ebook update

For anyone that reads this blog you may remember an article I wrote about a month back telling you all about my plans to use ebooks this semester. The two things I was most excited about were saving some space in my bookbag and putting a little bit more green in the wallet. Unfortunately both of these attracting offers have not been fulfilled but on the positive side I can say I am still considering buying ebooks next year.

Trying to put this as briefly as I can without making a huge article out of this I have started printing out my ebooks. When I made this decision I went to kinkos to ask them how much it would cost but they would not even let me print it out there since the books are technically copyrighted material. I was then on my own to use my own printer and with paper and a new ink cartridge in hand I spent an extra $25 to get this far.

I decided to print out my books for a couple of reasons.
Trying to "flip" through an ebook is not as easy feat in class. When the teacher say turn to page 256, believe it or not it is quicker to flip through a textbook than make your way to that page in the ebook. Even by searching and bookmarking certain pages I often found my classmates arriving to the correct page much quicker.

Also in class the option to have a secondary monitor is now available. At home when reading my textbook I could read the ebook off the monitor and type or write my notes on my tablet at the same time. In class and at the library where I spend a lot of my time this is not an option and for me I need to see the page and my notes at the same time.

I've also had a heck of a time with my pdf version. Since it is has security built into it the program likes to play mind games with me by saving my comments sometimes and totally ignoring them a second. After having hours of highlighting vanish the next time I opened the book I quickly realized that this no longer worth it.

Highlighting (even with a tablet) is not the same as highlighting in a textbook. There is just something fundamentally different with the whole process. Also since my ebook are in pdf format adding comments to the edges is impossible with the security version. I suppose I could use the note feature in the program but again I feel something is lost with this and much rather write something down in the margin. I could print the pages to a program like GoBinder or OneNote but I really hated reading the book in those programs and pdf annotator was just too slow at scrolling through the pages.

These are just a few of the reasons and frustrations I have had with ebook but here is the good news
I can print out chapters as I go. So although I do have the printed book to class I don't have to carry the entire book. I now just print out the sections are chapters we will be discussing and put them in a 1/2" binder and away I go. I can still fit two of these, my tablet, AC adaptor and folders and highlighters in my Tom Bihn bag so I do not have to carry as much as some people but I am still carrying more than I once thought.

I also have all the pictures and book in digital form. This makes inserting diagrams from the book incredibly easy! I love just saving the pictures from my SafariX book and just uses OneNote's cool clipping tool to capture images from my Adobe book. (the built-in clipping tool and copy text feature is disabled in the Adobe one). Also since the book is in digital format I still have it with me wherever I go so I can read it from my tablet if I so wish. Also the searching feature is still incredibly neat so I often have the ebook open in the background while I take notes and read my paper textbook. This way If I need to find something quickly I can search really quick and then I will now exactly where it is.

So this is just my brief update. If I have time over spring break I may elaborate on some of this but so far I have not really saved any money, since I had to buy the printing supplies to print out a 1000 page book) and I still carry "part" of that heavy book with me to class. It seems the price will come out in the wash but the ability to easily use those digital pictures and to have my ebook with me where ever I go if I want it make me consider buying a ebook once again but not for my original purpose.

posted by Jason Dorko at 12:58 PM 0 comments links to this post