I’ve always been a fan of books… real books, paper and all. I know, the Blasphemy!! But I just love the feel of a book in my hands, the weight of it, the smell of it. I find a little bit of comfort in them… holding a book to my chest as I walk along the street, or fall asleep. But there is a certain family of books that don’t bring me any kind of comfort… textbooks. I never enjoyed lugging a textbook around… let alone against my chest. And it never was comfortable to fall asleep with a textbook; instead, like some drunk and misguided co-ed, i’d wake up having passed out and drooled all over Pg 365.
Well, it seems that for those who share my distaste for those goliath bricks of knowledge that they force upon today’s students (even the books in elementary school are ridiculous!) are going to have a bit of break; that is if they have a Kindle… or a really awesome teacher who doesn’t make them purchase any.
Here’s Z Green Scene::: Amazon has recently launched a new “Textbook Rental” program, in which students are able to check their books out on their Kindle, they are able to take and make notes, and they are even able to access these notes after the rental period is over. This reduces the amount of paper, oil, chemicals, and Lord knows what else used to create these monstrosities, and it reduces printing for those who wish to have access to notes saved on-line and so forth. It cuts waaaaay down on student costs, and I would wager that its much easier to carry around a Kindle than a text book.
Amazon is offering new and used print text books at a savings of 80%! … they promise… I’ve been so jaded by textbook prices, it’s hard to imagine. But let’s be hopeful its true.
These eText books are a good start in the green-education direction, but it’s doubtful that it’ll catch fire all that quickly; i’m sure there are still some kinks in the kindles that may make the lower-cost of the ebooks not worth the higher inconvenience. But! There’s only room for improvement; and just like every other bit of technology out there, what is current now will be out-dated in a number of months with something bigger, faster, and better replacing it.
Final opinion?? Hold out on running and getting a Kindle right away… I’d wait till September to see what the competitors come up with; let them work out all the kinks. Either way, eBooks are on the rise… and you don’t want to be the only school-girl with a hump on her back from lugging all her books that she could have got online!
As far as i’m concerned, I graduated… no more textbooks for me (in your face!). But that doesn’t mean that I should continue to purchase only paper books for my leisurely hobby. I’ll always keep my paper copy of Jane Eyre, all dog-eared and damaged, my comforting old friend, up on the shelf near my bed… but, I”ll also have my eBook version of it ready on my Droid for whenever I need a good dose of Bronte’s morose and mystery.
Get with the times!
Check here for more info about Amazon’s etextbooks:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2388639,00.asp
LynZe
Sustainability Consultant, LEED A.P.
zgreenscene 