My husband was going Christmas shopping, and I asked him to pick up a book I needed for book club.

Upon his return, he tossed a Barnes & Noble bag on the floor near me.

“Here’s your book,” he said. “All they had was a hard cover, so I got that.”

Me: “What?” (Why would you do that? Why would you spend $25 on a book I’m not even sure I will like?)

I didn’t say any of that but instead thanked him for getting it for me and continued folding laundry.

“Well, aren’t you going to look at it?” he asked. (Umm … it’s a book. I know what … )

And then it hit me. Could it be?

A slow grin spread across his face, and that told me everything.

The man had bought me a Nook Color.

A mixture of guilt and giddiness immediately washed over me. Guilt because it was an expensive gift and giddy because I was a proud new owner of one of the best e-readers around. It’s taken me several months to warm up to the idea of an e-reader, and although I’ve embraced the technology, it doesn’t mean I’ve abandoned “real” books. I think of the Nook as an enhancement or tool for my personal library, not a replacement.

Over the weekend, I finished reading my first book on the Nook, “Welcome to Utopia” by Karen Valby. After playing on a Kindle and an iPad, I think reading on the Nook is more natural. The size is close to that of a paperback, much like the Kindle, but the page turns are quicker. When I was reading on a Kindle, I had to wait a second for the page to turn, and you could see it change. But on the Nook, when you tap the screen to turn the page, it just changes … you can’t even see it happen most of the time.

So far, the Nook has been pretty intuitive to use, also. I’ve always had a hard time making notes or highlighting in my books, with the exception of textbooks. I felt like that by highlighting a novel, it would influence how the next person read it or interpreted it. But the Nook allows you to highlight passages, make notes about them and then … delete them. So if I were to loan an ebook to a friend, they wouldn’t have to wade through my musings.

The only thing I’m a little disappointed in is that only one of my favorite magazines is available, and I would like to transfer all my subscriptions to cut down on clutter. I’m sure they’ll be added eventually, but in the meantime, I’ll just have to tend to my stacks of periodicals.

Next thing I want to try: Checking out an ebook from the library. I can’t wait to give the new system a whirl, and I’ll let you know how it goes.