E-books have become a part of modern life offering style an electronic convenience in an age that has almost gone completely digital.
Amazon’s sale of e-books topped the sale of traditional hardcover books, and last year, The New York Times announced that e-books would be listed in the newspaper’s renowned bestsellers’ list.
While print is still in use, e-books and other forms of digital literature are increasing in popularity, especially with university student. While buy back policies and rentals are popular options, an increasing number of secondary education publishers offer another option in the form of e-books.
Not all textbooks are available in this format, it is currently an alternative for many of the more widely used titles.
But e-books are often still regarded with some suspicion by those who love print versions and there are some disadvantages to having an e-book. E-books are almost universally less expensive than regular textbooks because they are much cheaper to produce.
While an e-book version of a textbook is usually still more expensive than a fiction or nonfiction e-book, the cost is often much reduced in comparison to a print book.
E-books also have the advantage of convenience; no one enjoys hauling two or three textbooks to class, but with a portable e-reader a student can keep thousands of books on hand in one single device.
For the environmentally conscious, e-books also cut down on paper waste.
However, e-books require something that no traditionally printed book does—a battery charge.
Whether they are read on a Kindle or on a computer, e-books need a source of power to be read.
For the constantly wired university student, this might not seem like a constant problem but a textbook running out of charge or suffering from a power outage can put a damper on study plans.
While e-book versions of textbooks have their own advantages and are coming into popular usage across the country, it is up to the individual student to decide for themselves whether they will switch to digital.
There is still an allure to print books, and they have not yet been completely eclipsed by their electronic versions.
