Hello Dana -- welcome to MobileRead.
You'll want to spend some time reading the Kindle User's Guide which should have come loaded onto your Kindle 2. Fortunately, the whispernet is not needed to read or purchase books. The Kindle can read any DRM-free Mobipocket book. You can find thousands of free Mobipocket books at MobileRead,
Feedbooks,
Manybooks,
Munsey's,
Project Gutenberg, and
Baen. You can buy even more Mobipocket books from
Fictionwise and
Baen/Webscription.
It can also read books purchased from Amazon.com once you've registered your Kindle with an account in Amazon US web site. This account will need a US mailing address and the 1-click settings must reference a credit card on a US Bank. You can fund your purchases with gift cards instead of the credit card once the account is set up.
To get books onto your Kindle without using whispernet, you'll need to use the USB cable that came with your Kindle to connect it to any PC, Mac, or Linux computer. The Kindle will appear as external storage or an external disk attached to the computer. Just copy/move the books from the computer to the Kindle and then eject/unmount the Kindle and unplug it. You'll find the new books in the main index and can start reading right away.
Whispernet is required to download samples from Amazon.com. Every other type of reading material can be downloaded to a computer and transferred to the Kindle over the USB cable.
So, even though you can't access the wireless (cellular) network that the Kindle uses in the USA, you don't lose any functionality except for the samples.
Enjoy your Kindle.