IMO if you're the type of reader that gets interrupted or distracted a lot when reading, you'll have better battery life w/ the longer timeout, because you'll decrease your screen changes. For me, I find that I look up from my book to answer a question my husband has, or to feed the dog, or to change over the laundry, and each time the nook goes to screensaver (on a 5 minute timer). I could probably save battery life by avoiding all of these screen changes (2 for each time it times out).
If you're the type of reader who sits and reads and doesn't jump up every few pages to do something, then it won't matter which one you pick, as either way, you can always just manually put your nook to sleep when you're done reading. It's not like you have to wait for the clock to click down for your nook to take a nap.
Sun_Cat wrote:You folks must live in households without cats. I set my timeout to the minumum, and I usually put it to sleep manually before I set it down, even for a moment. There's no knowing when the cat might decide to see whether the infrared system responds to paws.
And why, exactly, do you mind if your cat gets some reading done while you're not using your NOOK? Quit being selfish. 
Seriously though, putting the unit face down sounds like a good protective measure against felines.
bobstro wrote:
And why, exactly, do you mind if your cat gets some reading done while you're not using your NOOK? Quit being selfish.
Seriously though, putting the unit face down sounds like a good protective measure against felines.
The cat talks, so there's no reason she shouldn't read, I suppose. I just don't want her buying everything in the store. 
As for setting the NST face down, I don't always have a flat, stable surface available, so I prefer face up to avoid inadvertently engaging the IR. For example, face down on the bed would probably be a bad idea.
