REALLY hate the new 'Nookbook' thing

[jewelianna]

Add me to the list of those confused and annoyed.  Worse, I can't seem to sort any of the categories any longer (mystery, fiction, etc).  Why is that gone?

[Doug_Pardee Distinguished Bibliophile]

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jewelianna wrote:

Add me to the list of those confused and annoyed.  Worse, I can't seem to sort any of the categories any longer (mystery, fiction, etc).  Why is that gone?

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You need to go "the long way around".

Click the "See More" link at the end of the "Subjects" column on the left side. Now click the category you want. For Mystery, click "Thrillers, Mystery & Crime". Then select a subcategory from the left column; in this case, "Mystery & Crime". Now there's a drop-down box at the far right side of the header to select sorting.

The drop-down only lets you sort in one direction. For most of the choices, it's a reasonable choice. For "Release Date", it shows you the oldest ones first (????). After you've selected that, go up to the URL bar in your browser and change the SRT value to end with a D (descending) instead of an A (ascending): SRT=DD. Then hit Enter, of course, to go to that URL.

I can't say that I'd call this a pretty solution.

[bwg]

Add me to the list that isn't a fan of this new "branding" or the clunky way to sort.

Maybe this is a topic for another thread (if so, I apologize, but it has to do with sorting)... or a question for MichaelV specifically?

Is there any current way to tell, or are there any plans to list in the item details or sort features what format an eBook is?  Or more importantly whether the eBook is DRM'd?  Over the past 8 months of buying eBooks from BN I noticed some are DRM'd and some are not, which is confusing/frustrating.  I do not support DRM due to locking me into something (which is why I opted out of a Kindle)...

[Doug_Pardee Distinguished Bibliophile]

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bwg wrote:

Is there any current way to tell, or are there any plans to list in the item details or sort features what format an eBook is?  Or more importantly whether the eBook is DRM'd?

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B&N has a solid history of not telling us anything that's coming, so nobody who knows is going to tell you what their plans are.

As for saying whether a NOOKbook is DRMed or not, I'm going to guess "not in the conceivable future". B&N wouldn't tell us whether an e-book was eReader or EPUB back when it could end up being either one.

Any e-book from any of the major publishers is going to have DRM. The 'Big 6' all insist on it. For fiction, Samhain, Carina, Ellora's Cave, ereads.com, and Smashwords are the only half-way significant publishers I know of who don't have DRM. The Smashwords titles are harder to recognize now; they're basically the self-published titles that don't have a PubIt! badge, or you can just go to Smashwords and see if it came from there. Self-published e-books via PubIt! may or may not have DRM; you'll probably have to contact the author to determine whether they do or not. Baen doesn't do DRM, but to my knowledge B&N doesn't sell any Baen titles as NOOKbooks.

A number of non-fiction publishers don't use DRM, especially tech publishers like Microsoft and O'Reilly.

Oh, and the Google Books shouldn't have DRM.

Another place to check is to pop over to Fictionwise and see if the book is on their "multi-format" list. If so, it should be DRM-free. http://www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/multiformat.htm

[sub_rosa]

I agree with Anna - the "nookbook" change is annoying.  They should make a specific board for the Nook color and all the drama that is undoubtedly going to follow its release can be funneled there (they could call it NookSewer).  Have a board specifically for the original Nook and people who use it for -- what's the word?

...  oh yeah, READING.  We can talk about books and not pixels and frame rates and whether or not our Facebook app is working, etc.

[mykoffee]

Doesn't bother me at all,  I don't mind the branding,  don't mind it with Amazon either.  *shrug*

Linda

[DaisyBuchanan10]

they are cross compatible as they are usually epub or pdf and those are the most universal format for ebooks.

[Taxandria]

I agree with you, Anna. It's just another marketing ploy. They're eBooks. I'm tired of all this cutesy branding stuff.

[toska]

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AlanNJ wrote:

As long as I can find what I'm looking for I don't care what they call it.

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I am with you, AlanNJ.  I can understand why some people are annoyed but, in my opinion, life is far too short to be bothered by the term nookbook.

Toska

[graycyn]

I was shopping tonight and found myself looking CAREFULLY to be sure what I was buying was an ebook. I think the change is confusing and unnecessary.

[julianka]

I think it's a case of "dumbing down" the site.  It's confusing to those of us who were used to it the way it was before, but B&N was thinking of new people who will be coming to look for a Nook for the first time (especially with the NookColor coming.)  For new people I don't think it could possibly confuse them that Nookbooks means books for the Nook.  I don't think there's anything wrong with the term, though it is silly and cutesy, it makes sense for them to do it and it isn't a big deal.

- Judy

[annathepiper]

Toska said something further up the thread about feeling that life is too short to be bothered by the term 'nookbook'.

Just to put my original post into perspective, sure, it's not ultimately a big deal in the grand scheme of life, and at the end of the day, it actually doesn't seriously bother me that much. I still think it's stupid, but I've said my peace, counted to ten, and have continued to move on with the important stuff, which is to say, reading on the device.

Cheers all,

Anna the Piper

[toska]

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annathepiper wrote:

Toska said something further up the thread about feeling that life is too short to be bothered by the term 'nookbook'.

Cheers all,

Anna the Piper

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Hey Anna,

My comment was not meant to offend, I hope you did not take it that way.  I understand what you are talking about with the changes being annoying. It is just that I have been making a huge effort to cut stress out of my life and that was where my post originated from.  Please accept my apology if you were offended in any way.

Toska

[annathepiper]

Thank you, Toska! I appreciate that.

I was not offended at all, but I appreciate you thinking of me. And I did actually agree with you; I was mostly addressing everybody else who's been reading the thread. I just wanted to be clear that while I do have a strong opinion on this, it's not anything I'm actually losing sleep over.

Anna the Piper (who bought two more ebooks off the nook store this week!)

[toska]

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annathepiper wrote:

Thank you, Toska! I appreciate that.

I was not offended at all, but I appreciate you thinking of me. And I did actually agree with you; I was mostly addressing everybody else who's been reading the thread. I just wanted to be clear that while I do have a strong opinion on this, it's not anything I'm actually losing sleep over.

Anna the Piper (who bought two more ebooks off the nook store this week!)

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I am so glad, thanks for responding.

[annathepiper]

You are very welcome!

Anna the Piper

[Hypatia1]

I do not care so much for the cutesy name "nookbooks" but its the searching difficulty that it irritating me (not to the extent I am losing sleep though ) If it was not for @Doug-Pardee's helpful hints I would have given up all together (but what about users who dont frequent the boards enough to find these hints?) - but the fact its harder now to find things out like the actual release date when you see a pre-order book is less of a change to get used to for me than B&N seeming to be a bit passive aggressive about the nookbook thing

[aditya]

+1 Anna.

I think the best way to reciprocate is to studiously ignore the rebranding and insist on using "ebook" no matter what . No way am I ever using that ridiculous name for anything (well, maybe for e-cookbooks, but only if I had a gun to my head).