anyone use a kindle for textbooks ?

**Momto5RN** · 11-08-2011, 08:00 PM

thinking of getting the new lower cost smaller kindle that is 79$ for 20 yo dd for college textbooks - it looks like amazon lets you use them for a certain time period too so you dont have to but the book but can rent it using your kindle .

anyone do this - do they have the books you need ? seems to me it would be easier to carry a kindle then alot of books too .

just looking for pros and cons anyone has found - thanks

**Momto5RN** · 11-08-2011, 08:02 PM

guess i should add 20 yo lives out of home pays rent while going to school PT working PT as a waitress and i think a gift that keeps giving ( ie cheaper for her to rent textbooks then buy ) would be a great idea to help her save $$

**monkeywrangler71** · 11-09-2011, 07:50 AM

What is she taking?

I would want to check how many of the textbooks are available in this format. What are the terms on the rental, can they be purchased outright in electronic version, what is the difference in price. There was a book for a course I just took where the e-version was only good for 6 months and cost almost as much as the paper. Depending on the subject, she may need some books for future reference.

Is this reader in colour or b&w, and will that matter in her subjects? Are they textbooks with a lot of diagrams or pictures, or will they be primarily text. If there are a lot of screen shots that she will need to follow (ex. if she is taking computer programming), it will be more difficult than if she is a History or English major just reading text.

Also, I would look farther than the kindle. The kindle uses a proprietary format that forces you to only buy from Amazon. Check if the textbooks are available in epub, and look at the Sony Reader, Nook and Kobo as well.

Look into other features on the ereader - can it highlight, bookmark, etc.? Studying is not the same as reading a novel, she's going to have to refer back to some things. Can it read formats like .pdf and .doc? Many instructors post course materials online for students, you might as well get something that can read them too.

Is there a desktop app as well? For a textbook, she may want to be able to put it up on the big screen sometimes in order to work through something complicated.

Most important, how does she feel about it? Some people just prefer paper. If she isn't going to be able to concentrate on an ebook, it's no use getting one.

**Momto5RN** · 11-09-2011, 08:17 AM

great suggestions - will take all into consideration .

**dcompton** · 11-09-2011, 09:21 AM

I think moneywrangler about covered it. I will just add that I love my Kindle and cannot imagine life now without it. But I'm not sure it would be very good for academic work. It does highlight and such, but getting around in a book, going back and forth, can be cumbersome, even in straight text, like a novel. I also agree that it would not be a good choice if the text has charts or tables, at least not the smaller Kindles.

Textbooks aside, though, it would be a great gift if she likes to read. There is a lot of free material available, and now you can also borrow library books with the Kindle - a recent change. Depending on what she is studying, some of the textbooks might work, but she should probably take a look at them in the bookstore before deciding if a particular one would translate to an e-reader very well.

**heartofmine** · 11-09-2011, 11:26 AM

Kindle is not user friendly when it comes to searching for things so I would not at all recommend it for text books. I have one and downloaded KJV Bible because my eyesight is getting so bad. Its very hard to get from one place to the other so its not the best to use for studying.