Jun 30
I recommend a brother HL-5250DN because it has automatic duplexing and the toner last for 7000 pages this means you don't have to buy toner often. I would buy the two extra paper trays for books as this would stop the need for continuous reloading of paper. Also I’ve it at my school and it serves 900 children ok.
It is true that very cheap ones would not cope well because they don't have duplex which helps a lot and the paper trays are small and the consumables are small so it can cost more and need a lot of intervention and this would make the printer not cope well with a book.
Answer:
It's true that Basic Printer support very few printing at a time. But you can look for Canon LBP2900.It is also very basic printer, but have very low running cost (considering refill of tonner). I am using it from last 8-9 months and quite satisfied with its performance.