Can you educate a Guy who knows nothing about Apples you use for computing?

I know all about eating apples, growing them, making pies and cobblers from them, etc. But iPads I am in the dark about. Thinking of one for my wife’s Christmas. She wants something simple and user friendly and all she’ll do with it is surf sites about ancient history, architecture, art and such. She won’t be carrying it around, so am I right to assume I don’t need to invest in an AT&T 3G connection? Can it run off my wired router or wireless network hooked to Comcast?

I don’t want anything with a tiny screen, as she needs reading glasses. I want something that’s dead easy to learn to use and that is easy to read and see. Any alternative suggestions to an iPad are fine.