If you had to buy a mass market recliner (reading chair) for under $500 (at gunpoint)  

Seriously?
What's comfortable for me may not be comfortable to you.
Go to your nearest furniture store and sit in a bunch of chairs and buy the one that feels right to you. It's really that simple.
weevil in the boll

I don't have any idea, but Mo...
I don't have any idea, but Mortimer Adler in his How to Read a Book, the first thing, said to find an uncomfortable reading chair so you wouldn't fall asleep. Adler's suggestion is sacrosanct to me.

what kind of gun?
evil in the shroom.
Aunt Mark

Ask onegroovydude
He knows everything.

A polite suggestion.
The kebab chair.
Pretty and practical, too. Available everywhere.

Pre-soiled leather?
I love the "kebab" chair Mark.
Even a new chair could be soiled and nobody would ever know.

best response ever...
jdip, thanks for the laugh!

go to ikea
buy the poäng.
and read Tolstoy's War and Peace, cover to cover, twice.

.
Anna Karenina, only book I've ever cried reading.
HATE those chairs, sitting in them is like being molested by Jabba the hut.

Well, if it's for a friend...
Well, if it's for a friend who's going to prison...
it needs to be easy to clean
nearly indestructible
and provide ample protection so that no one can sneak up behind you.
I vote the bellini mb1 by Mario Bellini. It's $450. Of course, it doesn't recline, but in prison one must keep one's guard up, no?

I'm sure
they already have a chair waiting for him there....

kebab goes to prison...?
Dont worry house kebab. They are just kidding. So was I.
You just happen to have a name that lends itself to haiku, and your rapid-fire demanding questions are pretty hilarious.
So you gonna break down and get a chair at some point?
Something in a nice electric? Or black, always a classic.
I think we should explore the 199 dollar price point next.

poäng seems too...
poäng seems too small. Looks like a folding chair, not a recliner.
But, the puffy lazy-boy seems too big.