As some of you may know, there was a huge ransomware/cyber hacking thing last month that caused many companies a whole bunch of grief. One of these companies was Barnes and Noble.

This attack directly impacted me because I was unable to access my ereader library on my nook app.

Which means I didn’t have the ability to read the books that I was reading at the time, nor open the new book that I had purchased for about a week…

As a rule, I use the Barnes and Noble app because frankly, I give Amazon enough of my business: they don’t need to own my reading as well. And I’m still a little bit annoyed that they helped put bookstores out of business and then opened physical stores…

But anyway…

I admit that I am grateful that I was able to access a book via Kindle so that I had something to read.

I am grateful that my personal info was not compromised during the hack.

I am grateful that Barnes and Noble was able to get the show running again and I was able to read my books.

I am also grateful that somehow my daughter’s online reading wasn’t affected (she wasn’t stupid enough to think that deleting the app and reuploading it would solve everything) and she was able to continue reading her text books. Could you imagine saying to your Professor “Sorry I couldn’t read the assignment. My reading app was hacked.”? Talk about a dog ate the homework story…

38 thoughts on “Gratitude Saturday November 21”

  1. If you have a library card, I’m sure NYPL would have some sort of app like Libby or Overdrive that would let you access their digital collection for free. Seems to me like those sorts of apps would be less likely to be hit by hackers. No financial information involved…

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    1. I do often get books from the library. The biggest issue is the wait time involved for getting the books that I want to read. It’s been especially difficult during pandemic. And the books that are available it’s the typical New York attitude of…if no one else is reading it how good can it be?

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      1. The digital waiting lists are the worst. I get why they’re there, but at the same time, they’re infuriating. It’s a digital file. Why is there a wait list? It’s not like you have to wait until someone else is done listening to a song on Spotify.

        On that note, you might look into Hoopla. NYPL might give you access to that, too. I don’t know what their contemporary releases are like through that app, but you don’t have to wait around for someone else to ‘return’ a file. Super handy for classics.

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  4. I use Libby as well, but as you note I’m not competing for the same book that half of NY is! It’s so funny, because I was always a “must have the actual paper book in hand” sort of person. One of my decisions as 2020 started was to cut back on extraneous spending even though the books I purchased were mostly all used. I still have a large supply of those on the shelf to read, so I don’t mind waiting a few weeks for one of my holds on Libby.
    BTW, my medical system company was hacked. It took down everything for days. They are still finding issues after 2 weeks…

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    1. I wonder if it was same hackers? I know they hit law offices, hospitals…apparently they told people they were doing “good” because they exposed the vulnerabilities.

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      2. I like to be able to quickly switch what I’m reading if I’m not feeling something at the moment. I’m one of those people that said she would never use and ereader, until I got one, and now there’s no turning back

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  9. I read some ebooks, but still prefer the real deal. Plus I like keeping our local bookstore in business. Sorry about the inconvenience you had to deal with, but glad it got resolved. Speaking of deleting and reloading apps, I did that with the WP app for my phone recently and wish I hadn’t!

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  11. I love my Kindle. I’ve had one since they first came out, and have given them as gifts to a few relatives. I understand why people say they like to have the book in their hands, but I don’t feel that way at all. Let’s respect everybody’s choices. 🙂

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