How Does B&N's E-Reader Stack Up?

There's lots of talk about Amazon's Kindle, but Barnes & Noble's new e-book reader and program seems worth a look.

B&N recently started promoting their e-book reader through emails and their web site. Their reader is supported on BlackBerry, PCs, Macs and Apple products, and other electronic devices.

If you download it, you also get six free e-books: THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS, SENSE AND SENSIBILITY, LITTLE WOMEN, DRACULA, PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, and a pocket dictionary. This is an interesting combination of books - two Jane Austens? I am suspecting they are aiming this combination more at women and the choices of books they feature are definitely more female-oriented than not.

As of right now, they offer over 700,000 titles, many offered at $9.99 and some are under $5. Each week they feature a book and offer a sample. This week's title is JULIE AND JULIA. Also, James Patterson is offering a free title: MAXIMUM RIDE: THE ANGLE EXPERIMENT. (Of course, what isn't he doing to promote his books in every form available?)

Not sure what I think of this so far. I mean, many books are available in PDF format now, so they can be read on many devices, with more handheld devices adapting to these features every week. And if you buy directly from the publisher, many of the books are inexpensive.

So far it looks like the reader has lots of neat features - highlighters, changing the layout and themes, and if you buy a book online, it checks for recently purchased books upon opening the program. I will give this a try - I have several other e-books, but I am having trouble getting them into the reader.

Have you tried it? What do you think of B&N's attempt at getting into the e-book market?

Nicole