Rant #4: Kindle and College Textbooks

My nearly 21-year-old daughter is in college, and each semester her professors give her a list of textbooks that she needs for her courses.

The same thing happened to me 30 years ago when I was an undergraduate. My professors gave me their lists, and I went out and purchased the books that were required for the courses.

There is a difference now, of course. Along with the skyrocketing cost of actually going to college are the ridiculous costs for textbooks. Each semester, I pay upwards of $1,000-plus dollars for textbooks for my daughter.

I find this absolutely outrageous.

Anyway, Amazon's Kindle is being launched in a larger screen, and some pundits have theorized that they are trying to grab the college age market by making deals with textbook publishers so that their books will be available via Kindle.

Read about it here: http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090506/ap_on_hi_te/us_tec_amazon_kindle_13

I don't have the least bit of a problem with this if it cuts costs. Sure, the Kindle itself in this version will cost nearly $500, but if it cuts down the cost of textbooks, then you will make your money back in no time.

Of course, there are some who are "ranting and raving" about the evil that Kindle is bringing upon the world of the college student, but if they were so concerned, then textbooks wouldn't cost $100-plus dollar apiece on the low end.

What I am saying is that the textbook publishers made their own bed--and now they are going to have to account for the excesses.

More power to Kindle if it is able to bring down the cost of textbooks!