On the other hand, the power button up top is too flat, and the battery--though removable--requires you to remove a screw to get it out. The microSD card slot is buried inside, behind the easy-to-remove back panel, so it's protected but awkward to take out. The device charges via a micro-USB port on the bottom. You get a headphone jack for listening to MP3s, but no support for audiobooks.

I found the LCD activation inconsistent, too (due to buggy software, perhaps?). To activate the screen, you press the capacitive touch 'n' between the touchscreen and the E-Ink screen. That method worked fine, but I also managed to activate the screen without touching the 'n'--just by holding the device in a certain way.

One more complaint: The Nook has separate section for daily content (dubbed "The Daily"), and yet content delivered daily--like blogs or newspapers--also ends up in My Library, where the content clutters and overwhelms the screen, burying any actual book content I may have purchased. In the past week-and-change, I accumulated five pages of My Library content, the vast majority of which consisted of daily items that I couldn't figure out how to delete.

Barnes and Noble has taken several steps to encourage potential customers to buy into its e-reader universe. For one thing, you can buy books using the Barnes and Noble eReader on multiple device platforms--PC, Mac, iPhone, and BlackBerry (an Android version is due early next year). For another, you can lend friends the books you buy, simply by sending the book to a user's e-mail address. The recipient can read it for a specified period of time, during which time you lose access to the book via your devices--just as you would if you lent a paper book to someone. The difference: You can lend a book only once, and for two weeks, so lend wisely.

Amazon's Kindle 2 and Barnes and Noble's Nook are neck-in-neck in many ways. Each has unique capabilities: Amazon supports international shopping ( if you have a model with AT&T Wireless inside) and has text-to-speech; Nook has Wi-Fi, supports , and runs the Google Android mobile operating system, which throws opens the door for customization and future enhancement.