[jlmwrite]

I bought a Kindle 3 when they hit my local Target a week or so ago. After playing with it, I got buyer's remorse and let a very well-informed B&N employee sell me a nook. Now I've made a choice. Much of my reasoning is subjective, but your choice is yours and my choice is mine.

As I had a couple of days off work to play with both of my shiny new toys, I decided the faults I originally noted with my K3 also existed on the nook. And the primary reason I let myself be sold on the nook -- the nice LCD display -- wasn't nearly as useful in real life as it was fun in the store. After loading up a few hundred books the coverflow lags. Not only that, but like most LCD screens it is more or less unusable outdoors.

My K3 is a bit lighter (without the lighted case, that is). My initial comparison on page turns is that they were the same, but I realize the delay on the nook is slightly longer and more annoying than it is on the K3. Mind you, the difference is probably measurable in milliseconds but it's still noticeable when switching back and forth between the two readers.

The K3's graphite case fades away while the shiny white iplastic bezel on the nook (and presumably on the white K3, to be fair) reflects glare, especially when using the lighted cover. The pearl e-ink display on the K3 really does look better and offers better contrast. Some letters on the nook (especially the lower case "d") aren't well-formed and the contrast is striking after long periods of reading.

When it all comes down to it, reading for long periods of time is exactly why I have an e-reader!