[LADennis]

My baby girl proudly took her Kindle to school this morning! She was all dressed up in her new skin and cover...going by the name of Cora.  We shall see what kind of reaction she gets from other students and teachers today.

 

[Scheherazade]

Mine went to school last night and took her first tumble off a desk   Oberon journal to the rescue... gotta love that extra inch or so of leather protection along the edges!

 

[LADennis]

Yes, thank goodness for the Oberon!!

 

[Tangram]

Aw, yay! The first time I took mine to class, my literature professor fawned over it. He even coerced me to let him borrow it during my next class because he had a test to give. XD He sent me an e-mail last night saying that he had ordered himself one.

 

[MarthaT]

Aw, yay! The first time I took mine to class, my literature professor fawned over it. He even coerced me to let him borrow it during my next class because he had a test to give. XD He sent me an e-mail last night saying that he had ordered himself one.

Thats fantastic, bet you'll get a good grade in the class

 

[Tangram]

Thats fantastic, bet you'll get a good grade in the class

Ha! =D I'll get a better grade in part one of the class (world literature before 1600), because absolutely everything we read should be on Gutenberg. I just might end up not needing the text book for it.

 

[Susan in VA]

Ha! =D I'll get a better grade in part one of the class (world literature before 1600), because absolutely everything we read should be on Gutenberg. I just might end up not needing the text book for it.

You must be taking the same class I am. And I'm doing part two before part one as well. And my prof is waiting for a demo next week, since she had heard about the annotating option and wondered whether she could use it for her classes. So I have to figure out how that works by then....

Are you using the Bedford Anthology series? They do weigh a ton.

 

[Tangram]

You must be taking the same class I am. And I'm doing part two before part one as well. And my prof is waiting for a demo next week, since she had heard about the annotating option and wondered whether she could use it for her classes. So I have to figure out how that works by then....

Are you using the Bedford Anthology series? They do weigh a ton.

I use annotations and highlighting heavily when I'm reading something for class. It's very useful for studying.

Norton Anthology. They're paperback (at least, that's what our bookstore provides), so they're not terribly heavy, but there's three for each class, and they're $40 a pop. I wish we were using Bedford, as I had a teacher donate to me her older set when someone bought her a newer set for Christmas.

 

[mwvickers]

As someone with a B.A. in English, I cannot imagine trying to read all of the assigned works on the Kindle unless everyone had one and used it.  

We always had to turn to a certain page to discuss a portion of the text.  That would be nearly impossible to do, unless you knew what you needed to look at ahead of time and bookmarked it.  

Then again, I supposed the search feature on the K2 may be better and faster and may make searching for a key word or phrase easier.  The KK is a little slow in that regard.  

 

[intinst]

The K2 can search in one book, I believe.

 

[mwvickers]

The K2 can search in one book, I believe.

Well, that would make it easier, now wouldn't it? LOL

 

[Ann in Arlington]

I can see there could be difficulties using a Kindle if not everyone had one. OTOH, as one who also has taken TONS of Lit courses, I can see the value in having the works on Kindle so that you can read any time, but still have the specified course edition for in-class discussions. I did take some courses where they didn't really care what edition you read. . .the prof left that up to you with the caveat that she'd be referencing a particular edition and that it was your responsibility to find reference points in your edition.

A truly enlightened Lit Prof would reference the Kindle locations too.

I can tell you that, after lugging around the Riverside Shakespeare for 4 months one semester, I would have loved to be using this



instead. Even if it didn't have all the footnotes and what not!

Ann

 

[mwvickers]

I can see there could be difficulties using a Kindle if not everyone had one. OTOH, as one who also has taken TONS of Lit courses, I can see the value in having the works on Kindle so that you can read any time, but still have the specified course edition for in-class discussions. I did take some courses where they didn't really care what edition you read. . .the prof left that up to you with the caveat that she'd be referencing a particular edition and that it was your responsibility to find reference points in your edition.

That could work, but depending on whether what you are reading is public domain or not, you could be spending more money for the in-class text and the Kindle text both.

A truly enlightened Lit Prof would reference the Kindle locations too.

