SanDisk 8GB Clip Jam MP3 Players are on sale at B&H Photo. The regular price is $39.99 -- it's currently on sale for $29.99. The sale ends at 11:59 pm (EDT -- they're in New York City) on September 8th. Sorry for the short notice, I only just spotted it.
My son has one. I have no idea how it handles ebooks, but my son is happy with the way it handles music. It also sounds very good (with a decent set of headphones). It has a 1 inch monochrome screen, so it does not handle book covers or album art. It does play AAC files, the format Apple uses, so loading music via Itunes is pretty easy.
Here's the link for the black model:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...m_8gb_mp3.html
Blue, Green and Pink are also on sale.
It looks like Amazon may be matching this price, so it might be worthwhile checking there as well, if you're interested.
EDIT: There's a feature list for the Clip Jam and comparison with other Clip models
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