I'm not sure what using a laptop has to do with things. Since the books appear to not be in print format for the majority of them, I assume you read with either a computer (laptop) or an ereader. In either case you could do the same:
1 If the computer, then reading the book there is no different except instead of Kindle for PC you could use Word or Open Office.
2 If the ereader, you can convert the document to a PDF (using Open Office) and import into a program like Calibre. From there you can convert to MOBI or EPUB and load to your ereader. This is possible using only free software.
Note that I have done editing on two different ereaders, a Kindle Touch and a Kobo Aura. Most of the Touch based readers let you annotate (ie highlight) . Once done, it is easy enough to page through the annotations while updating the original documents with @. Not sure what you would do with a non touch reader though. I don't recall if my Kindle Keyboard had something similar to annotations. Worst case you could take notes with pen and paper
As for being tempted to not purchase it, I can't answer that. I can say that I have gotten editing copies of many of his books and I have also purchased every one of them because it is the right thing to do. (I do the same with other free books I read if I like them and there is an ebook version available for purchase in parallel with the free option) Ultimately, it is of benefit to me to do so since most of the authors this impacts do not make best seller money from writing, so every purchase matters if we want to make sure they can afford to continue writing. Also, it may make a difference in whether they write full time or part time, and therefore how long readers need to wait for a new book.
That being said, I imagine that not everybody is willing to spend what I do on books, so for some people it may make a difference in how many books they purchase in a given month, in which case not paying for a book you enjoy might be more compelling. The two ends of the spectrum that I have seen on this boards appear to be:
1 People who are looking for more recommendations for books to read because they have exhausted the books they know and like and are looking for similar books they have not come across yet. ie availability is the primary constraint, not cost, although cost may be a factor.
2 People who are looking for more recommendations for books to read because they don't want to waste money on books which may be enjoyable, but not outstanding (ie 3-3.5 stars) ie cost is the primary constraint.
As somebody in category #1, I would hope that other people in category #1 would tend to purchase books, even if they get an editing copy. However, I can understand why some people in category #2 might not.
An alternate version of #2 might be people who are not limited by cost, but by time available for reading. For the purpose of number of books read, they might look the same, but for the case of prereading they would likely be different in that I think the time needed for editing would be problematic. They might want the book early simply to avoid waiting, but decide to purchase the book to reward the author rather than send back any edits.