This person also confirms that their own employee discount does not apply to Nook or accessories either, and that the entire mess is being slowly untangled. Though probably not in a timely enough manner for everybody, and it is a valid concern that new technologies and items hit the market before corporate works out the bugs in all aspects of their system that might apply to the new system.

@dvdchris: Well, within limits (rather difficult limits) you actually can "lend" an ebook. With the nook, you can lend a book to a friend for 14 days (after which time the DRM tells it to go "poof"). Eh, better than nothing.

I live in an apartment with no room. Seriously. Storage consists of one closet which is NOT a walk-in. I tend to read popular fiction. I do a lot of research and writing for my day job, so any reading I do off the clock is pure escapism. An ebook reader is perfect for me. I don't have to wait a year for the new popular fiction releases in hardback to become affordable in paperback. They don't take up room. I can keep or delete as I wish with no hassle. And no embarrassing "you're reading THAT trash?" when no one can see the cover. That last one is just a bonus. Definitely not for everyone. It just works for me.

Actually, the look fine, and they're infinitely adjustable, which is kind of neat. Since we're renting, I don't have a lot of incentive to build permanent shelving that I can't take with me when I leave.

Another place you will lose my money-
So for the last 5 years (at least) B&N managed to pry $25 a year out of our pocket to get a 10% discount. So far it has been worth it, we love books and spend more than the $250 a year needed to make the Membership worth the price.

Since it is cheaper to buy books from Barnes & Noble, we do. Take away that incentive, and we get our books elsewhere. An ebook reader will take away at least 30% of our spending on real books. We will get one soon. No discounts means no need to go to B&N. Make Gift cards unusable for your ereader too and you lose.Don't you want to keep us as loyal customers? Note- I can't wait for my favorite authors- I buy hardcovers- you need me!

If only we could do something about these pretentious language-slashing marketing types ... e.g. the people who think it's a good idea to misspell stuff (e.g. "Blu-Ray" instead of what it should be, "Blue-Ray") based on the principle that correctly-spelled words can't be trademarked. Which is of course totally untrue.

Language tricks like this are juvenile ... and I mean that literally. Purposeful misspellings and playing games with punctuation are things that little kids do. Grown adults know better.

(I'm aware that this is ridiculous and I also hate this particular marketing convention, I'm just pointing out their logic.)

You can not purchase items overseas with the nook at all. Of course for a long time with the kindle you could only purchase things with a US address/credit card, whether overseas or in the US. People were getting around this by applying a giftcard and removing the credit card from their account if they did not have an American credit card. Maybe this is why the restriction was put into place?

@vastrightwing: Its all in the backlighting. I can't read on a computer for long without getting a headache. I can read on a non-backlit Kindle. Incidently, I've gotten well over $100 in free books on the kindle (not including public domain books) through various offers and that last book I purchased was Superfreakonomics which was considerably cheaper at 9.99 than it was at its typical HC price.

Whatever.

For the life of me, I can't understand why ANYONE would mess with a ebook reader, whether it's a Kindle or a nook... oops... THE nook... oops...

Whatever. Ebooks takes the free flow of ideas (which writers have supposedly considered to be the most precious and inherent right of all mankind) and shackles them with pink furry DRM handcuffs. Ebooks were, are, and will always be the most worthless creation in electronics history, and for me, green is the color my face makes when discussing environmental theory...

Between moronic marketing talk and the English Language, I'm pretty sure English wins every time.

I can see the value in a Kindle or other kind of e-reader, but I love books too much to buy one for myself.

That's just how I roll...

@HannahK1012: I don't see why all of this is a problem because the only advantage owning an eBook reader has is that you can stuff thousands of book titles on it and carry them all with you at once. On the other hand, the eBook reader costs 10 times more than a book and then you still have to buy books at almost full cost! The eBook reader has an OK display but a book is more readable. The eBook reader is a specialized piece of gear to carry around with its accessories. Then you don't actually have rights of first sale with the "books" that you buy. You aren't free to do anything with the content. I can see absolutely no practical reason for owning an eBook reader at all. Buy an eePC. It's about the same cost, about the same size, and isn't crippled like a reader. I guess I just don't get the whole Kindle/Nook thing.

Ebooks are cool, sure, but I have some sort of emotional collection to the printed page. Hell, I'm the last person on the planet to still have the newspaper delivered!

"Gift Cards and Gift Certificates currently cannot be used towards an eBook purchase. Please check back for updates."

As DigitalMariner mentioned, B&N makes daily updates, but at least the addition of "check back for updates" sounds more promising than the matter-of-fact phrasing quoted in the article.

And now I've got the one act play "This is a Test" on my mind and am repeating "This is a Nook." "A what?" "A Nook." "A what?" "A Nook." "Oh, a Nook." Repeat this ad nauseam occasionally using other objects around me. Cup. Watch. Plant. What can I say, it's late.

Thanks for all the info.

also, i love this related comic which tackles the subject of the nook in a light that someone in marketing apparently didn't consider

[www.krrobar.com]

1) Yes, Gift cards are currently not able to pay for nook or eBooks. This is obviously a major glitch that they are "working on", and is most likely a software complication between the gift cards and the ebookstore. We assume that gift cards will be able to purchase nook and accessories once there is significant enough nook to stock it in store and check out using the registers. But we have NO CONFIRMATION of that, and honestly no one will know until we have them in hand.

2) Employees should know these details as there is an Intranet page updated with FAQs on an almost daily basis with that they should be reading and discussing with the managers at daily shift meetings. However this detail was not publicized at launch, probably because it has been an issue since the eBooks launched months ago. But since eBooks was more of a bn.com service it was not understood by the vast majority of booksellers. And with all the secrecy surrounding nook they had no reason to know about eBooks.

3) The OP should call the store, preferably on Monday (as the store manager will almost definitely be there for meetings and conference calls), ask for the store manager and discuss the situation. They should be willing to refund the gift card and if not ask for the District Manager's phone number. Or you can always the EECB (firstinitial lastname @ bn.com -- CEO Steve Riggio sriggio@bn.com)

4) As a commenter said, there is no discount on nook for members, institutions, teachers, employees, anyone. It's $259 for and and everyone at this time. Who know where the future holds but the wording on our coupons has already been modified to exclude nook and nook accessories, so that's not a promising sign.

5) FWIW, the item is nook. No capital letters, no articles (ie not Nook, not "a nook" or "the nook"), it's simply... nook. Don't ask me why, just know we get corrected on the spot if heard calling it "a nook"

Hope this helps clear up a little confusion. It's a rocky road and in order to keep it a SURPRISE they had to keep all of us booksellers in the dark up until launch day so we're constantly playing catchup and many booksellers know less than the customers that come into the store.

They're still promising demo units in all stores at the end of the month, and I would wait until you can touch one in person to determine what to do, but with the "overwhelming demand" pushing back shipping dates by then it may be too late to order for holidays... oh wait I forgot, nook is not available to purchase as a gift.

*shrug*

The whole point is that a gift card can have a purpose to it, or at least moreso than cash. If I gave you an ebook reader and a gift card from the store that sells ebooks for that device, I'm pretty sure you'd get the point.

@ChemicallyInert: My Parents get me giftcards when they want me to spend the money on something specific. When I was younger, I worked a lot to pay all my bills and for school and stuff and didnt have much extra cash, and they knew, if they gave me cash, I would pay bills with it or something. So they would give me gift cards to force me to go enjoy myself.

Thie text on this page, however, has been there at least since the 21st.

"Gift Cards or Gift Certificates cannot currently be used towards an eBook purchase. Please check back for updates."

[www.barnesandnoble.com]

It hasn't.