Is serious long-term reading of PDF programming books on iPad feasible?

Question

I typically read 2 hours every day on books and papers. I tried the Kindle DX last year for this. The e-ink technology was ok but the PDF rendering was unacceptable. (Too much margin around the pages, poor grayscale translation, slow rendering, etc.)

Now with the new iPad, I’m revisiting the e-reader situation again. I do not care for other the other hype features of iPad such as watching movies or browsing photos. The iPad will function 99% as an e-reader for programming books.

I found some links showing that the iPad has better PDF rendering:

http://www.geardiary.com/2010/04/12/how-to-view-pdf-files-on-an-ipad

http://superuser.com/questions/73639/which-e-reader-for-oreilly-books

My concern is about long focused sessions of reading on the iPad? To be clear, I’m not talking about quickly looking up some syntax on the iPad, reading a short paragraph, and then putting it down. I’m asking about deep reading for hours on the iPad. Has anyone done this successfully?

Here’s a blog about potential eye strain with the backlit iPad: http://ireaderreview.com/2010/04/24/kindle-better-for-reading-during-the-day-ipad-at-night-may-lead-to-loss-of-sleep

Another negative is the 10% slower reading speed on these e-readers: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/ipad-kindle-reading.html

Answer 1

I like it, but I use GoodReader for PDFs on the iPad.

Answer 2

I haven't used it for PDF's but I've spent several hours reading normal e-books on it at a time with no problems what-so-ever. I find it easier to hold than a normal book and it doesn't accidentally close on me. I will say from the perspective of a reference book though, I haven't found any good functionality for marking multiple places at a time.