kindle's price though. The big downside for Barnes & Noble's product though is that B&N do not ship internationally to the Philippines, and that downloading Nook-Books requires a credit card with a US address, something that I definitely do not have. I'm still trolling the Web for work-arounds.

And so I sat browsing the Amazon and B&N catalogs for the e-readers, covers, and available books.

Ah, my self-imposed snobbery on e-readers appears to be crumbling now.