Why I love my Nook Color

I had been researching e-readers for a few months, and had come to the conclusion that the Nook Color was the best solution for me. Here’s a few reasons why I chose the Nook Color, and why I’m still enjoying it today:

1) It’s in color. The regular Nook and the Kindle are not. Why is this important? I’m addicted to magazines. I vowed to my husband that I would clear some of my magazine clutter, and the Nook Color has allowed me to do this. I’ve switched my Glamour and Marie Claire subscriptions to digital, and added on subscriptions to Spin, Oxford American and National Geographic Traveler. I’m still waiting on a couple other favorites — Allure and Real Simple — to make their way to the Nook Store, and I’d love to see all of the Birmingham-based Southern Progress titles there too, like Southern Living and Coastal Living.

2) It has a Web browser. It’s simply great for viewing the Internet on the fly. It wouldn’t be the best for data entry, blogging, or anything very typing-intensive, but most would say that about iPad, too.

3) The Nook Store is growing. As a fan of Disney and Disney World, sometimes I get discouraged when all the obscure book titles I’d like to read aren’t in the Nook Store, but are available via Kindle. But over the last two months of owning the Nook Color, I’ve seen more and more titles added. There are a lot of free books (there’s a free book offered every Friday!) and lots of books under $5. On the opposite end of the spectrum, though, there’s lots of books that are $9.99+, which can be a little steep.

4) Building a wishlist. Granted, this is something you can do at Amazon, on a Kindle or iPad, anywhere else on the Internet. But there’s something so satisfying about deliberating on a title, then hitting that BUY button when you know it’s time. I have a wishlist full of books on social media, business and online community management, as well as novels and non-fiction books about pets and Disney World. I’ve just finished reading a great Disney World memoir called Mousetrapped, and connected with the author via Twitter — and I’m not sure I ever would have found the book without the Nook Store.

5) It’s getting the Android store this month, AND Flash support. As a certified Apple addict (iPhone and MacBook Pro), I’m glad to get the chance to learn more about the Android platform — because I love me some Google, too. And Flash support, too? Well, that’s more than Apple can say. Essentially, once we get this critical update, the Nook Color becomes one of the cheapest, most useful tablets on the market.

6) It can hold all types of documents. Hook the Nook Color up to your laptop, and transfer over PDF e-books, Word documents, photos, Powerpoint presentations, and more. Can you do this on a Kindle? No. You can’t even do it on an iPad without the help of apps or iTunes. You can even add up to 32G of memory with a microSD card. That’s a lot of books!

7) The price point. At $249, it’s half the cost of a base iPad model. And while I’d still love to own an iPad, both my husband and I are able to have our own Nook Colors for the cost of one iPad. My husband is reading more as a result — hooray!

So, what type of e-reader do you have, or are thinking about buying? I think there’s great pluses to all the e-readers and tablets on the market today, so what are your thoughts?