A Review of Barnes & Noble's EReader: The Nook

I spend a lot of time in and out of different libraries and bookstores, and Barnes & Noble is my favorite. I came across their answer to Amazon's Kindle. Barnes & Noble calls it the Nook. I took advantage of the in-store demo and was extremely impressed.

The Nook has many features that are important to an eReader. The paper page display is easy on the eyes, and it is lightweight, which is great for portability. The Nook can also hold up to 1,500 books. The Nook is also compatible with mp3 song files allowing you to carry your music library of up to 26 hours of music. The Nook also gives you access to newspapers and storage for your personal files with 2G of memory. More memory can be added with a memory card if need.

Barnes & Noble gives free WiFi access with the Nook and access to their online store right from the device. There are over a million available titles not including the more than 500,000 thousand free eBooks. You can search for books in one of two ways; by touch screen or keyboard. Barnes & Noble even allows you to download samples of books to see if you like them before you buy them. The Nook also has a long battery life of 10 days on a single charge.

One of my favorite features of the Nook is the lending technology. You can send your books to friends for free for up to 14 days. Books can be sent to their Nook, PC, Mac OS or iPod touch with the free Barnes & Noble eReader software.

Another interesting feature of the Nook is the ability to personalize it with personal photos for screensavers. There are also colorful back covers and designer cases available to further show your personality.

The New Year is showing further promise for Barnes & Noble's Nook and for iPhone and BlackBerry owners. There will be free eReader software available for download so that the Nook can be accessed if forgotten at home.

If all the above is not a clear indicator of how amazing Barnes & Noble's Nook is then maybe this will solidify its popularity; the Nook is currently sold out at barnesandnoble.com but can be pre-ordered at $259 for February shipment. If this is still not convincing enough to take a trip to your local Barnes & Noble to try out the demo, then nothing will be as it made me a fan.