Reading is less bad for your eyes? When I game it's usually on a console it's 2 to 3 meters from me eyes. When I read the book is 20cm and I know it's bad for my eyes because I find it hard to focus after I look up from the book :P
I'm not a doctor or such, but the argument I heard for that is that books don't have backlighting, so the surface brightness follows the general brightness in the vicinity, therefore looking at it continously does not strain the eyes as much as looking at a back-lit surface like a screen. (This is also frequently brought up as a benefit of e-ink displays over LCD/LED displays for reading.)
Set a timer for a tolerable interval, say 10 minutes. Every 10 minutes, let your eyes rest 1 minute. That "sticking" is an issue with muscle elasticity and rest is about the only thing you can do for it (its in the eye, massage and cold compress is hard).
