There are lots of free books available for the Kindle. There are many websites to find free books, one I recently discovered is called BookBub. You subscribe to it, it's free, and it will send you email notifications when there are free books available in the genres you are interested in. I can also check out library books through my library onto my Kindle. Another alternative is to search Amazon for Kindle books and have it sort by price. It will list all the free ones.
My husband has an iPad, but after playing with it for a few months I've decided I much prefer my laptop. It simply has more functionality than the iPad. Sure, I can surf the internet and cruise Facebook, Quilting Board, and other similar forums on the iPad, but I find typing on it a little difficult (why is there no backspace button???) and there are lots of websites that use Flash, which is not compatible with the iPad. So then I have to go to another app to use those websites, and it just becomes a pain. I also like to sit with my DH in the evenings and play with Electric Quilt and work on various projects for work, which I can't do with an iPad. So after much consideration, I decided that for my needs, a mid-level laptop (priced about the same as my husband's iPad) would be a better choice for me.
Having said that, I think an iPad would be perfect for my mother-in-law. She uses a computer to check her email, do online banking and bill pay, surf the internet, and play games. She doesn't utilize any software, so an iPad would be ideal.
Last edited by Peckish; 10-05-2012 at 07:26 PM.