Barnes & Noble

Students who buy a Nook before heading back to school can fill their new e-reader with $100 worth of free books courtesy of Barnes & Noble.

Launching a new back-to-school promotion, the folks at B&N are offering a collection of classics and study guides that may come in handy during the next semester's reading assignments (and save the parents a bit of cash).

The retailer is offering 12 free classics, among them "Beowulf," "A Tale of Two Cities," "Crime and Punishment," and "Metamorphosis." Eager students will also receive Spark Notes study guides for such novels as "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," "The Great Gatsby," "The Catcher in the Rye," and "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows."

Three Nook study guides add to the offer, including "Nook Study's 50 Survival Tips: How to Win at College," "Nook Study's 25 Tips for Living Up a Semester Abroad," and "Nook Study's 25 Tips for Landing an Internship." And to top it off, B&N is throwing in several Nook color apps, such as Fliq Notes, Fliq Tasks, Nook Word of the Day, and Pulse News, though these four apps can already be had for free.

To qualify, consumers must buy a Nook Color or other new Nook reader by September 12 and register it by October 31. An e-mail from B&N will let buyers choose their free books. Though the promo is directed toward students, anyone with a yearning to bone up on the classics can take advantage of it.

"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," Sasha Norkin, vice president of digital and channel marketing at Barnes & Noble.com, said in a statement. "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."