Kindle and College... Condle?

[alchemyprime]

So... every semester I end up spending up around US$300 to US$450 in textbooks. When I transfer to University, it will be much worse.

But the Amazon Kindle has a whole lot of textbooks available for it. The US Kindle 2 is US$259.00 and each book is in the $5 to $50 range (Give or take. I saw a 62 and a free in there, but I count them as outliers). So... should I just BUY a kindle? I mean, most of the D&D books I use I have PDFs of, as well as my fantasy novels (I used to have a Palm Pilot that read them, before I got my Laptop. But a Kindle isn't about 14lbs...), so... should I do it? Should I spend 260 on a device to buy my books for a fraction of the price? And should I remember that 1/1 is still a fraction as much as 1/50?

What're your thoughts, Playground?

[Icewalker]

Yeah, it really depends on how much you're going to get off on the books. If, in the end, you're barely saving anything, or even nothing at all, it's of course not worth it. The question is how many textbooks mark their stuff down, and by how much, for the kindle.

[Player_Zero]

Once you're finished with your textbooks sell them to the students who are taking the course you took. Fairly standard practice.

[Pandaren]

Wait, stop right there, the Kindle can't use pdf's.

Nevermind, apparently 2.3 firmware on Kindle 2 allows you to use them. I got screwed with orginal non-pdf version.

They are not pdf, but are converted into AZW, which may not work with all your pdfs.

[alchemyprime]

Once you're finished with your textbooks sell them to the students who are taking the course you took. Fairly standard practice.

I would... but I'm a book hoarder... I still have some of my old textbooks. I love them so...

Also, for example, the book I need this semester is marked down from $163 to $21. And I'll be needing a few next semester. So my price this semester is either $163 or $280. But then next semester would be either $430 (roughly) or $100 (roughly) if I buy the kindle. So... Save $213 before I go to University...

Or I'm just trying to rationalize buying a new gadget. Either way. C'est la vie.

[skywalker]

Once you're finished with your textbooks sell them to the students who are taking the course you took. Fairly standard practice.

For a (slightly/hugely) lower price than you originally paid for them. I've bought books for $200 and sold them for $20. Textbook companies are also bringing out new editions every year to combat this practice. A lot of lower level professors (and all lecturers) at my University are forced to require the new edition.

All that being said, while it does seem like a pretty good idea (my girlfriend does this), it depends on what you will lose. Primarily, I see an inability to highlight/take notes as your primary concern. If you never do those things anyway, then getting some kind of reader (not necessarily a Kindle) sounds like a good idea to me.

[Syka]

So I admittedly never thought of using the Kindle/Nook/Whatever as my textbook source, but then I've also never been able to bring myself to buy online (a combination of scholarship for books and horrible mail service where I lived during undergrad was the original cause, and now I'm just too paranoid). If you are the sort which would also by online (from textbooks.com, etc) then I think the Kindle would be good.

Pros: No lugging around huge textbooks! Cheaper!

Cons: No actual tactile contact with the book- as far as I know, no highlighting/bookmarking, etc. Potential loss of device=loss of texts. What is their return policies on books, because I've had many friends order offline and discover...whoops, wrong book! (This is my main reason for not buying online now...there is a strict 30-days-from-date-of-recieving-book-it-must-be-recieved-AT-the-warehouse-for-refund thing. Plus you pay the shipping and...well, yeah...complications).


Personally...as much of a booklover as I am, I can't bring myself to buy a Kindle, etc. due to personal reasons. Part of the reading experience to me is physically holding the books, feeling the pages and cover in my hands, smelling the book, that sort of thing. I prefer text textbooks and physical classes for essentially the same reasons- the physical interaction. Others I know much prefer utilizing technology for this stuff.



So...purely up to you! It definitely could save you tons of money.


ETA: Also, sometimes teachers require you to get editions of textbooks that include CD's and other stuff that you can't get in e-books.

[alchemyprime]

So I admittedly never thought of using the Kindle/Nook/Whatever as my textbook source, but then I've also never been able to bring myself to buy online (a combination of scholarship for books and horrible mail service where I lived during undergrad was the original cause, and now I'm just too paranoid). If you are the sort which would also by online (from textbooks.com, etc) then I think the Kindle would be good.

Pros: No lugging around huge textbooks! Cheaper!

Cons: No actual tactile contact with the book- as far as I know, no highlighting/bookmarking, etc. Potential loss of device=loss of texts. What is their return policies on books, because I've had many friends order offline and discover...whoops, wrong book! (This is my main reason for not buying online now...there is a strict 30-days-from-date-of-recieving-book-it-must-be-recieved-AT-the-warehouse-for-refund thing. Plus you pay the shipping and...well, yeah...complications).


Personally...as much of a booklover as I am, I can't bring myself to buy a Kindle, etc. due to personal reasons. Part of the reading experience to me is physically holding the books, feeling the pages and cover in my hands, smelling the book, that sort of thing. I prefer text textbooks and physical classes for essentially the same reasons- the physical interaction. Others I know much prefer utilizing technology for this stuff.



So...purely up to you! It definitely could save you tons of money.


ETA: Also, sometimes teachers require you to get editions of textbooks that include CD's and other stuff that you can't get in e-books.

I used my Grandmother's at Christmas to help her figure it out (She loves tech, but she can't figure it out). So I know you can highlight, and if they require a CD... I guess I'll have both copies. Thankfully, you get two backups; one from Amazon's site, and one on my Lappy. Also... I used to be "NO I NEED MY PAPER RAWR!" until my bookshelf filled up and I wanted to read a LOT of out of prints that I found .txts of and... I've gone digital. Except for a few (read World War Z in book form. You'll thank me.)