I downloaded a stack of PDFs during uni, including prescribed reading (possibly even from LG), and read them on my mum's old iPad and it was tough... I'd like to go back and read all those papers and publications, and the ones I didn't get to, without the pressure of writing my own thesis afterwards.

If they are works published through mainstream book publishing houses then there's a very good chance that they are available in epub format as well. Unfortunately, due to the limitations of epubs (kinda, but in truth not really) PDF is the format de jure when it comes to academic publications and epubs are virtually unheard of in this end of publishing, so keep this in mind.

With regards to converting PDFs to epubs, generally the embedded "virtual" text in a PDF is very sub-par. I'm sure you've tried to search a PDF for a key term only for the search to return empty although you know that the PDF contains that word - that's due to the embedded text being shoddy. Most simple PDF converter tools just extract the embedded text, which is commonly a first pass OCR attempt by an outdated tool so you end up with text like:

W|0st s1mpie PØFconverl'er tooIs iust extracl the embedoled te>t

It's really unwieldy and most of the time it's so scrappy that you're better off starting from scratch without it.

I make do reading on my phone, but some of the longer treatises on marxists.org and redsails, for example, warrant a bit more focus. Since joining hexbear my theory intake has definitely increased...

I've just had a poke around and it's quite doable to turn a webpage into epub format using the dotepub tool. I'll try to remember to upload an example of what it produced using zero effort when Catbox.moe comes back online but anyway the epub turned out really well tbh. Edit: Here's the example file, can be viewed with any ebook reader app. I think with Marxists.org works that span multiple pages using different hyperlinks, it's going to be a bit messier.

I'm going to go to a big-box store this weekend and check out a Kobo, see if it's in line with what I'm expecting. A refurb may be an option too (y)

Cool!

See what you can find. We're near an inflection point in the ereader market, with colour ereaders just recently becoming commercially available and with (relatively) high refresh rates starting to become available. I'm not sure how well the two are integrated but I'd guess pretty poorly right now. I'd hazard a guess that an ereader with a serviceable refresh rate that would make phone-style navigation practical should be only a few years off - at a conservative estimate, 5 years, and at an optimistic estimate under 2. With that in mind opt for something that meets your needs but aim for the cheaper or refurbished end of the market as it would be a bit silly to drop hundreds of dollars on a cutting-edge device that is going to end up deprecated fairly soon imo.

Final tip: personally I prefer ereaders that have physical buttons to turn pages so that way your screen stays nice and clean.