Nook v Kindle

I have a regular ol' kindle, love it. Only bad thing is you cant read in bed because it doesnt light up.

I have a Nook and I love it! I've never used a Kindle, so I can't really compare the two... but I'm happy with what I have.

I have a Nook simple touch and LOVE it! I've never used a Kindle, so I can't compare actual use, but I can tell you why I chose Nook for myself.

Nooks can read a variety of formats (PDF, Epub) while Kindle has to be the proprietary Kindle format. At the time, library e-books could be read on nook but not kindle. Now, many libraries also carry Kindle formatted ebooks, but I still find being able to read both pdf and epub gets me the books I want faster... however if you plan to BUY every book, this is a non issue.

Nooks can share books between Nook users.

Nook can read for free (up to an hour on each book) when you're inside Barnes and Nobel stores, so you get the old experience of browsing books in the book store.

My advice is to check out the book titles available through Amazon and through B&N that your 8 yo is interested in. Since the point is to READ, make sure there will be books (s)he is interested in reading :)

Library and real books. Our kids already have enough technology. If he loves to read, give him the joy of the smell and feel of a real book, where he can enjoy drawing closer to the end, by visually seeing his progress, instead of "57% finished..."

My daughter got a Nook when she was 7, and we upgraded all of our kids to the Kindle Fires this past Christmas.

We are a Kindle family...we can't get the Nook to work to save our lives and my husband works in IT. The darn thing will never stay connected.

I have a straight up Kindle not a fire. I needed to be able to read in the car, ya know, in sunlight.

I can't remember what all the reasons were anymore but I think the Kindle is better.

I have a Nook (two actually) and love it. I haven't had any issues (customer service, function, etc.). My husband bought me the GlowLight for Mother's Day and that is amazing. The clip on lights just never produced enough light for night reading in my opinion. I felt like it was a strain to read in low light situations. The GlowLight solves that issue. Also I like going into my local Barnes and Noble to read a book for an hour. I find that a great way to sample new authors without purchasing. My very good friend has a basic Kindle and we've swapped for a bit. I can't tell the difference with what the time I spent on the Kindle. An e-reader is an e-reader at some point. Good luck.

I have a Nook Color, and I chose that over the Kindle Fire for the same reasons Thea did.

My guess is that it's pretty much 6 of one, half dozen of the other with a few exceptions here and there. The Nook does have the ability to use external memory (not sure I'll ever need that, but you never know).

What probably sold me in the end was knowing that if I ever had issues I could walk into a Barnes and Noble and show it to someone and probably resolve whatever issue I was having. I'm sure Amazon has wonderful customer support over the phone, but I really like being able to just say, "Look, I want to do A, but I can only get it to do B and C. What do I need to do." I've only had a couple of questions so far, but I've loved being able to do that.

And I do like going to Barnes and Noble and reading books there for free. Now if only I had more time to do that ... !

Very happy with my Nook Color. I have had it for 1 1/2 years with no problems. It easily connects to Wi-Fi... and I swich wi-fi networks all the time (my home, my folks home, etc.) with no problems.

You can of course buy books directly from the Nook Color, or from BN.com. It also reccomends books based on your previous purchases.

Not related to ease of use, but over the past year I have not been happy with Amazon's business practices so I try very hard to do as little business with them as possible..

I got my 8 year old a kindle. He loves it but we have had problems. If you go with the kindle spend the extra $50 on the warrenty. They replace it if anything goes wrong. We have replaced one and this one keeps booting him off the internet.
Good luck.
:)
PS. go to www.coliryan.com to find the best deals on both. :)

Love my kindle fire and i also have the kindle 2 that my husband now uses. I vote Kindle but I honestly havent really played with the Nook any except in books a million on their display

I have a regular kindle for reading and I love it...

I CAN read in bed as my husband for my birthday bought me the kindle case with the built in book light. It is awesome!!

If you need a book light for bedtime reading get the case with the light built in.

I have a basic Kindle and that's what I would get for an 8-10 year-old.

And yes, I can read in bed, with what's called a "table lamp". ;-)

i love my kindle fire. the basic wouldn't work for me because the best thing about the fire is that i can read it in bed.
i haven't tried the nook, but i must say that being able to take it into a store and get it looked at in the event of problems is a huge plus. my kindle has been fine thus far, but any time you have to call a customer service line, you're in for a world of hurtin'.
khairete
S.

For an 8 yo, the standard Kindle is probably best. I only use mine to read books, nothing else. Since they are about $79 right now, don't bother with a warranty. A new one costs just about as much as the warranty.

my niece had a nook. my sister returned it because my niece liked the feel of paperbound books. i have a kindle (the basic one) and i love it, but then again i'm not 8. :) i looked at the nook, too. i like that it's in color and it's more commonly used in schools (over the kindle). our kids use the ipad to read books half the time and we got to the library to get paperbound books the other half of the time. technology is here to stay so kids have to know how to use it and embrace it. ereaders like the ipad helps keep kids (who are not that into reading) engaged. but it sounds like yours just wants to read so the nook should suffice. and with either of the options, you can borrow books from other respective nook or kindle owners. best of luck!

I have a Kindle Touch and absolutely love it! My 8 y/o is always trying to sneak it and read his books that I have downloaded for him :)
I bought a $20 case from amazon that has a little reading light attached so I can read anywhere!!
My husband bought me the Kindle b/c my sister has one and convinced him to get me one. There are quite a few books you can "share" with another kindle user. We have found the newer/most popular books won't allow you to "loan" them out. Unfortunately, you don't know that until after you've purchased them. But we are able to share the majority of the books we purchase.

I have a nook simple reader and have enjoyed it. I do know that I don't like paying for the books so I usually download books from the library. I think some of the kindle books might be cheaper to purchase but you can look on amazon and barnes and noble's websites to see which has the type of books and the prices that you would prefer to pay. The readers I think are both similar so you could go either way. If you want the Kindle Fire or the Nook Color I think you may want to do more research to see which one has the features that you want.

I would say Kindle because Amazon has tons of wonderful free (or really cheap) books to download.