Nook had a software update yesterday from version 1.4 to 1.5 and I am so happy.

I got the email yesterday from Barnes and Noble saying the new update is finally here so I quickly turned my Nook on, went to the Daily and as soon as it connected to my WiFi network, it began downloading immediately. It took about 10 minutes or so to download and I was very thrilled with the results.

They said that the page turns are 50% faster and boy is it ever. I loaded a book and turned the page and it was instant. I mean, you still see it flash like before but it shows the next page really fast. Page turn speed was never really an issue for me but considering it’s faster I’m probably going to notice it more now and appreciate the new speed.

One of the things that I’ve wanted since I got my Nook is an easier way to store my books. For example, I wanted to be able to have folders for all of my books so I can find them easier. Like a folder named Xanth so I can click on that to find the next Xanth novel at the top of the list instead of having to scroll through pages and pages of books.

They finally gave me that feature, although it’s not exactly a folder but it works just as good. You can create shelves then add specific books to those specific shelves. It works in the “My B&N Library” and the “My Documents” libraries. When you are in the Library, look at your touchscreen and click Shelves, click go to shelf and you can see the shelves you have created.

You have many shelf options like creating a shelf, reordering a shelf, renaming a shelf and removing a shelf. I like reordering because you can alphabetize your different shelves either by author or by book name like Xanth would go at the bottom or you can rename the shelf to the authors name and then it would be in the P’s for Piers (or A’s for Anthony, if that’s how you alphabetize).

I have a shelf called Sookie Stackhouse and I see all 3 of the Sookie Stackhouse books that I bought from the Nook store in that shelf. It shows the one that I am reading on the top of the list and it even shows what page I’m on. How cool is that? It says I’m on page 28 of 200. I guess that’s how they make the cross-platform feature work. Since it shows what page you are on in a certain book in the library then that is how it lets your other gadgets know what page you are on so when you load your account on your iPhone or Blackberry (or whatever gadget you have) then it knows what page to automatically turn to.

The email talked about a longer battery life and that I can configure it so my battery lasts longer. Well the battery for me is a real issue because they said that it lasts 10 days with WiFi turned off. Well, it really only lasts me a couple days with WiFi turned off. I don’t know where they got this 10 days crap but that is so way off. Hopefully it will last longer than 2 or 3 days now but I have to figure out how to configure it the way they said you can. And what am I supposed to configure to make it last longer? Am I supposed to make the screen’s brightness 10% so I can barely see it to get 10 days worth of battery life?

They graduated the web browser from Beta to regular browser but to me it’s the same. I don’t see much of a difference. I do use it from time to time only because I can. The only thing different is that it no longer says Beta on the icon but if you load the browser, the website that shows up still says it’s in beta so they’ll have to fix that too.

I wish they would add more games, that would’ve been nice but I see they didn’t. I know they can’t add animated games but I’m sure there are more games that don’t require a lot of animation. Sudoku is a good paper puzzle game which I’m sure is the reason they added it. Well, crossword puzzles are the same, it’s pen and paper. Anything would be nice than just Sudoku and Chess lol. I don’t even play chess.

Well, I’m very happy to have this update because I love how fast the pages turn and I love that I can create shelves now. I think it would be great if they gave us little updates every so often instead of making people wait for a major update like this. But I’m not complaining because I’m thrilled with what I have now.