If he wants to read magazines on it, I think you'll have to do with a tablet of some sort. The nook tablets are Samsung Galaxy tabs and then there are Amazon fires.
We have two older version nook tablets and we've been happy with them.
When I read books on my iPad, I change the settings to a black background with white print and there's little glow.
All that said I want a basic nook with glow light that's just for dedicated book reading. I won't have to fight the kids for it and I won't get distracted with other things on it!
I have the nook ereader with glowlight, not the tablet. super basic, just for reading. love it love it love it. I've been a nook faithful since before you could download library books on kindle. I've never tried a kindle.
ditto pp that if he wants to read magazines, he'll need a tablet.
I've had the Nook Tablet and the Kindle Paperwhite. I LOOVE my Paperwhite.
My Nook was fine until I tried reading on it outside. I took it on our beach vacation a couple years ago and with the glare, I was absolutely unable to read on that screen.
So I got the Paperwhite and have not had the issue at all. Since I only use my e-reader for reading and not surfing online, etc., it's perfect for me.
ETA: I also ran into the issue a few times that B&N would not have an e-version of a book I wanted, but Amazon did, so that is another reason I prefer Kindles, whether it's the Paperwhite or Fire.