Are Barnes and Noble Nooks or Amazon Kindles worth it or are those kind of devices crap?

It comes down to personal preference, but obviously many people enjoy them. In my opinion, Kindles are great for simple leisure reading and has the very important characteristics of portability and storage. Of course, the price of the device is something that you need to take into account as well as the cost of the ebooks themselves. Publishers force Amazon and Barns & Noble to sell their books at very high prices for something that has no physical components; sometimes the ebooks are just as expensive or more expensive than the actual printed book.

If you're a big reader, I would definitely recommend the Kindle. With Borders down and out, I would be wary of buying a Nook from B&N who could find themselves in a similar situation, in which case Nook owners won't have a place to buy their ebooks.