It’s the start of a new quarter, actually the end of the first week of the new quarter, for me and I thought I’d save some money by not buying the books but just getting them from the library.  Smart move.  Except one of the books from the library was the third edition and the required one was the eighth.  Turns out there’s a fair amount wrong.

So I look on half.com and see the book is really spending, but I can buy the e-book version from the campus book store for cheaper than half.com.  A pretty good deal right?  Almost.

Turns out when I paid $110 for the e-book I didn’t actually buy the book.  I buy the rights to read it for 180 days.  That’s right, after that I have the book no more.  That really sucks.  It’s a fair amount of money for not owning something.

Besides the crazy price and not owning it, I think it’s a great feature.  I can read the book from any computer, highlight text, search terms, and make notes.  It’s very useful and it’ll be a lot easier to go back and find my notes and do the necessary work from the readings.

Granted, not all ebooks are merely “rentals” but the way this one is set up it is merely renting.  I guess this book is a wash.  Hopefully the benefits continue to outweigh the negatives.