Okay, I just made a Grade-A fool of myself. Maybe I could blame Paizo and DriveThruRPG for spoiling me with nice things? No, I guess I can't.
I wanted to buy a book in digital form, so I bought the e-book in Nook format from Barnes and Noble's site. It was my first time doing so. I don't have a Nook device, but I figured that I would download it in some format, and with some web searching, I could find some way to convert it to PDF. Or if I couldn't do that, I could download some program onto my PC that would let me view the file.
Oops. Wrong and wrong. It looks like Barnes and Noble keeps the book on their own greedy server. I get nothing for my money except the right to view their copy, I guess. And as for getting a program to view the thing, apparently there no longer is one available for Windows 7. I would need 8, and I have no intention of upgrading.
I sent a message to Barnes and Noble, asking for help, but I doubt I'll get any reply, let alone a helpful one. I should have done my homework first, curse me!
So my first question is: Does anyone know a way I can view the thing without shelling out money for a Nook? I doubt it, so I'll move onto my second question.
Once I resign myself to having thrown away $3.99, I'll wonder: to which site should I turn next? The book doesn't seem to be available for Amazon Kindle (which, I suspect, would give me the same problems as Nook format anyway,) but I think I see it in two other places: lulu.com and iTunes.
It looks like Lulu lets you download in one of two formats: Epub or - Hallelujah! - PDF!!! Can anyone confirm for me that this works? Do you know anyone who buys books this way?
If not, what about iTunes? When buying e-books from Apple, does it give you an actual file for your money? Can you read the book on a PC with Windows 7?
Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.
Okay, you all basically told me not to give up on finding a reader for PC... and it proved to be good advice! I found one here. And I could read my book!
Thank you, everyone!