Let’s face it. Text books are a drag. Literally. Even worse is when you drag those books around either on your back, or in your arms. They are heavy, dusty, hardly used, and even worse: expensive. Not to mention, when will people finally realize that textbooks are bad for the environment? And somewhat outdated because of the Internet. Evertheless, they exist, your teachers require them, and professors keep writing them. So what is the best way to cover your bases without breaking the bank or your back? Well, you could always read your textbooks online. This short article will talk about the books that you can easily read online, how to get them, and how to even recycle them for continued use by other people.
What text books are good for reading online?
While many textbooks are great for reading online, unfortunately, not all text books are online user friendly. These might include interactive books like language text books, literature text books, science text books, and math text books.
Good books to read online probably include:
- Literature books
- History books
- Geography books
- Art books
- Dance books
- Medical books
- Law books
- Culture and ethics books
Nowadays, a lot of class books come with an online interface. Unfortunately, there can be limited access, as in, only one user or member. In this case, there might not be much of anything that you can do except bite the bullet. But, there are plenty of opportunities to read a textbook online.
How difficult is it to read a book online?
This strongly depends on the person. Do you like to mark up a book? Do you want to flip the page? Do you want to book mark a page or put sticky notes and markers along the side? Is it better for you to read from paper? These are all questions to consider. Maybe it is cheaper and better for the environment to utilize online books, but at the end of the day, your grade does much better with a paper copy. Go with whatever works best for you (and be mindful of your your professor’s requirements). Some classes do not allow laptops in class, but you are still required to bring your book. In this case, online books clearly would not work.
Where can I go to look for books online?
There are so many options for where you can access libraries and databases for textbooks online. Take a look at the following list of ten websites:
-Project Gutenberg (a great ebook site with over 45,000 public domain books in the database)
-Internet Archive (a not for profit organization that gives free access to its over 6,000,000 public domain books)
-Open Library (this is the Internet Archive’s project, which is focused on creating library records)
-Google Books (though can be frustrating, offers previews of books, as well as full books, for free. Previews might be just enough for what you need.)
-Smashwords (a great independent author site that offers over 300,000 ebooks from more than 100,000 authors)
-Blurb (another great site to look at book previews, though this is more for self-published works)
-Scribd (a place for finding documents and books, with two options: a subscription, and free access, though obviously limited)
-Wattpad (based in Canada and has over twenty different languages)
-Bookish (great user interface, though not many books are available for immediate reading)
-24Symbols (a book start up with a well organized category)
These are just some options, especially for finding literature books and novels. Depending on the classes that you are taking, you might need to check out different online libraries and databases.
It is good to consider, however, that your professor might be nice and may scan a book and upload it for online reading. Or, your school might have an online database where you can access books strictly online. So, be sure to ask around to figure out all of your options before you go ordering one and paying for shipping costs. Just make sure you are doing everything legally.
The Circle of Life of a Book
You bight the book read the book, and now you are done with the book. It is time to pass it on and hopefully make some money at the same time (so that you can buy another book). Booksrun is here to help. Not only can you buy or rent textbooks or ebooks, you can also sell them, and then ship and track them for free. The process is easy. First, you price your book with the ISBN number. Then you sell it and ship it for free. Last but not least, you get paid either via check or PayPal within four days.
Conclusion
Text books are not exactly easy or fun. It can be painful to buy them, read them, and then figure out what to do with them after you are done. It is hard to sell books as a student, especially since the class is over and you do not know who will want the book after you. By shopping and reading text books online, you can make a smaller footprint on the planet, save money, help your classmates, and limit the heavy load on your back.
