Book Clubs taken to a new level?

With relatively little fanfare, Barnes & Noble, one of the largest bookstores in USA, released its new version of e-reader - Nook Color today. In the last post, I had mentioned how an e-reader experience does not come close to the real deal. At the same time, I mentioned that there are some areas (such as manuals and reference books) where an e-book can come in handy instead of having to lug around huge tomes. This is where the sweet spot for an e-reader to me is.

As an avid reader, one of the biggest attractions to me after I came to USA was Barnes & Noble - the wide selection of books, resident coffee shop, and more importantly, the freedom to sit down and thumb through books at leisure. During my bachelor days, I used to sit down for hours over weekend (and at times during weeknights) in the company of books (geeky, I agree). As an IT professional, this was very helpful since I couldn't afford the breadth of books required to keep myself up to date. I used to do my bit of paying back by buying coffee, snacks, their yearly membership, and occasional bargain books I could afford.

Eventually, Amazon came into being and B&N popularity declined, leading it to think about putting itself on sale. I have always felt that B&N missed a good opportunity by not capitalizing its brick and mortar stores and augmenting it with its online presence. In this era of instant gratification, it would have been nice to be able to order the book online at a price competitive with Amazon and be able to pick it up at the nearest store. I am sure that there are some pricing issues involved here, but it couldn't be any worse than losing the sale to Amazon!

Similar opportunities were missed when Amazon introduced Kindle and it took a while for B&N to get in the bandwagon with the Nook. Now, almost a year after the old Nook, B&N has announced the release of Nook Color, the successor to Nook. At the outset, this does not sound like a good idea - Nook Color is customized version of an Android Tablet. So, it does not have the advantages of an e-reader (e-ink) or that of a tablet (app store and flexible OS).

However, I think they do have two great ideas that compensates for the disadvantages - the Kids Store and the Social Networking angle. I personally am not a fan of putting kids books on an e-reader for the same reasons I had mentioned earlier - it does not carry the same emotions as that of a nice picture book held by you and your child. However, after having seen my nephews and nieces take to electronic gadgets so easily, I have reluctantly started accepting the harsher realities of life that the level of emotion attached to material things diminish as generations pass by. So, I think it is a clever move on B&N's part to introduce kiddie books on the Nook, something the Kindle and iPad have failed to capitalize.

 The other major idea is bringing social networking to reading, at least more seamlessly. I love the idea that you can 'lend' books to other 'Nook'ies. Many a times I have read a nice book that I wanted to share with others but also know that they may not really want to buy it - lending is perfect in these situations. Not only it builds a nice community, but also promotes the purchase of Nooks within these circles - it gives a whole new dimension to a book club. I can envision Oprah giving out Nooks in her next Book Club meeting!

In addition, the Nook Color also seems to have the qualities that I personally look for in an e-reader / tablet:

1. Display color
2. Render PDF files
3. Expandable memory via SD cards or equivalent
4. Additional features like music/video playback, a few games, and a web browser

There is still a question of execution. As of this writing, Nook Color is still a few weeks away from being available and I am not sure how good the device itself is. Assuming that it is decent, I hope for Barnes & Noble's sake that this causes a real revolution and evolves e-reading beyond what Kindle and iPad have been able to do.