Nook for Textbooks?

[Aggie_Ama]

I am starting back to school this summer and while looking at my first class I noticed I can buy the text electronically for a savings. I like the idea that I can have a much smaller device for my books. I am constantly traveling or away from home 12+ hours a day, a big textbook is just one more thing to carry. Has anyone used e-texts? This is so different from my first college days just 8 years ago! I am interested in the Nook mostly for the color option if I go with text books. I am going to nursing school so lots of diagrams.

[Crankin]

Well, as I am in the last semester in my grad program, I can honestly say I had no interest in e-books for my texts, or renting textbooks. It's mostly because I have to study for licensing boards sometime in the next 2 years, and I want to use my texts for some of that. I also want the books to refer to at times, for what I do in my daily practice. It's hard to explain, but I need to "feel" the book.
Of course, I am old and old fashioned when it comes to electronic books. I even print out the research articles I use, because I like to mark them up and highlight, especially when I am using an article for my own research. While I appreciate being able to access the articles/library on line, at home, I want the articles.
It really comes down to your learning style. If you think you can study, memorize, take notes by looking at a screen, and it's cheaper and easier, then do it. I couldn't. You might want to buy some of your clinical books, later on, though, for boards and the diagrams as you said.

[Aggie_Ama]

Thanks Crankin, you take the RN test immediately but I may want the texts later. Of course with medicine evolving I question whether for reference later on a library will be a better bet than a text that may be slightly dated? I know anatomy won't change but I am sure pharmacology and some of the other parts might. I did find you can rent or buy a non-expiring copy of the electronic book. For my first class it is $56 cheaper to buy a non-expiring copy.

I definitely don't want to sell my books back if I get hard copies but with trying to avoid student loans at all costs pinching pennies is a very big issue as well. I have to pay out of district tuition at the community college that offers a RN program. Still less than out of state or a larger university but not inexpensive.

[Catrin]

Before you go this way, make certain you have an opportunity to view the graphics/diagrams on your electronic reader of choice. Typically images and tables do not translate well. I've no experience with the Nook so perhaps this is less of an issue, but check it out.

Personally, if I thought I might need the books later on I would spring for the real book. I gave my first Sony Digital Reader to my sister when she was still in RN school so she could use it to study for her RN test. This was a massive book they had made available in PDF format. Between the size of the screen and how the tables and graphics rendered, she finally went back to the real book.

That was a couple of years ago and eReader technology has moved on quite a bit since that time so you may find it a different experience.

[Aggie_Ama]

Excellent advice. I just found my first text I need at Walmart.com for $114, the e-book is $104. So it looks like smart shopping might find some deals. When I was in school (99-03) internet commerce was still budding a lot, traditional bookstores were the only real way to go. By the time I graduated online bookstores were starting to spring but not like the are now. I feel like it is a new game all together not just a new field. Kind of makes me feel a little old.

Maybe I will just buy an e-reader for pleasure reading, I just sold one of my mountain bikes and have a big birthday next week. I kind of feel like I deserve a small treat even though saving it all for school is what I should do.

[Catrin]

....
Maybe I will just buy an e-reader for pleasure reading, I just sold one of my mountain bikes and have a big birthday next week. I kind of feel like I deserve a small treat even though saving it all for school is what I should do.

I have found my e-Reader to be perfect for pleasure reading. I do enjoy classics and I have an entire library of them on my Sony - most of them for free. I wouldn't use it for professional or academic use because of the different nature of the text.

[csr1210]

I love my kindle and consider it one of the best purchases ever, BUT, I don't like it for any reference/study books. I found that ereaders are fabulous for reading start to finish type of books, but for I don't like it for text books. When I was studying chemistry, I really needed a paper book that I could flip pages back and forth to find stuff. I'm sorry I'm not explaining it very well -- it just seemed much harder to skim through the electric version, but maybe I just didn't try hard enough.

[ultraviolet]

For textbooks, the only decent e-reader is going to be the Kindle DX. The extra "screen" size makes all the difference when it comes to reference texts. The iPad is could potentially be another solution if color is important to you, but since it has considerably more capabilities than a reading device, you have the extra cost and weight to consider.

I'm not knocking on the Nook (I have one, and I like it), but while it's fine for most reading, it doesn't work well for texts that I need to refer back to frequently or "learn" from. The Kindle DX and the iPad have proven themselves (to me) to be much better for those sorts of things.

[FunSize]

Also, just a comment. The Nook has no highlighting or underlining capabilities. The Kindle and Sony you can take notes and highlight/underline.

[OakLeaf]

I've never used an e-reader for studying, but I would second what csr said about flipping back and forth.

Then again ... you're young and it's probably just an adjustment in the way you study. Newer e-readers are fast enough that you can flip back and forth without the annoying delay that I have on my Sony 600. I know word processing COMPLETELY changed the way I write - I'm old enough to remember that transition, but it's now been so long ago that I don't really remember the mental processes of how I wrote by longhand and typewriter.

[Crankin]

CSR, know exactly what you mean about flipping the pages being awkward in some electronic formats. We didn't get our newspaper delivered a couple of days and I do subscribe to the on-line service of the Boston Globe. The way it's set up is entirely frustrating; you end up reading the first part of each story and then have to either search around for the continuation, as it's not on the next page, or wait until you have gone through all of the pages to get to the next part.
I know this doesn't apply if you have a subscription to the NY Times on a I Pad, as you can flip through those pages as in a print copy. But the graphics aspect of studying science would also make me think twice about doing it electronically. Right now I am taking neuroscience and I would not want to be looking at those diagrams on a little screen.

[ultraviolet]

Also, just a comment. The Nook has no highlighting or underlining capabilities. The Kindle and Sony you can take notes and highlight/underline.

Actually, the Nook does have highlighting and note capabilities. I use them frequently.

[Owlie]

I'm a little wary of using e-readers for textbooks, especially because science textbooks are table- and graphics-heavy and they don't always translate well.
I would at least get something like an A&P book in hard copy.

My uni had a pilot program with the Kindle DX for engineering students, but that got shut down...