If you don’t want to cough up the extra money to get Barnes & Noble’s Nook Color, which is one of the cheaper Android tablets in the market, but you are willing to engage in some Frankenstein-style experiments with the Nook Simple Touch, the following hack will turn the monochrome e-reader into a respectable Android tablet, complete with multi-touch capability!

The bright minds at XDA-Developers have found new ways for you to be more productive when using the Nook Simple Touch. Well, it remains to be seen how productive you will be once you discover that you can play Angry Birds on the Nook Simple Touch’s monochrome e-ink screen.

While B&N’s e-reader has seen its fair share of Android-related hacks, one can argue that this is the best one yet. Aside from increasing its usefulness when playing games, you can also use multi-touch gestures when browsing the web or reading PDF files. As you can see from the videos below, the hack works pretty smooth.

Just to understand the risks associated with such undertaking, some users have reported screen lockups on their Nook Simple Touch after performing the mod. If you feel that it’s a risk worth taking, you can head down to the source to download the zip file and flash it to your Nook Simple Touch, via ClockworkMod recovery. Note that a rooted device is mandatory for the hack.

Alternatively, you can just get the Nook Color for $169, which is just $70 more than the Nook Simple Touch. You’ll get to read, play, and browse on the tablet’s 7-inch multi-touch IPS display, all in full color. But whatever floats your Android boat and all that.

NEXT: Video proof of multi-touch on the T-Mobile G1

Apparently The Nook e-Reader Can Be Rooted Into A Honeycomb Tablet The T-Mobile G1′s hardware supports multi-touch?!?!