[azazel1024]

Nook STR, Nook Simple Touch Reader.

As for "the best", it is because it is (In my opinion). Just because a few are faulty (my first one was), doesn't mean it isn't the best reader still.

BWM's are a lot nicer than honda civics (maybe not an apt comparison), but if it turned out 1 in 50 BWM's had a serious transmision problem that required you to return it and get a new one, doesn't mean that the BWM isn't still nicer...just hope you either don't get one of the bum ones, or if you do you shouldn't have a painful processing getting it returned for a new one.

My first Nook ST had the battery drain issue and random shut-offs that NOTHING fixed. I finally returned it after 2 months, or I should say exchange it. My new one works perfectly. B&N's exchange process, especially now that they'll do it through your local store, is pretty painless. Its annoying if you have to do it, but pretty smooth.

As for "the best", personally I like the form factor a bit more than the other readers, I like the covers a little bit more and I love the physical page turn buttons. I use mine quite a bit as it makes it possible to turn a page one handed, where as without them you really can't do that (so you can easily for example read while eating and holding your nook ST in one hand, instead of having to lay it on a surface, and then still turn pages using the page turn button). The ability to hold down the page turn button for a second and go in to rapid paging mode (about 5 pages a second or faster) is also nice to cruise forward/backward in a book if you want.

To me the only annoyances, if you have a working one, are that B&N limits the user allowable storage space to 246MB, which is still enough for about 200-400 books (I have 150 books in main storage plus about 20 images for custom screen savers and I have about 50% storage free, only about 5 or 6 of those books were bought from B&N, the rest is side loaded content). The other is that if you do use the SD card, that if you put any of those books on shelves, if you reboot the nook ST or some people see it with connecting their nook to their PC, the books will disappear off the shelves and they have to reshelve them. However, if you use Calibre it isn't that big a deal as Calibre will store the books in folders by author, so if you go in to your library's file/folder view it is still very easy to navigate to and find books on the SD card.

I personally store my books that I re-read periodically in main storage so I can shelve them and not have them disappear on a reboot (the books are still there, they just go missing from the shelf) and books that are probably "one off" reads on the SD card.

As for the problem, I'd bet almost anything it is a supplier problem with the battery.

Based on charging times between my current Nook ST and the one that was faulty, the old one NEVER reached 100% charge, or if it it did, it never discharged below about 20-40% charge at the worst, even though it would power off and refuse to power on because it claimed the charge was too low (also random power offs when it said it was at 90% charge, then it was at 7% a minute later and then it would power off, only to power back on 5 minutes later and say it was 90% again and work fine for a day). My guess is a faulty voltage sensor in the battery both reporting the wrong voltage to the Nook ST (the voltage of the battery is how the device determines remaining battery capacity) and also preventing the battery from charging properly (again, the nook ST monitors the voltage of the battery to determine when it is fully charged or not).

I think it is just about as likely that whoever put the Nook ST together probably has gotten parts in batches, but not necessarily the same size batches. They may have gotten 4 million batteries, but only the parts to make 500,000 Nook ST for screens, chasis, main boards, etc and gotten periodic battery shipments before their entire stock was exhausted. If that was so, if a bunch of those 4 million batteries had bad voltage sensors in them, you'd get a large batch of Nook ST with potentially faulty voltage sensors in them, but if you get a new battery shipment in when you were down to 90% stock, you wouldn't necessarily use the 10% that had been remaining first...so some of what was left might get mixed in to the next 1 or 2 or 10 (for all I know) batches of Nook ST that are manufacturered. So the issue would become more dilute (supposing the battery supply fixed the issue), but it could still be occuring 10 million units later.

So, yeah I'd worry a little and look for the problem, but I wouldn't be overly concerned. Most units are good units and if yours IS bad, either you are likely to discover it in the first 14 days, or if longer than that, B&N is very good about doing an in store replacement for you.