One of the reasons I choose the Nook for an e-reader was the
ability to share my digital books with others. Prior to joining the ranks of
digital readers I freely borrowed and lent books to friends and family. The
Nook is the only digital reader I know of that at least allows you to share your
digital books with other Nook owners. Granted, that’s a significantly smaller
universe than printed books but I figured it was better than nothing.
Or was it?
Last month, Jessie Newburn asked if she could borrow Steve Jobs biography that I had just finished. Jessie is a member of that small Nook universe with her Nook Simple Touch. I was
anxious to see how the Nook digital lending worked so I immediately agreed. We met
at Lakeside Coffee with our Nooks to make the switch.
We couldn’t figure it out. Neither of us could find a
command nor prompt to get my book to her Nook. Put another way, there'd be no Nookie for us.
Ahem.
Yesterday I dropped by the Nook support desk at the Barnes
& Noble store in Ellicott City to see if I was doing something wrong . “The lending feature is not
available for all books,” the tech told me. “The authors and publishers decide
whether they want to make a book available to lend. With most of the more
popular titles they haven’t allowed it.”
The digital book lending universe is now even smaller than I thought.
