In what may have been the worst marketing decision of last year Barnes & Noble announced that their entry to the eBook reader race, the “Nook“, wouldn’t be available until February 2010.  Eager Christmas shoppers with the last of their stimulus money in hand flocked to the stores and bought something else. . . probably a Kindle DX.  But did they waste their money?  Should they have got Aunt Nellie a box of embroidered handkerchiefs and held on for a couple of more months?  I don’t know.  It could go either way.  Comparing the Nook to the Kindle is like comparing the Nook to the Sony Digital Reader.  They both do pretty much the same thing.  But each does have slight advantages and disadvantages.  It just depends what you’re looking for.

So, what does the Nook have going for it.  Well, one of their best features has got to be their browse feature.  You can browse complete eBooks at any Barnes & Noble store for one hour per book, per day.  No more paying up front for a book and finding out you wasted your money.  Equally cool is their LendMe feature.  This feature allows you to loan out or borrow an eBook from another Nook user for up to 14 days.

Although the Nook is slightly more compact then the Kindle, the Kindle is thinner and lighter.  The Nook has a 3.5″ color touchscreen for navigation and features ePub, Mac and Blackberry support.  It also has a micro SD memory expansion slot, something that a lot of Kindle users complained about.

That said, the Kindle is a good buy.  Amazon provides a huge library of books at good prices.  The Nook doesn’t have a browser, something that Kindle owners appreciate.  Kindle also offers the Read To Me text to speech feature.  Also, Kindle offers a real keyboard.  Nook only offers the touchscreen keyboard.  That’s a big feature to a lot of consumers.

All in all, both the Kindle and the Nook have a lot to offer.  They have more in common than they have differences.  When it comes down to it, which one you buy will depend on which of the features are more important to you.  Maybe you should just buy an iPad and be done with it.