Just a suggestion how about a 10 inch tablet (samsung note 10.1 comes to mind) would be much more portable and much better for reading ... if not check this laptop
Lenovo G50-70A 59-419803 price comes at about $580 no OS though, but has i5 4gb RAM and 500 gb HDD. or the Acer TMP255M-M-54204G Slim Line (search for it on the link provided above).