Kindle, schmindle...I've got your $350 e-book reader right here

In the end, our $350 Netbook was not a perfect substitute for the $350 Amazon Kindle 2. Our Acer Aspire was heavier and harder to hold onto, and while the screen was bigger, unlike the Kindle's muted grey-on-grey, the bright glow of the LCD screen is tiring to the eyes after a while. Still if you're looking for a single mobile device that reads current books (even if they cost more) and has access to a huge library of free public domain works, it's an alternative to lugging around a Kindle and a laptop on your next trip -- at least until Amazon makes the Kindle a $99 doorbuster for its digital book business.