Do they make you read Jane Austen in English class? All her books and thousands of other books they might make you read are free.
For $50 more you can even get permanent free 3G connectivity with it which even allows you to "browse the web" for free almost anywhere with 3G even without the WiFi, though that is even more "clunky" than other navigation issues. And you can e-mail yourself notes that show up on the Kindle to read "offline" when you do not have your laptop.
Example, right up your alley, that I coincidentally doing just before I read this thread:
On another thread tonight the book below was advocated, and I just downloaded it for free ,and am putting it on my Kindle.
Even if it takes me a year to read it, I will finally get it read because I will have it with me for all those times when I are sitting in a waiting room, etc.
My new free book:
A Tiger by the Tail
A 40-Years’ Running Commentary on Keynesianism by Hayek
With an essay on ‘The Outlook for the 1970s:
Open or Repressed Inflation?’
by
F.A. HAYEK
Nobel Laureate 1974
Compiled and Introduced by Sudha R. Shenoy
Introduction by Joseph T. Salerno
Third Edition
Published jointly by The Institute of Economic Affairs and the Ludwig von Mises Institute
I do not think you will regret getting a Kindle. It is a cheap blip compared to the rest of your educational expenses.
Your correct in that $130 is cheaper than most of my textbooks (Sociology comes to mind...) but I am done with the General Education requirements section of my degree and am now taking solely math/econ courses.
Are there many economics based books for free on the Kindle? I am assuming that Wealth of Nations is free and the book that you mentioned sounds fascinating.
I have been (slowly) raiding the Mises, Hayek, and Rothbard libraries published by the Von Mises Institute.
At the moment, I'm rereading Theory And History, having given my hardback to a friend around twenty years ago.