At least according to U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks, who ruled against the Texas Department of Transportation’s request for restraining the sale of a book it says infringes on its trademarked slogan “Don’t Mess With Texas.”

The Houston Business Journal reports that Federal Judge Sparks cited First Amendment rights in his ruling and concluded that TxDOT’s trademark registration does not apply to books. He also considered the amount of revenue the defendants (Hachette Book Group, Barnes & Noble, and author Christie Craig) would lose if prevented from selling the book.

According to the Houston Press blog Hair Balls, TxDOT initiated the suit because the novel “contains numerous graphic references to sexual acts, states of sexual arousal, etc.” The agency was also worried that selling the book at Barnes & Noble would call “irreparable harm” since the store also sells many TxDOT materials.

Running through my head right now are all kinds of scenarios of people confusing a romance novel with a department of transportation book. It would make defensive driving courses much more interesting. Being bad a spotting cop cars while I speed, I’ve had to take that twice. One of those times was in Texas and the curriculum was uninspiring. Judging from Ms. Craig’s cover, I’d much rather have read her book during the eight hour class.

I’m psyched over how much free publicity this book is getting because a state department of transportation decided morality falls under its jurisdiction. And I’m happy authors can still exercise freedom of speech, even if it involves a governmental slogan.

Maybe you can’t literally mess with that big state down south, but you can do so literarily.

This is the future of... something.

As was widely expected, Barnes & Noble introduced a new version of their nook ereader today. This is a big, big thing, and is either the first in a long line of successful products from B&N, or a last useless stab at a market they’ve been doomed in from the start.

People are ogling over this new read in the stores feature, and rightfully so. B&N (on selected titles) will let you preview an entire book (as long as you can do it in an hour, per day) wherever you want (as long as “where you want” is inside a Barnes & Noble store; sort of an “any color so long as it’s black” thing).

Also people are lukewarm over the lending thing (just once, and only for 14 days).

More exciting is the fact that it runs Android, so it can do some app stuff. Like play games and work on Microsoft Office files, which is pretty sweet. And it’s only a matter of time now until some enterprising hackers turn it into an almost full-fledged tablet computer, which is pretty kick-ass.

One of the most exciting things to me is the ability to change the font. Not just the size, but the typeface and color, too. Even the background color of the page. Which might be really useful when you find out the single most important change made in this new nook: a farewell to e-ink screens.

Okay, so it’s not technically a goodbye, since BN still offers the original nook, which sports the e-ink technology. But is this the beginning of the end for e-ink on ereaders?

BN, of course, is touting the nook color’s new screen as a great feature, and when you break down the specs, it certainly seems like it. It’s full-color IPS, capable of video playback, and is a touchscreen. All a huge change from the older, grayscale, passive e-ink display. One must think this is a direct result of the success of the iPad. When the iPad launched, some folks decried its uselessness as an ereader because of the glossy display. But seeing as it’s sold 7 million units in a few months’ time, everything points to a resounding success by Apple in that department. But the nook color isn’t a full-fledged tablet computer. Not really. It’s central purpose is as a reading device, so how’s the color screen going to fly? Is it a tacit admission that e-ink just doesn’t cut it? That consumers don’t want something as blase as a grayscale screen? Is it supposed to be a super-awesome ereader, or is it really a crippled tablet?

BN is pushing magazines and also just announced its nook kids program, which brings interactive kids books to the nook platform. This (and the glossy nature of most magazines) seems fitting for a color screen. Like Apple did with its App Store, BN recognizes the potential for content to push sales of hardware, and is banking on people wanting to read magazines in their full-color glory.

But why the move away from e-ink? Is it because the tech isn’t ready? There have been several reports of color/touchscreen/stylus e-ink displays being tested and even in production. The tech is pretty well there (and I hope it becomes foldable soon). E-ink is significantly more power-friendly than even the best IPS screens, along with being much, much easier to read in a broader range of conditions. But people like this guy consider e-ink doomed. I’m not yet convinced. Yes, LCDs are a mature technology, but they simply don’t replicate the easy reading experience of e-ink or other technologies. And there are enough people (you know, people who read books) who want that experience that the demand needs to be met.

When Amazon first launched the Kindle, their “top design objective was to make Kindle disappear—just like a physical book—so you can get lost in your reading, not the technology,” according to its product page. They wanted the device itself to fall into the background so all you see is the words, the text, the book. BN’s new nook color wants to do exactly the opposite. It wants to be the focus. It wants you to see it. It wants you to touch it, to interact with it.

These are two very different approaches. So far Amazon’s has worked exceptionally well. Does BN now have the inside track to catch up? Has Amazon missed the boat on this, and going to fade into memory as a quaint, useful device that helped bridge the gap between physical books and the real ereaders of the future? Or is the nook color a shot in the dark, some kind of “do everything moderately well instead of succeeding at one thing” sort of product?

Is this the future? The ultimate compromise? Or just a compromise?

Through this program, publishers recommend writers making a strong literary debut who have fewer than three previously published books, have not received a major literary award, or whose net sales have not yet reached 10, 000 copies. Literary fiction, short story collections, and non-fiction with strong narrative qualify for submission. B&N in-house volunteers read the books and choose 12-22 the titles each season who receive face out displays in the “Discover bay” in each of B&N’s stores for 12 weeks, including an individual “shelf-talker” with a “teaser line.” They also receive major marketing support for things like book group discussions and through the B&N website. Previous year’s selected titles include The Lovely Bones, The Kite Runner, and The Time Traveler’s Wife.

But wait, there’s more! Each year, a panel of previously “discovered” writers picks the winners for the Discover Awards. The 2009 awards were just announced and the first place fiction and nonfiction cash prices of $10 000 went to Victor Lodato’s “haunting debut” novel Mathilda Savitch and Dave Cullen’s “meticulously researched” Colombine. A short-story collection and a cartographic history received the $5000 second place prices, while another novel and a memoir collected $2500 each for third place.

What do you think? Does this promotion of literary writing dilute some of the hatred we so love to feel for non-independent stores?