Don’t forget e-textbooks

Re “We’ve heard this story before,” Opinion, Dec. 2

The best application of e-book technology -- in terms of cost saving, tree sparing, easy portability, instant accessibility -- would be in reproducing textbooks as well as supplementary materials set down in syllabuses issued by instructors in high school, college and graduate-degree classes. Yet I saw no mention of this practical possibility in using Amazon’s new Kindle (or inevitable lower-cost successors) by William Powers. Just consider the convenience, along with shoulder and back stresses and injuries avoided, that students would enjoy by not having to lug around 30-pound packs of books. Public school districts could save a bundle by purchasing inexpensive, mass-produced e-books, on which course-required texts would be downloaded after working out deals with publishers (and authors), then lending them to students instead of costly hard-copy textbooks made of paper. College students could minimize the expense of buying textbooks, which isn’t included in the already high tuitions.

Barbara Marinacci

Pacific Palisades