If instead of buying expensive textbooks, students bought an e-reader and paid for books that were a fraction of the cost of the big, bulky paper ones?
YES.
Our communications and music have upgraded - why haven't our books?
Someone, somewhere, made the observation that the ipod changes the way we organize our music, but not how we listen to it, whereas an ebook reader would change the way we read books, which is maybe why it's taking so much longer to catch on.
I agree with you about piracy, and how free doesn't mean no one will pay for it. There have been authors I've gotten into because they've put up stories (or lots of excerpts) online for free, or because I found their books for $0.25 at a UBS... (or to compare it to music, Springsteen has sites devoted to sharing live bootlegs, and I like them because I like hearing different versions of his songs; I've ALSO spent a lot of money on his official merchandise. I'm pretty sure I own every single CD he's made, and anything he releases in the future, plus concert tickets, etc. The unofficial stuff only fuels the love. <3) I like your idea of a tip jar too (wasn't there a musician or band who tried this?).
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-08-28 02:11 pm (UTC)YES.
Our communications and music have upgraded - why haven't our books?
Someone, somewhere, made the observation that the ipod changes the way we organize our music, but not how we listen to it, whereas an ebook reader would change the way we read books, which is maybe why it's taking so much longer to catch on.
I agree with you about piracy, and how free doesn't mean no one will pay for it. There have been authors I've gotten into because they've put up stories (or lots of excerpts) online for free, or because I found their books for $0.25 at a UBS... (or to compare it to music, Springsteen has sites devoted to sharing live bootlegs, and I like them because I like hearing different versions of his songs; I've ALSO spent a lot of money on his official merchandise. I'm pretty sure I own every single CD he's made, and anything he releases in the future, plus concert tickets, etc. The unofficial stuff only fuels the love. <3) I like your idea of a tip jar too (wasn't there a musician or band who tried this?).