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• I have a 3.9 GPA and have never marked up any textbook, or used highlighting of any form. I would even argue that highlighting is detrimental to basic studying and learning habits- but that is for a rainy day.
  
  Regardless of that, please do your research before making false claims. The Kindle *supports* note taking and highlighting.
  
  I can't comment much on the price- but I would say that a fair bit of it does go towards printing costs. Some of the textbooks, especially the bigger ones, cost quite a bit to print. Either way, prices are high mostly because of the limited number of publishing houses- it's very close to a monopoly. With digital delivery, and I think this is one of the larger reasons why books will eventually be digitized, publishing houses can start to be cut out of the transaction. (Perhaps this fate will eventually be true for record labels as well?) Incidentally, the Kindle store on Amazon sells books at far cheaper prices than their paper relatives- it's only prudent to assume this to be true for textbooks.
  
  With all that aside, the Kindle does one more very important thing for college students- reduces the act of carrying many books around. It may sound like laziness, but I know a lot of people who would gladly pay for a reading device to store all those books on in exchange for not having to lug them around. Even if the textbooks didn't drop in price.
  
  On an ending note, digitizing opens the doors to piracy. One student might buy the book for the class and share it with the rest of the students (ignore any perceived technological limitations here- they can be sidestepped). This may be illegal, but it doesn't take away from the core usefulness of the device.
  
  Oh, and by the way, I've never purchased, used, or seen a Kindle- this is an unbiased commentary. In reply to: "Report: A Kindle for college kids?"

  August 26, 2008

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