After hearing some fairly positive reviews of the new version of the Amazon Kindle, I decided to “bite the bullet” and pay the $359.00 fee for the Amazon Kindle 2. The new version of the Kindle doesn’t come with a protective case, so that will easily add $29.99 to your total. If you want the device to ship in a reasonable amount of time and have it sometime within the next couple of weeks, you’ll probably want to opt for two day shipping. When all was said and done, my total bill was $411.96, ouch! That seems like a bit of a hefty price tag for a product that Amazon bills as a “money saving” device. Will Amazon’s Kindle actually pay for itself?

The Kindle is priced at a whopping $359.00 primarily because it includes lifetime access to its “WhisperNet” wireless network (which actually piggyback’s off Sprint’s cellular network). This is a very high up-front fee, but the average cost per book is lower on the Kindle than comparing to a new paperback or hardcover book. Typically, you can get a new book on the Amazon Kindle for $9.99, whereas a new paper-back will likely go for $14.99 whereas a new hardcover book will run for $24.99.

I would argue that the real figure that people typically pay for a new book is probably a lot less than the $20.00 average between a hard-cover and paperback book because many people tend to buy books used, get them from friends, or from a local library. With the Amazon Kindle, that’s simply not an option. For argument’s sake let’s say that the average new book does cost $19.99, that means you’ll save $10.00 per book that you buy on the Kindle that you didn’t buy in paperback or hardcover form. That means you’ll have to buy 36 books before the Kindle becomes “worth it.”

The typical American reads less than two books per year and one in four Americans don’t read a single book in any given year. For the “average” reader, it would take decades for the Kindle to pay for itself, however most people who but an Amazon Kindle will read much more than what an average reader will consume. A reasonable number would be more on the lines of 10 to 15 books a year for a casual to a moderate reader. This means that the Kindle would pay for itself in 2.5 to 3 years.

The “return on investment” for a Kindle isn’t particularly stunning, but it’s still a fun gadget to get, just don’t persuade yourself that you’re going to be saving a “ton of money” by getting more affordable books. The mathematics really don’t work out, especially if you tend to buy used books or get them for free from friends, family and the local library.