Kindle for Textbooks?

[porsche4life]

Anybody see any downsides to using a kindle for textbooks? Looks like it will be cheaper for me. I can access them on the device, and my laptop, and it saves the last page you were on.

I can't think of any reason it wouldn't be fine. Can you guys?

[Paul_Heery]

Can you use a highlighter plus make notes in the margins?

[red-beard]

How long do you "own" the text book?

[mikester]

You can make notes and highlight stuff with the kindle products. If you have an iPad then you don't need a kindle - just the kindle app. Works great - I have both a Kindle and an iPad. The only complaint I have about the kindle is that compared to a regular computing device (iPad or better) it's really clunky to navigate. They are also a big fragile but Amazon is generous with replacements. I cracked mine within the first week I had it and they sent me a replacement.

[Teutonics]

Timely thread, subscribing. I'm hoping to get all of my daughter's textbooks on a device to take on a European trip. Much easier than lugging around textbooks!

[gtc]

I would have killed for a kindle with all my textbooks on it. I don't see any downside from a student's perspective.

I can't see how teachers would be able to allow their use in an open-book exam, though. There are too many ways you could cheat.

You could also buy a nook, root it and install android, then run the kindle app. I've played with one of these and it worked pretty well, albeit a bit slower than an iPad (due to the lower spec hardware that was to be expected, so I can't really fault the Nook for that.)

[PorscheGAL]

If you do the Nook, Barnes and Nobles lets you rent the books for the semester. I don't know if Amazon does that. Also the Kindle is just black and white. Are any of your textbooks going to have illustrations? Color could come in handy with Science books.

[porsche4life]

You can either buy the books permanently, or rent them for a time frame that is user specified. You can highlight and take notes.
Amazon.com: Kindle Textbook Rental

However, it appears that only one of my books this semester is available, and only to buy, and not that much cheaper.....

I may pick up a kindle soon, and hope I can go that route in the near future. I have looked at iPads, but with the nearly new macbook, it seems a bit of a waste.

Oh and I am done with science related classes.....

[LSA]

If I had a kindle I would probably rent. But I prefer to just buy used especially a previous edition.
Since I only have a year and a half before my degree buying a kindle for books doesn't make much sense as I doubt I would save enough renting digital books to overcome the initial price of the kindle.