I'll be testing this with different color schemes, but yeah, works! Addition: for eink readers, would underline or italics work in place of color gradient?
You could accomplish something like this the same way with a "green bar"[1] style of background. That is, the background of every two (or three... I think two would be better but you could test it) lines having a light green (or blue, or since you mentioned eInk, grey) background and then two lines with a normal white background.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_printer#Paper_.28forms.29_... "The paper was usually perforated to tear into cut sheets if desired and was commonly printed with alternating white and light-green areas, allowing the reader to easily follow a line of text across the page. This was the iconic 'green bar' form that dominated the early computer age. " (emphasis mine)