In college, I was always grateful to be an English major because my books were pretty small and relatively inexpensive, but I had plenty of friends who lugged around huge, expensive science or math textbooks around everywhere. Come to think of it, the Kindle edition of many of the classics I read in my English classes are free.
Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) has introduced its new Kindle Textbook Rental Program. Amazon has been offering new and used print editions of textbooks for awhile. What a great use for the Kindle DX, especially since it has a bigger screen. There has been some push for use of the Kindle DX in education in recent years, but it hasn’t really taken off. But, regardless of whether you download your textbook to your Kindle, Kindle DX, iPad, computer, smartphone, etc, you’ll save a lot of money and backache.
With device choices, you get more customizable fonts and color contrasts. Often, print textbooks are in small print, making it harder to see. You can also annotate or highlight without damaging the book and decreasing its value.
You can either buy the textbook or rent it for specified length of time between 30 and 360 days. Kindle editions are much cheaper. Amazon claims that the Kindle versions are up to 80% less than the print versions. Something I’d like to see if the ability to sell “used” Kindle textbooks to others like you can do with print editions.
You’ll find subjects all across the board: from business and accounting to history and literature. There are also test prep guides and computer software manuals. Looks like a great collection to start with, and more are constantly added.
So, hopefully the combination of cheaper Kindles, cheaper textbooks, and lighter backpacks will take the financial and physical burden off students.