Barnes & Noble Nook Back to School deal includes $100 worth of ebooks

Interested in a back-to-school e-reader, but you're not sure which one to buy? Barnes & Noble made a case for the Nook on Monday, with $100 in free books for the returning student.

B&N said that customers who purchase a new Nook from today until Sept. 11 will receive $100 in free books and study tools, specifically a free collection of 12 free classic books and 12 SparkNotes study aids.

The books will help any aspiring literature major, and include A Tale of Two Cities, Beowulf, Ivanhoe, Crime and Punishment and The Portrait of the Artist As A Young Man. The SparkNotes guides include To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, The Catcher in the Rye, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, B&N said.

Barnes & Noble is locked in a tight race with Amazon's Kindle in the re-reader market, as each company seeks to lure new customers. Amazon's advantage is its ad-sponsored Kindle e-readers, which have dragged down the price to $139. some bloggers noted Monday that used Wi-Fi-only Kindles can be purchased from Amazon for $99, as a refurbished model. Those cheap, ad-sponsored Kindles have become Amazon's most popular Kindle, the company said recently.

B&N, meanwhile, appears to be using its book bundles as a way to counter the lower price of the Kindle. The Barnes & Noble Nook costs $139.

However, Amazon also said recently that it will "rent" eBook textbooks to students at substantial discounts.

"Both Nook Color and The All-New Nook are great reading devices for students looking for an innovative and lightweight way to read from our selection of more than 2 million digital titles including great books and study guides," said Sasha Norkin, vice president of digital and channel marketing at Barnes & Noble.com, in a statement. "We compiled many classic literature titles found on required reading lists at schools around the country and paired them with some of our leading SparkNotes study materials. Add to that our free NOOK Study guides and helpful NOOK Apps for productivity, and you've got a robust offering that will help prepare students for the year ahead."

B&N said that customers can also download free e-books including 50 Survival Tips: How to Win at College, 25 Tips for Living Up a Semester Abroad, and 25 Tips for Landing an Internship. Other free Nook apps include Fliq Notes, Fliq Tasks, NOOK Word of the Day and the news app, Pulse.

This article, written by Mark Hachman, originally appeared on PCMag.com and is republished on Gear Live with the permission of Ziff Davis, Inc.