I got my Christmas present this year a little early: the new Nook Tablet!  My husband was afraid that if we waited too long, the store might sell out, and of course we only have 14 days to return it if I don't like it or if there's something wrong.  So of course getting my present early was the logical choice!

My general excitement and impatience had nothing to do with that decision, I'm sure.

I have been using a first edition Nook (the wifi only model) to read ebooks almost exclusively since April.  Before that, I'd been using my iPhone and the Bluefire Reader app.  (I'd initially started reading in the B&N eReader app, but eventually it stopped syncing to my library, and I didn't particularly care for the new Nook app.)  So I am no stranger to ebook readers (or to tablets, for that matter -- my husband has an iPad).

So far, I've been nothing but impressed with the Nook Tablet.  The device is so much faster than my first generation Nook that it can hardly even be considered in the same family of devices.  (I know there is a big difference between a dedicated e-reader and a tablet, but the difference in speed is noteworthy even with the different kind of device in mind.)

Navigation is much simpler, too -- with the exception of my library books, which are in the "Files" folder, all sideloaded books show up in the same library as my Barnes & Noble ebooks.  (The first gen model had all sideloaded books in a separate library called "My Documents," which is a bit awkward when you have a lot of both kinds of books.)  I also like having a "Home" screen with my most recently read books along the bottom -- quite handy, since I often read more than one thing at once.  The "Reading Now" button on the original Nook didn't allow for that.

The generous memory space also has me quite excited.  Being the bookworm that I am, I had recently filled up the memory on my first gen Nook.  I actually had to go through and archive some books in order to make more room!  Oh, the horror!  And the new eInk reader, the Nook Simple Touch, has even less memory than the original Nook -- why, why, why would they do that??  So the tablet was the obvious choice for me for that reason, too.

And of course, I can't provide a review of the Nook Tablet without mentioning that lovely screen.  Browsing the Internet and streaming video is far from my main purpose for buying this device -- in fact, I suspect I will do very little of it.  However, the clarity of the screen (I streamed the beginning of a movie via Netflix last night just to check it out) is definitely impressive, and I'm sure I will make use of it from time to time.

Having only had the tablet for less than 24 hours, I cannot yet comment on battery life, but as expected it seems it won't be as good as my first gen Nook.  I'll have to run some experiments and see how long the battery lasts doing a variety of different tasks -- reading with the wifi off, for instance, compared with doing a lot of video streaming and Internet browsing.  It's supposed to be a better battery than the Nook Color!

What about you?  Are you getting a new e-reader for the holidays, or have you already gotten one of the newer, tablet-like ones to hit the market?