Thread: Back to school? Guide to the right e-reader
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Old 08-03-2013, 09:58 AM   #20
vivaldirules
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Location: Houston, TX, US
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Quote:
Originally Posted by vivaldirules View Post
I did a quick test by selecting first year undergraduate Bio, Chem, Calculus, and Physics courses at one of my alma maters (a "state" university) and checked to see what books are needed. The chemistry text is available as a printed textbook or as a rentable online ebook through CourseSmart. The calculus text is available either as a printed notebook or online through MyMathLab. The biology and physics books are available only as printed textbooks. None are available even as PDFs. I'd call that a clear fail.

EDIT: By the way, it appears that only the CourseSmart ebook would be accessible from a tablet. The MyMathLab ebook appears to require either Windows or Mac computer. Your ebook reader? You can use it to read Moby Dick during lunch, I suppose.
I repeated this exercise selecting an array of first year courses in English, Linguistics, History, Sociology, Art History, Anthropology, and a few other nontechnical areas. The results were similar. A small percentage of the required books are available as ebooks for purchase, one is available in a rentable Kindle edition, but most are available only in print. That's really disappointing. But given that, I wouldn't spend 10 seconds thinking about ebooks. I'd buy all the printed texts, a laptop PC, a pile of looseleaf paper and pencils, and move on as if it was still the 20th century. College is difficult enough and I wouldn't want to waste time on an array of broken tools.
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