You know you can try it out for free. Go to Amazon.com and you can download a free Kindle directly onto your computer. There are lots of free ebooks as well.
I think you can also download the Nook to your computer. I have it as a free e-reader on this lappy...it came that way, but I think you can download from B&N..
I learned about this on this board..search for Kindle and there is a thread telling you how to download it to your computer for free.