<p>I was at Barnes & Noble the other day, and I was playing with the "nook" book reader for a few minutes. It occurred to me that a small device like this (or the kindle/ipad) would let me get all my college books for a cheap price as well as help me "carry" my books around. </p>
<p>I was just curious how colleges feel about buying these books in e-form. Do they discourage/allow it? Does anyone actually do this for college?</p>
<p>The big question is whether a significant percentage of your textbooks will be available in an e format. Textbooks are quite expensive because they are published for relatively small markets and thus the price is much more influenced by that than by the production cost of a physical book. Therefore, I would not expect an e textbook to sell for $9.99 when the physical book costs $100. There just wouldn’t be enough financial reward for the authors.</p>