The Nookie ... isn't it cute?

As if Amazon.com needed more headaches, Barnes & Nobel unveiled its new ereader at an event in Manhattan late yesterday afternoon, and it’s meeting with an overwhelmingly positive responses, most of which, naturally, compare it to the Kindle.

Called the Nook — the Nook E-Book Reader, get it? Yep, the Nookie Book Reader! — it will go on sale next Tuesday and begin shipping in late November. According to a Wall Street Journal report, the device will have an e-paper display from E-Ink Corp. and a small, color-touch screen for control and typing, will have wireless internet connection, and run on Google’s Android operating system. It will have two gigs of expandable memory and hold about 1500 books. And it will list at $259 … to the penny, the same price as a Kindle.

B&N will also offer subscriptions to “more than 20 newspapers, including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal — and eventually expects to offer, in digital form, subscriptions to every major U.S. daily.”

Even before it was out, in a story yesterday morning at Wired detailing leaking details, Charlie Sorrel wrote, “If you just ordered a Kindle, stop reading now or you’re in for a giant dose of buyer’s remorse.” In particular, Sorrel noted a feature that he thinks could “destroy the Kindle model” — the ability to “lend” ebooks to friends. The WSJ report says B&N apparently cut a deal with certain, unnamed big publishers, and so only a few books so far would be “loanable,” and those only for a limited time. Still, as Sorrel notes, “this loaning function could be the viral feature that makes the device spread. Who would buy a walled-garden machine like the Kindle when the Nook has the same titles, cheaper, and you can borrow? The Nook is already starting to look like the real internet to the Kindle’s AOL.”

Meanwhile Barnes & Noble gives the full spread of the Nook’s wonders — you can personalize it with a picture of your cat, for example — at, well, nook.com.