Using a Kindle to read text books for uni?

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Soldato
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As I'm now back to university for my second year I've been looking for text books. I notice that almost all of the books that I'm looking at are also available in Kindle format so I'm sat here contemplating buying one. The savings to be made from buying the cheaper Kindle books will soon total more than the initial outlay of the Kindle itself, saving me money and desk space which books would take up.

I'm unsure though whether a Kindle will be a good replacement for an actual hard copy of a text book. Does anyone here have a Kindle that they use for this sort of thing and if so, what do you make of it?

Cheers.
 
I don't own a kindle, but can't help but think it'd be hard to use for text books since when i go to a text book, i often "know" where to open it, to be at a certain topic. with the kindle you'd have to open up a contents page, scroll to the content you want and click it etc.. plus you couldn't quickly flick back and forth between chapters. I think that'd be annoying really and therefore would only use a kindle to read novels on (sequential reading order).

However the kindle does have it's pros (cost of e-books, ease to carry, find by word etc..) that might out-weigh the cons for you.
 
I'm very much into my gadgets, but when learning they definatly dont make a substitute for paper. Depends if it has any real benefit to you? Do you prefer a physical copy of the assignment or on the computer?

I'll definatly be buying my books anyway.
 
Have you checked with your uni library that they don't offer what you need in e-book format?

All the required text for my course is available via the library website as an e-book completely free.

Of course you could always try loaning the physical books from them although with X books between XXXs students I doubt you'll get a look in :p
 
I have thought about this for my girlfriend but really don't know if it will benefit her in any way other than having to lug books around.
 
What about making notes in the margins, marking all the pages with tabs post it notes, little drawings etc? I think a book has so much more over any ebook reader. If its only weight saving, buy some dumbells instead and get those arm muscles strong enough :p
 
PhillyDee said:
What about making notes in the margins, marking all the pages with tabs post it notes, little drawings etc? I think a book has so much more over any ebook reader. If its only weight saving, buy some dumbells instead and get those arm muscles strong enough :p
Click to expand...

I'd prefer a girlfriend without biceps :p
 
Technical books don't scale too well on the 6" Kindle. Great for reading on but for note taking I am not so sure. The purist in me says just stick to text books. The technologist in me says iPad (or similar!)
 
My initial thoughts were that other than expense, paper books would be better because of some of the reasons that PhillyDee mentioned but as I have never used a Kindle before I don't know if they have any features that deal with things like that.

It was just a thought but after hearing what people say it seems like a Kindle, as useful as they may be, are not suited to text books.

Cheers people.
 
Depends on your course and how you study. Most of the time when I'm studying / writing an essay I have multiple books open all on different pages. Not something you can really do on Kindle.

However it'd very useful to have in addition to textbooks for revision.
 
LordSplodge said:
Technical books don't scale too well on the 6" Kindle. Great for reading on but for note taking I am not so sure. The purist in me says just stick to text books. The technologist in me says iPad (or similar!)
Click to expand...

I found the same with the linguistic and iconography PDFs I use for research. The iPad was far better at formatting and justifying the text as well as obviously having the advantage of resolution and colour.
 
I use the kindle for revising for IT certs, mainly as I can take it with me for the commute to work, it's normally just a case of reading 1 book so it lends it self well to it. I wouldn't use it for university though, the advantages of having 2-3 books open on a desk, posted notes stuck on etc just can't be recreated.
 
Have you considered buying second-hand uni books? You can also recuperate costs by selling them on at the end of your course.
 
I've found tons of archaeology/history e-books which are suitable for my course; some don't display correctly (tiny font etc) on the Kindle but most are readable.

I couldn't find the majority of these books on the Kindle store however - you do have to do a bit of searching to find them.
 
1) I'd recommend the Kindle DX for text books, they can show the page in a size and layout more like the paper original. Especially old PDFs in the same page count as the paper - the DX is just about big enough that they read well.

2) It's only really good for reading around a new subject - reading through whole sections at least. If you're using it as a reference while working on something the mind numbingly slow page turning will drive you mad.

I'd probably open the ebook on a PC if I was using it as a reference while working, can be even quicker than a paper book then (search).
 
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