Good luck, mate! I'm on the same dilema, however I do not have the eyestrain problem... perhaps you should wait and hope for the Que Reader (
www.que.com) to finally come out and drop that prohibitive and (now that the iPad's out) absolutely ridiculous price tag. However it doesn't take notes, but I think with the modern handwriting recognition tech... you would do better with an old pad of paper and a pen.
GJMS