You probably don't need 8.5x11". There's no reason to display the (usually blank) margins in an e-reader. 6.5x9" should suffice.
I have an old Kindle 3G that I use for reading papers. Its screen is 4.8" in height, which is just about the default column width of LaTeX (= 8.5" - 3.75" margin = 4.75"), meaning I could comfortably read papers in landscape with only scrolling up & down.
PDF reading was okay. It was rather slow, and you couldn't highlight/markup anything, but the rendering was gorgeous.
I have an old Kindle 3G that I use for reading papers. Its screen is 4.8" in height, which is just about the default column width of LaTeX (= 8.5" - 3.75" margin = 4.75"), meaning I could comfortably read papers in landscape with only scrolling up & down.
PDF reading was okay. It was rather slow, and you couldn't highlight/markup anything, but the rendering was gorgeous.