Old school textbooks or electronic?

[sharingfromafar]

I will be starting grad school in the fall going for an MPA and I found out I will not be registering for classes until a week before they start during orientation. This means I cannot order my textbooks advance so they are cheaper. Should I buy them at the bookstore when I get there or invest in a tablet (if so, what kind?) and buy ebooks? I have been told this is a less expensive option, but I would like to know your thoughts. 

[Monochrome Spring]

Some books aren't available in an electronic version, so watch out for that. Also, I've noticed that some schools will market the e-book version of a textbook for cheaper than the paper-bound, but the e-book expires after a certain period of time and is no longer available in your library.

 

I prefer paper books over electronic, but I couldn't really pin down an exact reason for you. Especially for my science textbooks or popular science, I like to keep a paper version. Fiction and books that are "pleasure-reads" I like to have in my kindle, because I don't mark them with pen and post-its.

 

I think it really comes down to personal preference. If you can learn just as well with an e-book, and it will save you money, get the e-book. Just make sure to check the policies for how long you get to keep them.

[sharingfromafar]

Some books aren't available in an electronic version, so watch out for that. Also, I've noticed that some schools will market the e-book version of a textbook for cheaper than the paper-bound, but the e-book expires after a certain period of time and is no longer available in your library.

 

I prefer paper books over electronic, but I couldn't really pin down an exact reason for you. Especially for my science textbooks or popular science, I like to keep a paper version. Fiction and books that are "pleasure-reads" I like to have in my kindle, because I don't mark them with pen and post-its.

 

I did not know that about the time limit on ebooks. Granted, I was thinking of another source besides my university's bookstore sold ebooks like CourseSmart or Chegg, which allows you to highlight/take notes electronically. 

 

I have always used print books when it came to textbooks, but because I usually sold them online when the semester ended, I didn't take that many notes in them. When I was taking notes, I was using a separate notebook and writing the page numbers of where I found the information. 

 

It looks like I may have to ask past students of my program if they used paper books or ebooks, because if I end up buying a tablet it will be before I drive up there. 

[TeaGirl]

For textbooks I prefer an actual paper book. I guess it might depend on the major or field, but a lot of text books aren't available electronically. Plus, it's just more convenient to have a text book reference when you're solving things to look through: you can jump from one chapter to the back to check a table and back. You can have several books open at the same time while working. With e-books I don't find it as easy to jump back and forth quickly, and with a 500 page book, the loading time gets on my nerves, and generally you can only view one book at a time and have to switch back and forth.

 

Now those are specific problems for me, so YMMV.

[queenleblanc]

I prefer paper, but I'm a bit old-school.  I also prefer to print stuff out and write on it, rather than try to play with the computer on doing the same in a paperless environment.  

 

That being said, I took a course last summer that had the option of a FREE e-book (with an expiration date of 2016, so LOTS of time) -versus a $175 textbook (found a used textbook for less than $100 on amazon, but still) -- I decided to go with the e-book route.  Best features?  It was searchable, I could flip to the glossary in a hot second, I had the option of only "saving" certain chapters on the ipad (could have saved them all, but I liked keeping track of what I was supposed to read for the week via downloading the chapters needed).  I also like the ability to highlight  - I don't highlight in my paper textbooks, because I use post-its, but post-it notes weren't an option, so the highlighting feature was nice.

 

That being said, the rest of the courses I've taken this past year I chose to purchase the book.  An e-book rental was available in 2 of the 4 courses, and I found the ability to flip back and forth quickly between diagrams, glossary, text material, etc, and give myself post-it notes as reference points REALLY helped.  In conjunction with some internet searching, I found that I still liked paper textbooks better than e-books.  I'm so old-school.  ;-) 

[ak48]

Go paper with textbooks. You can "mark up" digital copies but I found it cumbersome enough that it prevents me from using it.

 

What's more, navigating paper books is so easy. There are lots of times when I need to quickly flip 2-3 pages back and with digital copies it's inconvenient and I lose my train of thought pressing "back" 3 times or typing in the page number.

[Dal PhDer]

I use both. For books I know I'm going to be using and using and using, I like a physical copy so I can write, highlight, postit, etc.

 

However, you would be amazed at how many useful textbooks you can get for free online - so I have lots of those, and they're very useful. 

 

I would research both, and see what you prefer. 

[sharingfromafar]

Wow guys, thanks for all of the advice! Yeah, it looks like it is going to depend on the university and the books that the professors require. Again, it just sucks that I won't know what classes I am taking until I register at orientation. 

[somethinbruin]

You might want to consider an Amazon Prime student membership (I believe it's free for the first six months, so if you time it right, you can use it for fall and spring textbook orders). With the membership, you get free 2-day shipping, so you might be able to order the books right after you register, get them in time for classes, and avoid the obligatory 485% bookstore markup.

[GreenePony]

I have a long-ish commute on the metro so I prefer my Kindle Fire for text books so I have less to carry. Not all books expire after a certain time, only if you rent a book instead of buying, at least through the Amazon format. I liked the Fire because I would also load powerpoints and articles on it instead of spending so much on printing 30+ page articles for each class (the cost ended up being cheaper in the long run for the kindle). Depending on how the pdfs were written you can mark those up but you cannot do any real word processing with the Fire (that's I've found anyway). I'm pretty happy with it.

But like others have said, not all textbook are available on the e-format so for that I would say do the Amazon Prime route.

[ANDS!]

I do both.  I purchase textbooks and find pdf's.  I'm not big into lugging books around, and will slap a textbood on a tablet when I need to go mobile.  

[Guest |||]

Gotta say, I prefer paper.  PDFs end up leading me to websites like this one.

[lothloriensage]

I'm planning on using both. My program has both recommended and required books and I think I will buy or rent ebooks of the recommended texts while buying hard copies of the required. I prefer hard copies for notation and highlighting purposes and am just more comfortable using them. But who knows, maybe I will make the transition.

[KindaHardWorker]

Why not both?

[raneck]

If you have classes that allow open book tests, you will need a physical book for that.  They probably won't let you use a tablet or other reader.