If you thought the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite e-reader was a great deal at $119, take a look at the Txtr Beagle Read|Only, undercutting it by more than a C-note — it sells for a mere $13.

As you might expect, for such a rock-bottom price you're going to have to make some sacrifices.

If you just want to read text and you can live without a touchscreen, 3G, a backlight and Wi-Fi — and you don't mind inserting three AAA batteries once a year — this 5-inch, 4.5-oz E Ink device with its 800x600 screen might be the e-reader for you. The Txtr Beagle's 4GB of storage will give you room for a boatload of books, and its 5mm thickness is almost razor-thin enough to give you a paper cut.

Why is it called Txtr Beagle? No, it's not named after Charles Darwin's ship, but one reason could be its resemblance to a pet beagle for your smartphone. Its Bluetooth radio communicates with a Txtr app on your iOS or Android smartphone, dutifully fetching books for your reading enjoyment.

German company Txtr already has its own Txtr E-book Store via apps for iOS and Android, so that end of the business is ready to go. But the company hasn't said when we'll see this bare-bones book reader on the market. It did mention it's working on deals with smartphone providers to include the reader as an accessory for a variety of smartphones.

We're looking at the beautiful colors and simple design of this Txtr Beagle with considerable trepidation, keeping in mind the old adage of "you get what you pay for" proves itself to be true more often than not. Could this be an exception? Will the company actually be able to deliver this e-reader for $13 — just about the same price as a single e-book on Amazon — that even undercuts Amazon's rock-bottom-priced $69 Kindle?