Of course you'd not enjoy your iPad, Keith_W, you're predisposed not to.
Besides, you're well outside the iPad's target user base. You want to use it like a computer, so get a computer-on-a-tablet, like the Windows 8 beasts coming out soon.
My father, OTOH, loves his iPad 1. Reads magazines, browses, checks email, all that without me having to teach him a thing. Try that with any computer, even a Mac, or, *gasp* an Android tablet.
I recently upgraded his iPad 1 to the new iPad, with hi-res screen and all. He said he liked the old one well enough, that the upgrade wasn't even necessary.