...Another way to stretch your reading dollar is with a Kindle or Nook...
I know what you mean! We have 5 Nooks and one Kindle. Last Christmas, that was the "big" gift for the entire family. Barnes and Noble was clearing out their 1st generation Nooks to make way for the "new & improved" version and they were reasonably affordable. My youngest daughter killed her's within the warranty (yes, she reads THAT much!)and it was replaced by a 2nd generation model. The Kindle had more kid friendly titles available (Wife did all the research), so we got that for the youngest son who is 7.
I'm very proud to say that all four of our kids are very good and avid readers! My youngest daughter scored at a 12th grade level on last year's aptitude tests. She was in 6th grade at the time.
We used to get them a scad of books for Christmas, but for the price of digital copy books, they can get 4 times as many "books" for the same money.
We bought my oldest son 25 books (the thickish Star Wars novels) one year for Christmas and he had them all read by the end of January!
Sorry. I seem to have gotten on the Proud Daddy train there for a minute...I guess my point is that I think the Kindle / Nook route is a good one. They take up very little room and the charge lasts a long time. That said, I still like the feel of a good, old fashioned, real paper book. But for trips (or extended seclusion LOL) It would make packing much easier.