Would there be any hypothetical way to scan a paper book on to my computer and convert it into a kindle file? I love the idea of the paper white but don't see anything I want to read on there.

Sure. Scan it and use something like RealReader lite to OCR it. Then there are a multitude of ways to convert the text to kindle format.

Also if you don't care about preserving the physical book, the easiest way to scan it quickly and accurately is to cut off the spine.