Barnes & Noble giving away free books with Nook

The company is heralding the new school year with free titles and study guides with a Nook purchase

I’m going to try to keep my literary snobbery in check to write this story, but I may spring a leak like an overstuffed bean bag chair, so consider yourself warned.

In celebration of the new school year, Barnes & Noble is launching a new promotion: buy a Nook Color or The All-New Nook between now and September 11 and get $100 worth of free books and study tools.  Students and those who simply like to stay connected with the classics (because they want people to see them reading The Brothers Karamazov at the park while their toddler plays on the swings) can get in on the offer and select from among 12 free classic novels and 12 Spark Notes guides.

And the list of available novels isn’t half bad.  Titles include Beowulf, The House of Mirth, Ivanhoe, Crime and Punishment, My Antonia, The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and more.  Not a bad list…although, I take issue with the implication that only older titles can be considered classics.  Why no Toni Morrison?  Or Louise Erdrich?  Or Alice Walker?!  But I digress.

Interestingly…the promotion isn’t offering corresponding Spark Notes, but rather Spark Notes for other titles altogether, including One Hundred Years of Solitude, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, and 1984, among others.

Customers can also choose from among three Nook study guides, including “How to Win at College,” “25 Tips for Living Up a Semester Abroad,” and “25 Tips for Landing an Internship.”

Once a customer purchases the Nook, they have until October 31, 2011, to register it, at which point they’ll receive an email with access codes for downloading the free content.

The All-New Nook, which was unveiled in May, is thinner, lighter, and longer lasting than the first-generation Nook and retails for $139.  The Nook Color is obviously the option for readers who want to read books and magazines in color, but the e-reader also comes with Web browsing and built in email and retails for $249.

Quick!  Pop quiz—name that novel:

In my younger and more vulnerable years, my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since.

“Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.”

Try your luck.  The winner will get an all-expenses paid* trip to Costa Rica for two.

*Not actually paid by anyone.