Digital Textbooks

[jpeterman13]

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I'm starting to look into purchasing my textbooks for the Fall and found the Evolve ebook store website. Does anyone have any experience with these "ebooks?" They are just as expensive as the hard copies, but the luxury of having my books with me at all times sounds pretty good. Worth it or not? 😕
Here's the link to the veterinary books in case anyone else is interested.

 

[katryn]

I like e-books for reading books (have a kindle and love it!), but I don't know that I would enjoy e-books for text books. I suppose it would depend on whether you were using them on the computer or on an e-book reading device. With e-books readers it's very difficult to mark a page and skip to the glossary for a definition, for example. Or quickly flip back and forth between several sections at once. Not sure how it works on computer e-books but on the e-book readers you don't have pages you have percentages, so you just kind of have to guess that the page you need is 52% of the way in, or manually scroll through every single page.

 

[rileyroo]

but on the e-book readers you don't have pages you have percentages, so you just kind of have to guess that the page you need is 52% of the way in, or manually scroll through every single page.

the nook has page numbers 🙂

 

[Highlsnds3]

I have not bought any text books in ebook form, but I have bought several chemistry books (O-chem and Biochem) in ebook form. While they are nice to have handy, like Katryn mentioned you can't just flip through them. On the Kindle a couple of the books let you select something in the index or table of contents and it would jump to it, but most of them did not. I really, really, really like the idea of having my text books in ebook form (one of the main reasons I got the Kindle in the first place), but for now the reality of it is very inconvenient and frustrating.

 

[crittergal]

Elsevier sells a "student consult" or "veterinary consult" of many of their textbooks. It's a hard copy AND an ebook. You can highlight and have an easily searchable text. It does cost a little more than the regular textbook (~$20), but it's worth it in my opinion. You can search your textbook in class w/o lugging it with you, but study on the real book at home. The only down side IMO is that whatever you highlight on the ebook obviously isn't on the real book.

I've used Elsevier's ebook/hard copy combo for other classes and for me it was the best of both worlds.

 

[katryn]

the nook has page numbers 🙂

I am jealous of your page numbers. But I got my kindle before the Nook came out so I'm SOL unless I wanna shell out several hundred dollars again.

I still think I will always prefer real text books for the ability to stick a finger where I'm at, flip to another section, and then flip back. Which even with page numbers I can't imagine being nearly so easy on a digital version.

 

[sumstorm]

I like ebooks for texts where I will read and annotate directly on the PC. I would not advice ebooks for classes where you need the text in a potentially messy lab (ie anatomy, parasitology)

I am extremly technology oriented, though, so I am already inclined to do nearly everything on my tablet (and I can annotate in my own writing, draw diagrams, underline, highlite, notate, etc.) A good search does plenty for me in terms of flipping back and forth....but may take a bit to get use to. I do love carrying only a couple pounds of computer vs 4-5 texts.

 

[der2002]

has anyone heard if this prototype?
http://m.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/06/kno-textbook-tablet/

 

[bclover]

Some of my favorite texts I have gotten with the Student Consult. I still prefer hardcopy texts to do my reading from, but like having the electronic access, too. I honestly have mixed emotions if I really use the consults enough to justify the extra $$, but am planning to use them more in the coming year as I put study guides together, etc. - especially as I contemplate taking boards in about 18 mos.

 

[katryn]

has anyone heard if this prototype?
http://m.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/06/kno-textbook-tablet/

That's an interesting little device. Depending on how much it cost and how much they price the books for it could be really useful. The potential cost seems outrageous at first but even selling back my books I know I lost more than $1000 bucks out of all four years of undergrad.

 

[Highlsnds3]

T selling back my books I know I lost more than $1000 bucks out of all four years of undergrad.

OUCH!!!! I actually made $$ on my textbooks, at least after the first semester. I bought all of them online, and as long as I didn't get the international edition, I could sell them back to the bookstore for more than I paid for them. I just couldn't fork over $200+ for a textbook (even some of the USED ones!) just to get back $50-$80.

 

[der2002]

That's an interesting little device. Depending on how much it cost and how much they price the books for it could be really useful. The potential cost seems outrageous at first but even selling back my books I know I lost more than $1000 bucks out of all four years of undergrad.

if that double screen reader catches on, i'm sure the price will dramatically decrease (probably in the same range as the ipad etc)

 

[katryn]

I got a really bad string of 'hey we're switching to the brand new edition of a book that comes out three weeks before the semester starts' for regular bio, o chem, bio chem and physics. It made me want to cry.

 

[luplodw]

You can always sell them online on like amazon or something

 

[katryn]

You can always sell them online on like amazon or something

No, I had to buy the brand new book that cost 200-300$ because it's brand new. And then was only able to sell it back for 75$. -.- I hate the text book game.