Barnes & Noble pushes Nook app to Android

Android owners now have yet a bigger selection of choices for how they want to access electronic books, as Barnes & Noble has officially embraced the Android Market.

The app will allow anyone with an Android phone to purchase and read any book that is available on the book retailer’s own e-reading device, the Nook.

Nook for Android is also completely backward compatible with all previous Nook purchases. So someone with a Nook who has already bought a handful of books for the device will also be able to read them on the new app.

Possibly the most important feature, though, is the fact that users can “lend” their e-books to other people with the app. Books can be digitally transferred to other users, who will have access to the book for 14 days.

Books can be read in digital or landscape mode, and settings can be changed to alter the text, font, and size of the display.

This joins Amazon’s Kindle app and Borders’ e-reader app that are already available on Android. The Nook platform is also on the iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, and PCs.