Through a special promotion kicking off today, the company will provide a free $50 Barnes & Noble gift card with any NOOK eBook Reader purchase through Barnes & Noble and Best Buy. Recipients can instantly stock up on their great summer reads, choosing from the expansive Barnes & Noble eBookstore , or show their style with a NOOK accessory .

**Press Release Information**

Dads, Grads and Book Lovers Can Redeem Barnes & Noble Gift Card to
Begin Building Their Digital Library

New York, New York – June 2, 2010 – Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest bookseller, announced a special promotion that offers a free $50 Barnes & Noble gift card with any NOOK eBook Reader purchase to help dad, grad or any book lover get their eBook library off to a great start.

With its immersive, enjoyable eReading experience, great design and features, NOOK is the perfect gift for dads, graduates and anyone who loves to read. Beginning today through the end of June, Barnes & Noble will immediately provide a free $50 Barnes & Noble gift card with all $259 purchases of NOOK at Barnes & Noble and Best Buy stores across the country, www.nook.com and www.bestbuy.com . Recipients can instantly stock up on their favorite digital reads, choosing from more than one million eBooks, magazines and newspapers in the expansive Barnes & Noble eBookstore, and they can sample eBooks for free. More information on this promotion is available at the NOOK counter at Barnes & Noble stores or www.nook.com .
A stylish designer accessory is another great gift idea for dads, grads and NOOK customers who want to show their style this summer. Customers can choose from a range of classic and colorful accessories designed exclusively for NOOK by renowned designers kate spade new york, Jack Spade, Jonathan Adler, Tahari and others.
“Customers new to NOOK will love the wonderful reading experience on their award-winning eBook Reader,” said Sasha Norkin, Vice President, Acquisition Marketing for Barnes & Noble.com. “With this exciting offer, they’ll also get a jumpstart on building their digital library, using their free $50 Barnes & Noble gift card to choose from a vast catalog of eBooks, periodicals and our beautiful accessories line. It’s the perfect way to kick off a summer of great reading anytime, anywhere.”

Barnes & Noble gave me the opportunity to read with the Nook. What is the Nook you ask?

The Nook is an eBook Reader. That is all you ask? Yes that simple but very elaborate and offering so many things besides just reading ebooks with a thin, lightweight device. So let’s get you the information so you can learn about the Nook and I’ll tell you my experience with the nook.

Design:

About the size and weight of a paperback book, nook is thin, small and portable. Its best-in-class E Ink® Vizplex™ display is easy on the eyes with text as clear and crisp as a printed page. And with no glare or backlight, adjustable text size, and several font styles to choose from, you can read comfortably for hours. Our minimalist design puts the focus on the content, not the technology, welcoming the reader to dive right in.

The first-ever color touch screen for navigation on an eBook reader offers an immersive experience, inviting you to virtually browse through brilliant cover art, flip through an expansive library, or search using a virtual keyboard. The combination of color and touch on the beautiful lower screen make navigating nook intuitive and simple, even for the tech novice. nook presents the controls, navigation and keyboard you need, only when you need them.

My Design Thoughts:

I love the lightweight and thin design of it. It’s not heavy nor bulky and if Brent decides to use it, it will literally take up no space so he won’t have to worry about extra weight etc when traveling through the airports. That is a HUGE PLUS. I enjoy that it’s very similar to reading a book (no the reading pane is not colored) and it’s strictly focuses on the content of the book and nothing else. I simply want to read. The adjustable font and the no glare is super important as I don’t want to have to get up and move around if trying to read a certain page because I can’t see it. Though the downfall is reading at night by the bed I don’t have the Lyra Light (an accessory for reading in darker places and something great to invest in with your nook) so I have to keep the light above my bed on.

The touch screen is always fun. Simply put. It makes it for easy customization, understanding and the chance to play with it and understand it more right when you get your Nook. I loved that. You don’t have to slam or press your finger hard just to get it to go to the next screen etc. It’s well lit, bright and interactive – another HUGE PLUS!

FEATURES:

(read in full length all the features the Nook offers)

Compact Size

Fast & Free 3G Wireless

Personalized Screen Saver

Expandable Storage

Audio

Connectors (audio, usb)

Powerful Battery

Colorful Touchscreen

Various Supported File Types

My Thoughts On Features:

Holy information overload right? First let’s start with expandable memory. While the Nook can already hold up to 1500 titles, I enjoy the idea that Brent can fill up his own microSD Card and keep his books in his own place. Let’s face it, we don’t like to read the same things and while he will think he can steal this from me, it’s going to be a tough fight. I like it to be MINE, which touches me on the idea of  personalized screen savers. Right now they are offering Alice In Wonderland screen savers and I jumped on it. They are FREE even. I like the option of customizing and personalizing to be ME. The Nook supports a variety of files ranging from the obvious EPUB (for ebooks) to audio mp3 files. FUN! Which means at night I can read my book and listen to music while the kids sleep away. Ahhh…sounds so relaxing. Is it night yet? That also means that if you have audio books on your computer it is a little move from computer to Nook and you are on your way of listening to audio books now too.

More:

So far to say I was impressed with the Nook would be a total understatement. Besides the normal things that I have attached to my hip (i.e. my kids and BlackBerry) this Nook is going with me everywhere. EVERYWHERE. I’ve already taken it with me while I wait in the car pick up line to pick up the kids from school. The options right now seem endless in my reading journey and they even have free ebooks that I can browse and start reading. And still even then the ebooks are at a great price and bought a new read for just under six dollars. Uh. SCORE! If I could use only one word to describe my Nook right now it would engaging. Engaging you as the user/reader and the engaging of the options.

It came shipped in sturdy casing, packaged safely and with two different options for me to charge it. Through USB and connecting USB to a standard in wall charger. The instructions and set up was quick and easy to understand.

So go to Nook.com and learn more about the Nook and all it has to offer. Buy a Barnes & Noble Nook today and get free shipping! And if you are in search of some recommended reads for your Nook these are the titles I would say to start reading now:

A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

And stay tuned…I have a giveaway coming up for your own Nook!

*Barnes & Noble provided me with a Nook and information to facilitate this review*