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#16 |
Groupie
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Karma: 1326166
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: NJ
Device: Paper
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That's actually the reason I bought my reader. I used my student refund check to pay for it and within two semesters it already payed for itself. E-textbooks seemed to be almost non existent so I just used it for my English classes.
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#17 |
Addict
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Karma: 1624276
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: South, South Texas
Device: Pocketbook 620
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I create edited etexts for my class which normally account for about 60% of the required texts. Usually I post them in .pdf so that they have page numbers that I can refer to.
On the other hand, i still rely on paper books for a lot of research because it is so much easier to mark them up and flip through the parts you need while writing an article. |
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#18 | |
Jeffrey A. Carver
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Karma: 1107383
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Massachusetts, USA
Device: Lenovo Yoga Tab Plus, Droid phone, Nook HD+
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Quote:
On the e-side of the question, he reports his publisher (a major textbook publisher) to have no visible plan whatsoever for embracing e-publishing. He's not an ebook guy himself, so he doesn't worry about that very much. I keep suggesting that he, and they, ought to give it some thought. Last edited by starrigger; 02-04-2011 at 12:33 AM. |
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#19 | |
mrkrgnao
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Karma: 237248
Join Date: May 2010
Device: PRS650, K3 Wireless, Galaxy S3, iPad 3.
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Quote:
Nobody was calling the text-book authors lazy or greedy - the dig was at the publishers and their seemingly universal tactics to gouge a captive market. |
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#20 |
Zealot
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Karma: 10099
Join Date: Jul 2010
Device: Nook First Gen (broken), iPad, Kindle Touch SO
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If I could read textbooks on my ipad, I would be so, so happy. But nookstudy doesn't work on ipad and I haven't seen any other options for extextbooks on ipad.
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#21 | |
Author in Training
![]() Posts: 3
Karma: 10
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Pacific NW
Device: Kindle 3
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Quote:
Starrigger, I was not intending to dig at for your brother's situation -- it sounds like a grueling job, and of course he deserves better. With an increasing amount of free or low-cost courseware out there, I wonder how long the megalithic textbook publishing industry can last. . . I think e-readers, however imperfect they may currently be to the task of educational random-access reading, are just the opening salvo across the bow of that particular entrenched interest. |
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#22 |
Warrior Princess
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Karma: 9724231
Join Date: Sep 2009
Device: PRS-505; PRS-350, PRS-T1, iPad, Aura HD
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A lot of the books that I have to read for classes are in the public domain (Greek and Latin texts), so I get a lot of mileage from my reader when it comes to schoolwork.
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#23 | |
Jeffrey A. Carver
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Karma: 1107383
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Massachusetts, USA
Device: Lenovo Yoga Tab Plus, Droid phone, Nook HD+
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Quote:
I have a daughter in college right now, so believe me, I am sympathetic to the student side, as well. The prices on these books are shockingly high, and if she can get a used textbook I tell her to go for it. I don't think she's ever been told she couldn't do that, unless maybe once or twice because there were substantive differences. Sadly, I don't think she'd be interested in e-versions, even if they were available. (Unless they were way cheaper.) Last edited by starrigger; 02-04-2011 at 12:27 PM. |
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#24 |
Peace, Love, and Books
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Karma: 1242738
Join Date: Sep 2010
Device: Kindle 3(3g), NookColor
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I don't. But I usually don't even need my books for class, I go to class with a notebook (the paper kind!) and take notes while the professor lectures, then I go home and do the work. I've yet to be in a class that req. me to carry in a heavy book.
That said, I really like textbooks, and wouldn't get them in ebook format anyway ![]() |
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#25 |
browneyedgurl
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Karma: 356470
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Warren, OH
Device: PRS-505/950x2, PRS-600 silver, Galaxy III purple, T2 black
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I found the book for my sociology class as an ebook-it was $30 more than the used book I bought for $30 (new book was $90, ebook was $60), it was in PDF format, and it expired in 6 months. I was looking forward to getting those and my psychology books on my reader but it doesn't seem to be happening.
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#26 |
Reading and reading
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Karma: 8250144
Join Date: Oct 2010
Device: Infibeam Pi, iPod Touch 4G, iPad Air 2, iPad mini 2, Oneplus One
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IMO, B&W ebook readers can never fit in my classes. I have many colored diagrams. So I bought an android tablet currently on Froyo (will soon get honeycomb upgrade!
![]() The main advantage of using tablet instead of e-reader is, I can read virtually any format of book. Secondly, I couldn't wait for wikipedia to load even for 1-2 seconds and when I am out of range. The wikidroid does all work. Offline wikipedia FTW. Thirdly I can underline and highlight text in different colours, that's crucial for me. ThinkingSpace app is boon for college students. I can make mindmaps in the same easy format as I do with Freemind on my laptop; and both have same format, so I can sync. Conclusively, I bought the tablet which replaced my e-reader just because of huge number of apps and possibilities of doing everything on my tablet. |
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#27 |
Fanatic
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Karma: 1314896
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Pittsburgh, PA USA
Device: Android phone, Kobo Glo HD, nook ST with Glo (backup)
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I use my netbook for e-textbooks. Most of them have been leased through Coursesmart.com. Last Semester I tried nookstudy but liked the Coursesmart format better.
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#28 |
Wizard
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Karma: 4290425
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Foristell, Missouri, USA
Device: Nokia N800, PRS-505, Nook STR Glowlight, Kindle 3, Kobo Libra 2
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What I simply don't understand is the expiration dates on the etextbooks. Yeah, pay nearly as much, be unable to sell it to others, be unable to print pages for copies (or at least severely restricted), and be unable to use it after 6 months. I SOOOO want to do that. Seriously, they want the DRM to kill the secondary market, but at the same time they make the DRM so restrictive that people won't want to do it.
With my Chinese etextbook, it was the first one I saw that allowed printing, but I was only allowed to print 20 pages every 30 days. It kinda sucked for the character practice sections. |
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#29 |
Wizard
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Karma: 4132096
Join Date: Sep 2008
Device: Kindle Paperwhite/iOS Kindle App
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I took a course that had an e-text and it too had the expiry thing, plus it would not let you copy or paste at all. So, if you wanted to cite from it in your message board posts (it was an on-line class) you had to manually type in every word. Ridiculous. Also, the search box only worked on the plain text pages. If anything you wanted to search for was part of a call-out box or other graphic, the PCR would not recognize it. It was useless.
That said, my undergraduate degree was in English literature, and if ebooks had been big then I would have saved a ton of money. The single most expensive book I bought for my degree was the Norton Shakespeare. The cost of that book alone would have paid for half a Kindle and you could have gotten all the content on-line for free. Probably half of my course reading would be available now at Project Gutenberg! |
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#30 |
Guru
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Karma: 27532
Join Date: Dec 2007
Device: Ebookwise 1150 / 1200
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Sorry - did I read that right? They put an expiration date on the etextbook? Face palm. Who publishes these things? GM? It sounds like planned failure of a product.
EDIT: I'm think of GM and their EV1 electric car. |
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