If I were to decide I wanted to learn myself some guitar, would anyone have advice on an inexpensive beginner guitar to buy?
I would reccomend that you shop with someone you know who's been playing for a while, and knows how to properly set up a guitar. Often times a seemingly-crap guitar can be made very playable with just a bit of set-up help.
The trick is with lower-priced instruments, you're more likely to find inconsistancy from guitar to guitar. Two of the same guitars will play/feel/sound completely different...which makes shopping online hard.
Honestly,, my advice would be to look at used gear. For the same money as a cheap new guitar, you'll get one that is maybe a few steps above when you could normally afford.
As long as you stick with a name brand, you'll at least get a guitar that has a baseline of playability. Ibanez, Fender (Squire) Washburn, Schecter, etc. They will all have guitars in your price rage, probably. Guitar Center sells Laguna which sem to be not entirely terrible.
You will likely want to stay away from most guitars with whammy bars. It's easy to make a cheap tremolo. It's not easy or cheap to make one that won't be frustrating as hell (hard-to-impossible to keep in tune, sharp saddles that break strings, etc).
I'd say to start with a fixed-bridge guitar with humbucker pickups (the larger, double-sized pickups) and a coil tap/coil splitting function so you can get a sound of single-coil pickups (the 1/2-sized "strat" pickups).
If you don't have a large-ish music store near you, check out either Musician's Friend or Guitar Center's website, and make sure to read reviews and comments. Get on their mailing lists as they send out discount coupons all the time, too.
I had crap guitars when I first started, and they were so frusrating that they almost made me give up!