If you have a Macbook Pro, you don’t NEED an iPad. Unless you want a convenient ‘kitchen’ television set.

Apart from this, I enjoy reading books on it, the text is much clearer and easier to read than on many paper books. Using a simple search you can find and convert to the epub format just about ANY book you want. For FREE!
In my case, this alone justified the expense.
Otherwise, iPad’s limitations irritate me, and I choose the good old MBP over it 9/10 times.

I was pleasantly surprised with the keyboard though. I would not use it translating for a client, even smaller stuff like a marriage certificate or a birth certificate, but it is perfectly good to type a few words. Like answering an email message.