Is there any way to increase the font size for reading messages? I see you may do so for posting messages, but I see nothing for messages to be read.

Yup. Hold down the ctrl button and pull towards you on the trackpoint with the scroll button held on a ThinkPad. Or, if you aren't lucky enough to be using a ThinkPad at the moment, hold the ctrl button while scrolling towards you on a scroll-mouse. All the text will scale larger. If you want it to go smaller, scroll away from you while holding the ctrl key.

Or, if your using I.E. Click in the menu bar View > Text Size > And then whatever size you want.

I know the ctrl key and scroll wheel method as well as doing it from the menu. Unfortunately, that doesn't do much. Not enough at all. The normal font size is just too small.

-er

Go to Control Panel-Internet Options-Accessibility (on General tab) and tick "Ignore font sizes specified on web pages".
Click OK and try Ctrl+scrolling then.

I'm guessing matyst answer will solve your problem. With the ctrl key method you can enlarge the font to the point 1 letter could take up the whole screen... so that should be enough of an enlargement for anyone.