First off, to set the stage, I'm not interested in reading on an LCD tablet for a variety of reasons, so I immediately throw out the iPad/iPad2 and the NOOKColor for my own personal tastes. Too much light already flowing into my eyes and the distractions of games and web browsers really hurt my reading time. So, on to the e-ink choices...

I bought the 1st gen e-ink NOOK back just before the Kindle 3 hit. It edged out the Kindle (that was out at the time) because it was a more standard format mostly. Amazon uses their own format which is why they've had difficulties getting things like library lending where NOOK has had that from the get-go just about.

Fast forward to the Kindle 3 coming out. Ouch--I was a tad bit jealous. The screen was a higher contrast, and it was just slimmer and lighter than my NOOK. Also, they had a fantastic case with a built in light that ran off the power of the Kindle (although, that case alone is like $60). I stuck with it though.

A couple of weeks ago, B&N released the new Simple Touch NOOK. I took the leap and upgraded to it and wow, the thing is awesome. It's smaller and lighter than the Kindle, the touch interface is extremely well-designed and well-implemented, it uses the exact same Pearl screen as the Kindle. NOOK's adoption of the ePub format means there are a lot more free and lendable books out there for it than for Kindle (without jumping through conversion hoops, anyway). The page turning is amazingly quick and there are three different ways to turn pages depending on your tastes--I tend to prefer just tapping the side of the screen. The personal library organization is awesome (you can create named "Shelves"--sort of like tags on a blog--and organize things very neatly). Also, the battery life is ridiculously amazing. It beats out the Kindle and really beats the old NOOK.

I really am very happy with the new NOOK and for me, it edges the Kindle out in a few really key areas (size, interface, and speed). Hope that helps!