I searched for a way to add my review of Nook Study to the official Barnes and Noble site and all I could find was a location to review Barnes and Noble in general. So here I am. I am frustrated.
When I first looked at Nook Study, I was so excited. I thought this would be a great way to get my school reading done on the go. I was wrong. I did realize this before I proceeded with my rental. I proceeded with reservations, though. They are turning out to be well-founded.
The way it works is you download the Nook Study application to your PC or Mac. It does not work for your regular Nook applications or your Nook device. As they state, many textbooks have rich content that cannot be properly displayed on these types of mobile devices. However, this actually makes reading even less convenient than having the actual book. I do not want to have to take my laptop with me to work. Indeed, I am not supposed to take it to work. There is also the increased risk involved with having the laptop stolen as opposed to the loss or theft of a text book. However, much of the content in texts is plain text. One could certainly get their reading done and bookmark areas that need to be looked at for rich content on a larger screen at a later time.
One is allowed to download their rented text to 2 devices (desktop, laptop, PC or Mac version) one of which can allow you a limited amount of printed pages. So one of the laptops I have my text authorized on is dead. I cannot de-authorize it without customer service, which of course keeps banker's hours. I cannot print enough pages to read my chapters while on work at breaks and lunch this weekend, and during slow times. I work swing/grave shift and this leaves many minutes of time that are good for reading. The only way I can access my text to read during that time would be to take my laptop to work. I cannot use my iPad, my android, or my Nook. I cannot send any pages to myself or print enough to matter.
For someone who can sit at their desk and read their text, or pack their laptop with them, this may be a great option. For someone with my study habits, this is not the best choice and has just proved to be very frustrating.
Aside from those issues, I also find the page turns to be awkward and distracting. I do not think I will be getting my texts in this format again.
