I've had my Nook for about 2 years and really like it. Regarding the credit card comment and free books - Have you joined your county/city library system ? I download books all the time from my county library (Volusia)for free - no credit card required. I probably average reading one book every week. I would go broke if I were buying books every week.
* My pet peeve - I would really like to see every city/county/state/college ebook library system joined together to become one large U.S. library so everything would be available. I would pay any appropriate yearly fee to belong ! Right now I'm at the mercy of my county library and can only get at the ebooks they choose to have available. My fallback position is that each state would pull together everything within their boundaries and form a state library system.
Tim