By Peter Mannino
This semester I spent about $600 on textbooks for five classes. Compared to what other students pay, I think got my books pretty cheap. It would have cost me even more, but luckily one of the books I needed was available as an e-book for 40 dollars cheaper than the paper version.
That is what is nice about online books or e-books-they are a lot less expensive. If only someone would make a computer that could download and store many books, while being both convenient and easy to use. Oh wait, that device does exist; it’s called a Kindle.
For those of you who do not know what a Kindle is, it is a wireless computer device created by Amazon.com (I had no idea Amazon.com actually made stuff) that allows you to purchase and read many books on the Kindle device. The newest Kindle is only 1/3 inch thick, weighs only about 10 ounces and can store up to 1,500 books in its memory at one time.
Some analysts believe that the Kindle is going to revolutionize the way people read. This device is already making paper books obsolete. Bookstores like Barnes and Noble had a tough time with holiday sales falling by about eight percent this year. Naturally, there will be people who are resistant to this change because they like the feeling of having a “real book” in their hands, but the Kindle offers many advantages over traditional books.
The Kindle is small, light weight and easy to carry. A traditional book can weigh several pounds but the Kindle is only 10 ounces. If you want to carry more than one book, then you have to add several pounds to what you are carrying. The Kindle can carry many books in this one small device. Can you imagine how much easier it would be to carry one ten ounce computer to class instead of 15 pounds of books (or in the case of biology majors, one bio book)?
The biggest advantage is that the e-books you buy with the Kindle are cheaper than the traditional books you buy at the bookstore. With technology always improving it seems likely that the cost of e-textbooks can only decrease. You could possibly save a lot of money on buying books, which could be spent on better things (like alcohol).
As great as the Kindle is and will be; there are two big drawbacks for college students. The first is that the Kindle itself costs a lot of money. The original version cost about $400 but the newest version is only around $350. This is definitely a lot of money, but with the savings that the Kindle will produce from buying cheaper books it will eventually pay for itself.
The reason why I currently do not own a Kindle is that it currently has a very small number of textbooks that you can buy online. For a college student who does not like to read, the only reason to buy a Kindle is because it would save you a lot of money on textbooks. But if you cannot buy textbooks with Kindle there is no reason to buy it.
Not to fear, though, rumors are that Amazon has been working with textbook publishers. Already Yale, Oxford, Berkeley and, most recently, Princeton have started providing their books in e-book format.
The Kindle is a great invention, and in the future, it could prove invaluable to students. Unfortunately it seems like some textbook publishers are dragging their feet when it comes to adopting e-book format for their textbooks. I implore anyone who is reading this to e-mail the publisher of their textbooks and demand that they publish their textbooks in e-book format that can be used on a Kindle.
The Kindle revolution, while great, is not yet aimed at college students, but with your help we can bring better reading to campuses everywhere.
Peter Mannino is a sophomore political science student. You may e-mail him at