The Kindle does allow you to skip to the end - it has a Go To Location option in the drop-down menu. I do this a fair bit as I never find that knowing the ending spoils a book for me.

I'm hoping at some point newer editions of the Kindle will handle PDFs better. I refuse to buy backlit tablet just so I can resize journal articles easily, because well...backlighting hurts my eyes after a long day at work.