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No more Nook

Published on 31 Comments on No more Nook

Oh great. It's no longer possible to download the Barnes & Noble Nook app, which means there's no way to install it on my new tablet. This in turn means that the ~100 books I have on Nook are now gone. Pffft. I will never be able to read them again.

Three cheers for the intersection of modern technology and crappy corporations.

31 thoughts on “No more Nook”

  1. drickard1967

    Watchoo talkin' 'bout, Willis? I just checked both the app store on my iPad and the Google Play store on my Samsung phone, and both had the Nook app available for download.

  2. kenalovell

    I feel your pain. I'm about to have to replace two perfectly good cell phones, original price close to $1,000 each, because Australia is shutting down the 3G network. And despite these being labelled 4G phones, they actually switch to 3G for calls and texts, meaning as of next month they will be nothing but mediocre cameras.

    2. different_name

      This is correct.

      You can choose to re-buy the same books when HugeCos decide it is time for you to "upgrade", or you can take control of your own media.

      Same principle applies to music and idiot-box fodder, too, different tools.

  4. coyoteblog

    I just texted my son who works for B&N corporate in NY. He has no idea what you are talking about. B&N is still managing to keep bricks and mortar bookstores alive, and even make a profit I am told. I think they do OK. Seriously, you would rather Amazon??

    All that said the transfer of content from actual owning it to effectively licensing access to a digital version is fraught with peril. As books get woke-bowdlerized and movies get kicked off streaming, I am reconsidering the digital value proposition.

    1. TheMelancholyDonkey

      Seriously, you would rather Amazon??

      Yes, I would. When I started using e-books, I bought a Nook. It completely died in less than a week. They replaced it. The new one lasted two weeks before it died. By that time, I was in China for three months, and couldn't replace it. It had been the primary method I had planned to use to fill my downtime from teaching. I spent those three months frequently bored, since I had nothing to read.

      Maybe the Nook has gotten more reliable since then. I'm not going to find out, because B&N blew their chance to have me as an e-book customer. In the 11 years since I switched to a Kindle, I haven't had any technical issues.

      1. azumbrunn

        you are lucky, I guess. I bought two Kindle's. The first one died within a few months, the second did exactly the same thing. That was it for me.

  5. timill

    Which tablet? I just downloaded it to my Samsung from the Play store without problems.

    Then again, the loss of the PC app some years ago means that I now use Kindle instead...

  7. rick_jones

    Three cheers for the intersection of modern technology and crappy corporations.

    Indeed. I’m still peeved I cannot still get parts for my great-grandfather’s Stanley Steamer… of course I can still read his books…

    1. wvmcl2

      I bet you could get the parts if you looked hard enough. Steel needles for acoustic gramophones are still available.

    2. wvmcl2

      I bet you could get the parts if you looked hard enough. Steel needles for acoustic gramophones are still available.

  8. D_Ohrk_E1

    I would imagine that if you didn't already figure out that (1) you can access your books via the web app, (2) you could always use the web app to download the books and use an ePub reader to access them, whether Overdrive or some other app, (3) but if you were DRM'd, you could use a different app, like Calibre via DeDRM plugin, to unlock the DRM.

    1. Martin Stett

      That takes up zero space on your bookshelf. And if you think you 'own' a print edition, i've seen $30+ books at the library new shelf with cracked spines. (Sitting next to me is a used book from 1926 in worn but sound condition.)

      Who else remembers vacationing with a couple of books that turn out to be duds, and trying to find a used paperback at a thrift to get me through the week? My Kindle currently holds 243 books. And weighs less than a book.

      1. different_name

        If you read fiction like people watch TV (don't really care what, don't really remember it after), I'm sure that works just fine.

        And I have no idea what a cracked spine on a library book has to do with the First Sale doctrine.

    2. wvmcl2

      Maybe true, but then most books I don't really need to "own." I'm happy to read them in whatever form is convenient, including library loans in both hardcopy and digital formats. With most books, when I'm finished, I'm finished. For the few that I might want to refer to later, I can always get hold of another copy.

      The books I really want to have in my house are relatively small in number (key reference works, complete Shakespeare, some basic poetry and short story collections, my favorite history works, etc.).

  12. lower-case

    somewhat related... a few years ago i bought a polar h10 heart rate monitor

    they had android/apple phone apps, but nothing for windows, probably because windows made it slightly more difficult to access your personal data

    ended up finding an old library on github that could pull the data and then wrote my own app; better in the long run anyway since i can add my own features

    1. Boronx

      Seriously. Back up your books to an open format and use a generic app to read them. This also allows you to mix and match books from different sources.

  15. name99

    Kevin, this is just going to keep happening to you as long as you continue to choose tech based on vibes ("Apple sucks because reasons") rather than on demonstrated historical pattern...

    Every year I think you'll learn something based on these experiences, and every years there's another version of the "I'm going to buy random company's new thing rather than the Apple version because I define myself as an anti-Apple person" post.

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