If you want to give a loved one Amazon's new Kindle for Christmas, you're out of luck. It won't arrive until after December 25. If you're willing to settle for Sony's Reader, however, it will arrive in time for Santa with credit for 100 free "classic" books from Sony's Connect e-bookstore.

Stewart Wolpin has calculated that it's really only worth your while to purchase the $400 Kindle if you buy 40 books a year. The Sony Reader already costs $100 less than Amazon's Kindle. If it starts off with 100 classics worth $2 each, then Stewart's patented e-book reader formula leans heavily towards Sony's reader over the Kindle. Of course, Kindle has free EVDO Internet Access, and maybe you don't like reading stuff that's old. But the bottom line for this holiday season is that Amazon is out of Kindles, and Sony's reader comes with your favorite titles by Shakespeare, Austen, Forster, Wells, Twain, Carroll, Melville, Elliot and Dickens. Not to mention the King James Bible. Three cheers for competition!

via Sony