<p>Is it worth getting the amazon kindle for college to read books?</p>
<p>I’m still in high school, but I’ll offer my insight anyways, since I have a Kindle 3 w/ 3G. It’s rather tedious to flip through pages on a Kindle, compared to an actual book where you can flip much faster. However, a Kindle does have a search function, and there is no Ctrl+F in real life (though I wish there was), so that is indeed something that may be helpful in addition to being able to flip through a physical book. It’s also tedious to make annotations, because you have to use arrow keys to navigate to the location on the page where you want to place the annotation, and then it’s rather slow to type on the small keyboard. However, there is an option that lets you see all your annotations in a particular book, which is something you cannot do with a physical book, and may help you locate an annotation much faster. And of course if there is an assessment that is open book, you will not be able to use a Kindle because the Kindle has internet access along with access to many other things, so it’s an unfair advantage.</p>
<p>If you’re looking to read a textbook on a regular sized Kindle 3, it’s a bad idea. The pages are way too large for the screen, so either you have to strain your eyes to read, or you have to zoom in a lot, and that can be very annoying because there are only certain zoom levels (the zoom function isn’t very smart), so you may end up cutting off an entire edge of the text. It is also difficult to scroll around the page, when you are zoomed in.</p>
<p>I find the Kindle to be particularly useful for looking stuff up. For example, I like to compile formula sheets for my science classes, and it’s easy to pull it up on the Kindle and view it. On the Kindle with the 3G, you basically have internet access at almost any location, because it’s like the 3G on a phone, except you don’t have to pay bills for it. The Kindle has an internet browser, so you can go to Wikipedia and look stuff up quickly. I also like to use it to check stuff like Facebook, and teachers won’t yell at you because they think you’re reading a book :)</p>
<p>So overall, I say that the Kindle is definitely very useful and great to have as a supplement for physical books, but certainly is not a replacement for them. However, if you just want to use it for pleasure reading, I say that a Kindle is superior to a physical book because of its light weight and lack of bulk.</p>
<p>For normal books, yes. For college textbooks…no, the publishers have yet to embrace the potential of e-books. You might find some of your textbooks but you might not find them all, and I don’t know the pricing for them.</p>
<p>Why don’t you get an iPad? U can do tons of things on it, taking notes, reading articles, having some entertainment…,</p>
<p>^ also the ipad has a kindle app so its like having a kindle and more.</p>
<p>kindle screen is much easier on the eyes than the ipad esp. if reading for a long time</p>
<p>I have a kindle. I like it a lot. Small, light, can hold a ton of ****.</p>
<p>No, the iPad is nothing like a Kindle. The iPad is a tablet PC, the kindle is a reading device. Reading more than an hour at a time on an iPad screen is horrible for your eyes, while the e-ink screen on a Kindle is just like reading paper.</p>
<p>I love my Kindle but I wouldn’t consider using it for textbooks.</p>
<p>Honestly I don’t have time to read even regular books in college, so even the basic function of a Kindle would be useless like 90% of the time.</p>
<p>I had a kindle during college, and I only used it for pleasure reading. I tried it for a semester with textbooks but it didn’t work out because of the lack of page numbers and some professors didn’t allow them in class. It’s really good for pleasure reading so you don’t have to cart books from home that you may or may not end up having time to read, and can have them with you anywhere if you happen to have a moment to read-- I got a lot more pleasure reading done once I bought my kindle, but other than that I think they have limited usefulness to the college student.</p>
<p>My concentration is Literature, so most (if not all) of my reading consists of tons of novels… so it’s very useful.</p>
<p>My only concern would be using one in class, and being able to turn to whatever page or section in time with everyone else.</p>
<p>If you’re talking about using it for textbooks, I’m pretty sure that’s not feasible. Might be good for English majors though.</p>
<p>^It isn’t, for the reasons I mentioned. I liked to use the highlighting and bookmarking feature but my professors didn’t want them in class and I couldn’t find page numbers to keep up with discussions in class. </p>
<p>I was REALLY disappointed! I love my kindle.</p>
<p>I don’t think it would be convenient at all to use as a textbook. It seems like it would be a lot more expensive and not as easy for note taking and following along in class. Some professors don’t even like electronic devices in their classes at all.</p>
<p>Carrying a Kindle around also might make you a good target for theft. I also couldn’t trust myself with one. I’d be the person who accidently leaves it sitting on the desk for two seconds, comes back, and it’s gone. Or the person who accidently knocks it off the table.</p>
<p>The Kindle to me is just not good. There are very few e-textbooks, and the ones that are around are way more than buying a used textbook. </p>
<p>Also how many people actually read for pleasure in college? I have enough studying to do, the last thing I want to do on my time down is read something.</p>