New Barnes & Noble E-Reader Is Designed for Nighttime Reading The latest iteration of the Nook, revealed by the book retailer on Thursday, is a black-and-white device with a softly glowing backlit screen. It is designed to solve a common problem that consumers can encounter with e-readers: they are tough to use in the dark. The device, called the Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight, will go on sale immediately for preorders, with a price tag of $139. Shipping will start in early May. The cost is a significant step up from the $99 for the black-and-white Nook, which made its debut last May. In November, Consumer Reports compared the Nook Simple Touch to the Kindle Touch, one of Amazon's black-and-white e-readers, and gave the Nook device a higher rating for readability and faster page turns. But William Lynch, the chief executive of Barnes & Noble, the nation's largest bookstore chain, said the new device could be seen as two e-readers in one. The glowing backscreen can be activated with the press of a button, but when it is not in use, the e-reader functions as a standard e-ink device, which is easier to read in sunlight than a tablet like the iPad with an LCD display. Tablets like the iPad tend to be two to three times heavier than the latest generation of black-and-white e-readers, making them more unwieldy to hold, and with a screen that emits a harsher, glaring light. The new Nook does not require a clip-on reading light like those that have been sold as accessories. "If you're a reader, you probably read in bed," Mr. Lynch said in an interview on Thursday. This is the product that you're going to want. The new device is the first e-reader on the market with a glowing screen and an e-ink display, analysts said. Amazon has been developing a glowing black-and-white e-reader of its own, according to TechCrunch, which reported last week that Amazon would introduce a Kindle with an illuminated screen later this year. "There's really one scenario that is dominant for e-readers that presents an unsolved problem for consumers, which is reading while lying in bed," said Sarah Rotman Epps, a senior analyst for Forrester Research. Thirty-eight percent of total e-reader time is spent lying in bed, and yet what do you do when your partner wants to go to sleep? This product solves a big problem for readers. Barnes & Noble said that according to a recent survey of adults who read, 64 percent read in bed on a regular basis. Bill Saperstein, the vice president for digital products hardware engineering, said the new Nook had been in development for 18 months at the company's Palo Alto, Calif., outpost. Barnes & Noble currently sells three other e-reading devices: the Nook Simple Touch for $99; the Nook Color for $169; and the Nook Tablet for $199. Company executives said they were hoping to position the new e-reader as a "moms, dads and grads" gift, introducing it just before the graduation season and both Mother's Day and Father's Day. A marketing and advertising campaign will accompany the rollout of the device. Barnes & Noble's biggest problem may be its relatively low brand awareness, Ms. Epps said, noting that a recent Forrester survey found that five times as many consumers had never heard of Barnes & Noble's e-reading products compared with Amazon and Apple's.