The Nook Simple Touch e-reader by Barnes & Noble was sold for $79 during last year's Black Friday. This year, B&N has made the reduced price permanent.

Some book lovers would swear there is nothing better than the feel of pulp pages in their hands when enjoying their favorite authors. But if you have friends and family who are okay with going digital in their reading habits, the US$79 Nook Simple Touch is a good Christmas gift. This is also a great gift idea for travelers and frequent fliers.

Nook Simple Touch: Specs, Battery Life

Nook Simple Touch readers will get their literary fix on a 6-inch touchscreen with an 800 x 600 resolution.

The reading gadget has built-in WiFi and able to store up to 1,000 books. Its battery life can last up to over 2 months offline with light to moderate (30 minutes) daily reading. It has an internal storage of 2GB, and a microSD slot that can provide 32GB more space.

Nook Simple Touch was launched in June 2011. The device is "a major advancement over the original Nook. In many ways, it's exactly the e-reader we've been waiting for and was hinted at when Sony licensed Neonode's infrared touch technology to finally solve the problem of trying to craft a touch-screen layer on top of an e-ink screen," wrote CNET in its review.

Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight for Illuminated Reading

Nook Simple Touch can come with Glowlight function, for $119. Buyers are hoping this price would also drop soon, but there has been no update yet from B&N.

The Glowlight brightens up the reader's screen without illuminating the entire room. Using the Glowlight function drains the battery faster, though. But the reader can still enjoy about a month of uninterrupted battery life.

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