Can you transfer hard copies of books onto a Nook?

[wsmommy]

Hi, everyone! First, sorry if this question's been asked before by another equally Nook ignorant person...I haven't been able to find it though, so hopefully it's all okay!

Basically, I love my books. I can't give them up and just switch to an eReader. However, I'm going on a trip soon and lugging around a ton of books (obviously) just isn't practical. So, if I buy a book at the store, is there any way to transfer it to a Nook? At all? Or would I have to buy a separate copy on the Nook?

Thank you!  

[bobstro · Accepted solution]

You'll need to buy the ebook version. A few publishers offer cheap bundles with both electronic and hardcopy versions, but I've mostly seen this with tech titles.

Alternately, you can check ebooks out from libraries, or live with some of the free offerings. Project Gutenburg, Manybooks and others are good sources of the classics if your tastes lean towards the highbrow variety. There are some current titles offered by self published authors as well, though these vary wildly in terms of quality.

[gkaiseil]

If you have lots of time and a scanner or camera, make images of the pages, process them through an OCR program, convert to ePUB or PDF output and load to you eReader. Far easier to buy the eBook.

Many books are available for free for eRaders, but the quality of the display might not be the best.

[wsmommy]

Ah, okay. I might have to try that out, thanks!