Nook
In 2012, Barnes & Noble released a new tablet designed mainly for reading books. The Barnes & Noble tablet, Nook, has capabilities similar to computer tablets, including the ability to listen to audiobooks. Today, Nook has an app that is available on the Nook tablet, Windows phones, and Android phones. With their app, people can download ebooks and audiobooks to listen to on the go. Barnes & Noble sold around 5 million Nook tablets in less than a year. Today, the number of people who use Nook continues to grow. While they do feature audiobooks you can purchase, the company mostly sells ebooks.
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The Good
- High book selection
- Some free audiobooks
- No membership fee
The Nook app has over 60,000 titles to choose from- slightly higher than the average. These titles include bestsellers, mystery, and family favorites. Before purchasing a book, the Nook app allows you to sample most of their content for free. There is even a small selection of free audiobooks. With Nook, there is no membership or subscriber fee. You simply pay for audiobooks as you listen to them. These audiobooks are around the same price you would pay for one audiobook at another company. Even though Nook audiobooks were created specifically for the Nook tablet, the company also has apps for Android and Windows phone. We also like that, like most audiobook companies, Nook gives you one free audiobook.
The Bad
- App can be difficult to use
- Credit card information required to browse
- Limited language options
Looking at Nook through the web or their mobile phone apps is difficult to use. While using Nook on a Nook tablet might be easy to use, we wish this translated over into phone apps. On their apps, you can't browse by topic or genre. When using the app, you can only search for books.
If you try to browse content online, Barnes and Noble makes you input your credit card information just to access the app. Even though they promise to just keep your card on hand, we don't particularly like the way they do this. They also don't have a lot of information on their website about the Nook app or Nook audiobooks in general.
Nook only offers audiobooks in English.
The Nook app has a lot of reviews on site and on Google Play. On average, listeners gave it 3.5/5 stars. However, many of the reviewers had the following complaints:
- Couldn't get the shop to connect to the internet
- Couldn't get the app to work on older Nook tablets
- There were problems accessing the free audiobook
- The audiobooks were more expensive than the realized
The biggest downside to choosing Nook is the price. Books cost $15 and up each. Many other audiobook companies offer popular audiobooks for $12-$15.
The Bottom Line
Even though it seems like Nook has a great selection of audiobooks at a decent price, we can't recommend the Nook app. With a little more transparency, we could see more of their book selection and book prices. Nook also does not have an iOS app, so that limits a large group of people from using their product. Overall, if you want to use Nook for audiobook listening, the best way to do it is with one of their products.
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User Reviews
Star Rating
14 Reviews
Review Breakdown
Sentiment Criteria
Nana Asiata
The app has a wide variety of books to choose from, but can be difficult when first testing out the app.
Jorden Laird
It's simple, easy to hold and nice features. I can use it to download books at the library too.
Kaitlyn George
Easy to use. Have had the Nook book and Nook app on my phone/ipad for years and always had a good experience.
Anonymous
This is an easy to use audio book app and website. I have heard good things about the app, even though I haven't used it. My wife uses it and loves it.
Madge Easton
I have an older nook and have been very pleased with this product. I am still purchasing new books with it and can maneuver around very easily. Because of its age I can't update different apps.
Avery Fowler
I have tried a Nook and I haven't really been impressed. I always try to charge it and it kept stoping at 99%.
Don
Still solid and reliable after all these years. And the downloads are almost instantaneous.
K Robison
Not very good with technology but nook is easy for us oldies and worth using.
Jeff Martin
An easy way to read your books on the go and a much cheaper way to buy books. App is easy to use even for someone who isn't that great with technology.
Michael
My wife has one. She really likes it to read
Anne Marie Milne
My daughter showed me how to use Nook and I absolutely love! It is a lot easier to buy books and you don't have to spend time at the bookstore. All the books you need in your pocket! Such a cool thing!!
Landon Robison
I was recently introduced to Nook and have had a great experience so far. There are a lot of different features that make reading on the go a lot more simple and enjoyable. I love using the word search to go back and find sections I want to look over again. Also, the bookmark feature is great. It is like having the actual book but tons of them in the same place. I definitely recommend!
Lindsey
I wasn't super impressed with Nook, but that's because I am old fashioned in wanting books in paper form!
Pete
I like reading books more than listening to them and Nook makes it really easy to have all of my books in one spot. It's easy to use on my phone and I can have access to it on my phone and my iPad so i can have it anywhere. It's definitely worth it.
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