The Battle of the Bookworms just got a lot more Vicious

The Battle of the Bookworms just got a lot more vicious, thanks to Barnes & Noble. The mega-retailer perhaps got a little spooked when Amazon's Kindle began to get so much attention, so it started making some noise of its own in the e-book space a few months ago. It's been there before, but this time things are looking a lot more serious. It started by launching an e-bookstore that Barnes & Noble said would work with a variety of non-Kindle devices. At the same time, it released an iPhone e-reader app.

Then there was a lot of talk about a branded Barnes & Noble e-reader -- something built by an OEM and then stamped with Barnes & Noble's own logo. The bookseller planned a big event to unveil its new item, but somehow photos and details leaked to the public a little early. The only thing left for its big reveal was the name: the Barnes & Noble Nook. It's about the same size as the Kindle, and it's selling at the same $259 price point. And like the Kindle, it can download content over the air.

What's different is that the Nook has a small color touchscreen right under the main grayscale display. The lower screen lets you navigate, browse and flip through book cover art. Also, the Nook has a technology called "LendMe," which lets you loan out any e-book you have to someone else for two weeks, as long as that person is using a Nook or one of the other e-readers supported by the Barnes & Noble store.

So it looks like the Nook could give the Kindle a run for its money, but remember that it's not just going up against Amazon -- it's going up against any other mobile device that can display e-books. Still, as long as Barnes & Noble's e-bookstore is selling the content to a wide range of readers -- Nooks or otherwise -- it's making a sale.