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Airforcekid

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Sep 29, 2008
1,708
680
United States of America
in theory it could even be free if you use torrents but where can you buy them at to download with no time limit cheaper than the actual textbook? Anyone do this how easier harder is it to do?
 
I'd start with a grammar textbook, were I you.

But to answer your question:
1) You assume all textbooks are available as E-books. This is not the case.
2) You assume all E-books are inherently cheaper than proper text books. This is also not the case.
3) Downloading books from torrent sites is piracy, unless said books are public domain. That's illegal.
4) You assume that E-books are not copy protected. In my experience, they are. And Adobe Digital Editions is a major PITA.
5) E books suck. I would much rather own a real, paper copy of a book that I can flip through, highlight, and read. Reading from a computer screen sucks.
 
I'd start with a grammar textbook, were I you.

But to answer your question:
1) You assume all textbooks are available as E-books. This is not the case.
2) You assume all E-books are inherently cheaper than proper text books. This is also not the case.
3) Downloading books from torrent sites is piracy, unless said books are public domain. That's illegal.
4) You assume that E-books are not copy protected. In my experience, they are. And Adobe Digital Editions is a major PITA.
5) E books suck. I would much rather own a real, paper copy of a book that I can flip through, highlight, and read. Reading from a computer screen sucks.
I'm typing on my phone that's the reason for grammer.
 
E-books are usually rather expensive, and like all drm'ed things, are rather obtuse to use. If you are interested, I know that publishers like Norton do sell electronic versions of some of their books, though there may be restrictions on what you can do with said e-book. ie. you may not be able to print the stupid things and copy and pasting the texts may be disabled too. Not too sure of the specifics as the prince of the ebook, which, as the poster above has said before, is just about the same as buying the print edition, which if truth is to be told, is much easier to read and circle important facts.

All in all, if you are not a fan of stupid restrictions on the things you own, getting a printed copy is probably better. Somehow traditional really means a lot to me when it comes to studying. Being on the computer all the time just seems like a waste of time, and usually devolves into a lot of time wasting and mindless rompings through wikipedia.
 
...so if you lose or have your MBA stolen, there goes all your text books:eek:

Someone can steal a textbook and there's less odds of finding it plus I would back up prob with the 64gb flash drive'

...first, backing up data doesn't do any good when the MBA would be gone... second, one physical text book isn't all of them on the overpriced MBA:p
 
I only bought books for the first semester of college. After that I just downloaded ebooks.
But we didnt use the text books too much in my program (Computer programming), and because it was programming a lot of the books were available online.
 
Rent you textbooks? Why not...

Have you ever thought about renting your textbooks. You can make more money if you rent them instead of selling them... You can do that on www.cool-rent.com. It is up to you...
For example: lets say you think that you can take $50 when you sell your textbook. Then you can make it like that - the deposit plus the price you take for the rental to be equal to $50 (less or more - that depends on you). And when the book is returned you can return the deposit to the other person.
It is that easy!
 
Scan your textbooks with a bookscanner. Make it a pdf. Have acrobat scan your book for text so you can search it. :D

And yes I had done this.
 
??

Scan your textbooks with a bookscanner. Make it a pdf. Have acrobat scan your book for text so you can search it. :D

And yes I had done this.

Wouldn't that take forever? Especially for a large (thick) textbook.

I agree with one of the previous posters though; reading from a computer screen for a significant length of time sucks. While the convenience of carrying one Air instead of several heavy textbooks would be great, the ease of using a paper book would surpass that IMHO. YMMV.

m&c
 
I'm typing on my phone that's the reason for grammer.
That doesn't excuse it?

Scan your textbooks with a bookscanner. Make it a pdf. Have acrobat scan your book for text so you can search it. :D

And yes I had done this.
That would take forever.

I would stay away from this for a lot of reasons that have already been suggested above, but there are a couple of others. If something happens to your computer, you are out of luck, even if you back it up you are going to need another computer. You are most likely going to end up having to use a combination, the selection of electronic text books isn't there yet. This system sounds great - but reading off of a screen is not the greatest thing in the world. With textbooks you can make notes in the book easily and are less prone to distraction. To each their own on book vs. screen debate, but this sounds like a disaster.
 
5) E books suck. I would much rather own a real, paper copy of a book that I can flip through, highlight, and read. Reading from a computer screen sucks.


You can highlight and flip through (in a way) on the ebook too.

But reading from a screen indeed sucks, maybe it's because of my 17'' but I doubt it..
 
That doesn't excuse it?


That would take forever.

I would stay away from this for a lot of reasons that have already been suggested above, but there are a couple of others. If something happens to your computer, you are out of luck, even if you back it up you are going to need another computer. You are most likely going to end up having to use a combination, the selection of electronic text books isn't there yet. This system sounds great - but reading off of a screen is not the greatest thing in the world. With textbooks you can make notes in the book easily and are less prone to distraction. To each their own on book vs. screen debate, but this sounds like a disaster.

Yes it does take about an hour for each textbook. I however only do it to expensive books and books not needed for open exams.

Do I think everyone should do it? *uck no.
 
even if you bought a Kindle 2... all textbooks arn't available for download. There are acutually pilot scenarios being run at different colleges right now with the kindle.. prob just comes down to publishers and $$$
 
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