Digital College textbooks

[ExpatMedic0]

Maybe your a Paramedic student, or simply someone in EMS completing a higher education. You ever get sick of paying hundreds (sometimes thousands) of dollars on textbooks every semester, then having to haul all those huge heavy things around?
Well, I found something pretty cool today. I was having a hard time getting textbooks from the U.S. to Europe that I need for a reasonable price. Then I found this thing Barnes and Noble has online called "Nook" Its basically like itunes for college textbooks. I was able to find every textbook I needed, and rent them as a digital download for my semester. It saved me %60-%90 less of what it would cost to buy them at the book shop and ship them to me. Its also nice to have all of them on a tablet or laptop, instead of lugging around a freaking library on my back.
Also to be fair I don't want to Advert for one company, there is also another company I am less familiar with, who has a similar service called Course Smart.
I have listed the websites below for both companies in case anyone is interested.

http://www.coursesmart.com/
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/nook/379003208/

 

[Veneficus]

Maybe your a Paramedic student, or simply someone in EMS completing a higher education. You ever get sick of paying hundreds (sometimes thousands) of dollars on textbooks every semester, then having to haul all those huge heavy things around?

Welcome to my world.

Well, I found something pretty cool today. I was having a hard time getting textbooks from the U.S. to Europe that I need for a reasonable price. Then I found this thing Barnes and Noble has online called "Nook" Its basically like itunes for college textbooks. I was able to find every textbook I needed, and rent them as a digital download for my semester. It saved me %60-%90 less of what it would cost to buy them at the book shop and ship them to me. Its also nice to have all of them on a tablet or laptop, instead of lugging around a freaking library on my back.
Also to be fair I don't want to Advert for one company, there is also another company I am less familiar with, who has a similar service called Course Smart.
I have listed the websites below for both companies in case anyone is interested.

http://www.coursesmart.com/
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/nook/379003208/

works great until you need to look something up 3 or 6 months from now. Then you will get to buy it again.

 

[ExpatMedic0]

You can also buy the digital download... However if your like me... you never wanna open the thing again after class and just sell it back to the bookshop Unless its something really special. I kept my Paramedic textbook and an ECG book, also my anatomy book. Others, not so much.... for example my Philosophy book Vene... ;-)

 

[Veneficus]

You can also buy the digital download... However if your like me... you never wanna open the thing again after class and just sell it back to the bookshop Unless its something really special. I kept my Paramedic textbook and an ECG book, also my anatomy book.

I actually need the textbooks after the semester.

 

[Household6]

People have been using digital textbooks at my school, I don't think it's for me..

I like my Nook and my Kindle for recreational reading, but I like all my medical books made from trees. I must have them all organized on their own bookshelves, arranged by subject, alphabetized by title, easily accessible.

My 13yo son likes to read them and look at the pictures. When I was little, my dad was a 68W, he always had medical books laying around the house. I can remember being four years old, and sitting down with his trauma books. I loved it; being able to just pull dad's trauma books off the shelves and page through them.

And I hate to admit it, but I *need* to re-read mine frequently. I forget things.

 

[Veneficus]

I like my Nook and my Kindle for recreational reading, but I like all my medical books made from trees. I must have them all organized on their own bookshelves, arranged by subject, alphabetized by title, easily accessible.

Actual books work better for me too. For some reason I don't retain as much from the electronic format. I have a couple ebooks, but I am just not fond of them. Fortunately, they are in topics I don't actually need often.

My 13yo son likes to read them and look at the pictures. When I was little, my dad was a 68W, he always had medical books laying around the house. I can remember being four years old, and sitting down with his trauma books. I loved it; being able to just pull dad's trauma books off the shelves and page through them.

My daughter is this way too.

And I hate to admit it, but I *need* to re-read mine frequently. I forget things.

There is no shame in that.

Much better to admit to re-reading than pretend you don't need to.

 

[STXmedic]

I'm with Vene and household.

I rarely ever sell back books. Especially if its science-related, it will stay in my library.

Like household, I have to have mine organized very specifically. They're all tabbed, with notes written in them with updates and ah-ha's. An e-book would certainly not work for me.

I know many people that love them though. I could see myself using one for maybe a lit or history book; something that I have no intention of going back to

 

[Carlos Danger]

I have all my books in electronic format - several dozen of them. Every topic from physiology to pharmacology to research and health policy.

Mostly they are in .pdf format (which I prefer because of the versatility), but some are in .epub format. I mostly use my iPad to read, but I do plenty on my laptop as well.

Like others, I prefer bound books as well, but the convenience of having dozens of textbooks, journals, PowerPoints from class, outlines, CME articles, videos, apps, etc all on my iPad (not to mention the internet) easily outweighs the disadvantage of reading on a screen vs. paper pages.

Just today I sat at the beach with my iPad and studied for several hours. I was studying a specific topic and in addition to reviewing the PowerPoints and notes from class, I was able to skim the chapters on that topic from 5 or 6 different texts, as well as related YouTube videos......would have been much harder to do with a stack of textbooks.

 

[ExpatMedic0]

I just downloaded blackboard for my HTC phone today... I am feeling pretty freaking dorky nowadays with my digital textbooks and mobile blackboard app

 

[JPINFV]

I just downloaded blackboard for my HTC phone today... I am feeling pretty freaking dorky nowadays with my digital textbooks and mobile blackboard app

 

[socalmedic]

Truth

 

[ExpatMedic0]

HAHA :lol: