Overall, I really enjoyed reading with the iPad. Because I was mostly offline, I wasn't interrupted with email (or the urge to jump to the Web every other paragraph), but I could imagine that being a problem. The glare is a show-stopper if you are primarily reading outside, but for reading inside, I loved it, and I think it would work very well in an academic setting. Considering I paid less than half for the electronic version of the book I read, I could see this being a great money-saver for students.
The print quality (when there is no glare) is clear. I am not a big fan of reading long things online, but I had no problem reading for 30 minutes at a time or more on the iPad. The text is sharp and clear and can easily be resized to suit my needs.
The biggest concern I have is life outside the iPad. Books can't be shared or borrowed or sold (no used textbooks, but when the books are so much cheaper to start with, that is not a big problem). How will libraries fit in with the iPad? And it is not clear what happens to notes and highlights beyond one particular device. Also, because there are so many competing devices, it might be hard to get everything you need on one device. The iPad has Nook and Kindle apps so that might not be a problem (but the Nook app just changed, and I read that if you replace your old Nook app with the new one, you will lose your Nook highlights).
It's fun to read with the iPad. Give it a try. Many books are 10 dollars so it's not a big investment to try it out.
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