Ipad Textbooks

By becksta on 3/31/10 8:47am
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The IpadThe IpadIn a move that is set to possibly further annihilate the Kindle and other e-books, the Ipad is looking for an edge in the highly profitable text-book market. Just recently, Seton Hill University, which is a Catholic University in Pennsylvania, announced that every student at their university would be given an Ipad.

As the NYT pointed out, the IPads, which the university hopes students will use to download textbooks from the I-Bookstore, are not cheap. Each student will be required to pay a $500 fee for “digital costs” per semester.

 

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Barnes & Noble and Amazon in the Text-Book Business

By becksta on 1/13/10 2:52pm
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Text-BooksText-BooksForget about libraries or college bookstores as the place to get your college textbooks. That’s the old, antiquated way. Now, students can “rent” their text-books from Barnes & Noble campus bookstores or purchase books through Amazon for their Kindles. If you haven't read it already, definitely check out my colleague Sarajean's article detailing other "textbook rental" places, which, not surprisingly, are cheaper than Barnes & Noble's.


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The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

By erika on 12/14/09 8:39pm
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As someone with an English Lit degree, I read a lot of Shakespeare in college.  Pretty much all of it, at one point or another.  But I'll tell you what: these "Complete Works of Shakespeare" books are a total crock.

One of the first English classes I took in college specified a "Complete Works of Shakespeare" compendium on the list of required textbooks.  Being a complete sucker, and a rule abiding one at that, I bought the damned thing.  Between the shocking cost of the thing, and its weight, you would have thought it had been made of gold.

It turns out that the professor assigned it for two reasons:

1.     He was under the impression that someone else bought your textbooks.  Therefore, by assigning something cool, he was basically giving you a present on someone else's dime.


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N. Gregory Mankiw, Principles of Microeconomics

By erika on 12/2/09 3:20pm
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Many years ago I chose this book because it is one of the most popular introductory microeconomics textbooks, and for good reason.  As someone who is not an economics expert, or even a college student taking an introductory Econ class, but just someone who wanted a better understanding of some of the basic concepts of microeconomics, I found this book to be extremely valuable.  (I bought a used and slightly out of date copy for about $20.  I see that the new cover price is over $100 - I don't think I would consider it as valuable at that price!)


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Renting Textbooks Online

By sarajean on 11/21/09 2:45am
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 If you’ve had the misfortune of buying your textbooks as an undergraduate, you know that they can quickly rack up your debt. Some textbooks cost more than a calculator, or even comparative to a class, depending on where you attend school.

 

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