A "seconded" on the any format point. A tablet will let you read any format and treat even locked PDFs as a readable size mostly. Especially nice reading things in portrait mode instead of the standard laptop mode.

But due to their generally more power intensive use they need to be plugged in almost constantly to be useful as well as booted up (unlike most dedicated ereaders). But since it sounds like you were planning on treating it like an appliance anyway, 'sall good.

On the third hand...er, foot...limb, whatever, it makes a fine reader when reading from a comfortable chair or couch. Depending on you eyesight you won't be needing much of a reading lamp either. Add a nice adjustable book holder and it gets even better.

My two favorite programs are Ubook (cheap) and Ybook (free). Both do basically the same thing but differ in bell and whistle allocation.

Of course, it never hurts that low end convertibles are finally starting to show up. Saw several in Sundays ad section at the $400 mark that would be fine for reading as well as general household use (email, web, finances, text, maybe some board games).