Barnes & Noble, Microsoft May Bring Textbooks to Win 8

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I don't know how others feel about this kind of thing, but I cannot stand having a complex subject like calculus or chemistry and have the textbook in a digital format. There's something about having the tangible pages in front and being able to bounce around while working with them. School books rarely "read" like a novel does where it's linear, perhaps this in large part shapes my view on this. There's nothing "revolutionary" about this transition like the two companies here call it and make you want to believe in my opinion.
 
[citation][nom]matt_b[/nom]I don't know how others feel about this kind of thing, but I cannot stand having a complex subject like calculus or chemistry and have the textbook in a digital format. There's something about having the tangible pages in front and being able to bounce around while working with them. School books rarely "read" like a novel does where it's linear, perhaps this in large part shapes my view on this. There's nothing "revolutionary" about this transition like the two companies here call it and make you want to believe in my opinion.[/citation]
Book wide search, instant move to page, quicker access to the index are just some of the advantages that e-books have over traditional books. Wait one more thing Less weight, can be lower priced and did I mention less weight to carry around? 😛
 
[citation][nom]matt_b[/nom]I don't know how others feel about this kind of thing, but I cannot stand having a complex subject like calculus or chemistry and have the textbook in a digital format. There's something about having the tangible pages in front and being able to bounce around while working with them. School books rarely "read" like a novel does where it's linear, perhaps this in large part shapes my view on this. There's nothing "revolutionary" about this transition like the two companies here call it and make you want to believe in my opinion.[/citation]
Although I agree that paper books are more "real" and have a certain "feel" to them, I also attribute some long-term pain in my shoulder to Cutnell and Johnson forcing me to carry around a 5 pound physics book amongst 3 or 4 other the same size nearly 17 years ago, at the end of it the most interesting lesson in physics I learned was that gravity really sucks and a Kindle or a Nook would have been a small price to pay (figuratively and literally) to ditch all the dead trees and be able to play ball with my kids without the aid of painkillers.
 
Weight is a definite advantage. With the digital aspect of purchasing textbooks though, can one still earn a good amount of their money back on re-selling them now? I've seen a lot of instances lately (and maybe the monopoly B&N has on this market is to blame here), where you are buying an online code to go with the "book". So once it's used, even the physical copy of the textbook becomes almost worthless as the online access that's trumped up as necessary is one-time use. So where does this aspect stand at now?
 
[citation][nom]matt_b[/nom]Weight is a definite advantage. With the digital aspect of purchasing textbooks though, can one still earn a good amount of their money back on re-selling them now? I've seen a lot of instances lately (and maybe the monopoly B&N has on this market is to blame here), where you are buying an online code to go with the "book". So once it's used, even the physical copy of the textbook becomes almost worthless as the online access that's trumped up as necessary is one-time use. So where does this aspect stand at now?[/citation]

And you can only use that code for one semester anyways. Had this for a government class. $100 for the book with no resell value. It's insane, and digital copies are only a bit cheaper. Spending around $600 a semester just on books is way out of proportion and these book companies should be sued for extortion. I'm sure Microsoft would love to get a piece of that market as well.
 
[citation][nom]thor220[/nom]And you can only use that code for one semester anyways. Had this for a government class. $100 for the book with no resell value. It's insane, and digital copies are only a bit cheaper. Spending around $600 a semester just on books is way out of proportion and these book companies should be sued for extortion. I'm sure Microsoft would love to get a piece of that market as well.[/citation]

And likely overcharge for it, just like everyone else. =/
 
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