We can only hope it comes to this.

I can tell you that, after lugging around the Riverside Shakespeare for 4 months one semester, I would have loved to be using this



instead. Even if it didn't have all the footnotes and what not!

Ann

I definitely agree with you there. During one semester, I was taking both Chaucer and Shakespeare (as well as two other classes). Both books were about the same size, so I understand the weight issue. LOL

 

[Susan in VA]

I use annotations and highlighting heavily when I'm reading something for class. It's very useful for studying.

Norton Anthology. They're paperback (at least, that's what our bookstore provides), so they're not terribly heavy, but there's three for each class, and they're $40 a pop. I wish we were using Bedford, as I had a teacher donate to me her older set when someone bought her a newer set for Christmas.

Funny, I've never annotated a thing other than with Post-Its, I can't bear to write in books (other than my cookbooks, where I'll note changes I've made to recipes).

My Bedfords are paperback too, but at 1500 pages or so (each) they're still heavy. Six of 'em for the two classes, at about $ 40 apiece, and I thought that was actually not bad compared to some of the other textbooks I've seen recently. (Eternal student here... can't imagine ever not taking a class or two...)

 

[Sweety18]

Thats fantastic, bet you'll get a good grade in the class

Never thought of that, thanks for the idea

 

[Susan in VA]

As someone with a B.A. in English, I cannot imagine trying to read all of the assigned works on the Kindle unless everyone had one and used it.

We always had to turn to a certain page to discuss a portion of the text. That would be nearly impossible to do, unless you knew what you needed to look at ahead of time and bookmarked it.

Then again, I supposed the search feature on the K2 may be better and faster and may make searching for a key word or phrase easier. The KK is a little slow in that regard.

If someone tells you a few words at the top of that page I guess you can search for it. Haven't tried using it in class discussion yet.

By far the bigger concern would be that yes, those classics are available for the Kindle, but often the anthologies that a class is using include some sort of introduction to each work, usually with considerable background information on the author or the historical setting during which (or about which) the story was written. That info becomes part of the class discussion, and tends to show up on exams as well. So unless exactly the same edition were available for the Kindle, you'd be at a considerable disadvantage.

 

[Susan in VA]

I can see the value in having the works on Kindle so that you can read any time, but still have the specified course edition for in-class discussions.

That's a great idea. To be implemented next semester!

A truly enlightened Lit Prof would reference the Kindle locations too.

You know... I could see that happening in another ten years or so.
Not too long ago, there wasn't an accepted MLA format for citing online sources... so how long can it be before they have one that includes Kindle locations?

 

[Ann in Arlington]

That could work, but depending on whether what you are reading is public domain or not, you could be spending more money for the in-class text and the Kindle text both.

True. . . .my unstated assumption was that we were talking mostly about lit classes that focused on public domain works, and the ebooks would be fairly inexpensive, if not free.

But Susan also makes a good point about the additional material in a lot of anthologies. Still, I know of folks in college who did share textbooks because of the expense. And there are sometimes loaner copies in the library, or the Prof will have copies you can borrow. If you take good notes, you won't be at much of a disadvantage. . .

Ann

 

[intinst]

True. . . .my unstated assumption was that we were talking mostly about lit classes that focused on public domain works, and the ebooks would be fairly inexpensive, if not free.

But Susan also makes a good point about the additional material in a lot of anthologies. Still, I know of folks in college who did share textbooks because of the expense. And there are sometimes loaner copies in the library, or the Prof will have copies you can borrow. If you take good notes, you won't be at much of a disadvantage. . .

Ann

Remember Vegas Asian uses her Kindle, tranfering notes from her computer to it. Lets her have her class notes where ever she goes and less to carry.

 

[mwvickers]

True. . . .my unstated assumption was that we were talking mostly about lit classes that focused on public domain works, and the ebooks would be fairly inexpensive, if not free.

Most of my classes dealt with more modern works, believe it or not. That could get expensive quickly. One semester, I had to read 16 books in about 4 months. Wouldn't be bad, but I was working 5 days a week, too. LOL