Green it!

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Save a tree or two by buying a digital textbook or finding required texts online. Many textbooks are available in digital form at the KU Bookstores or online through publishing companies or websites such as www.cafescribe.com.

However, the KU Bookstores sell fewer than 10 digital textbooks each semester, says Estella McCollum, business manager for KU Bookstores. She says it appears to be a good deal at first, but many of the digital textbooks are sold as subscriptions that expire and digital textbooks have no buyback value.

Photo by Becka Cremer

So if saving money is as important to you as saving trees, check these places for free digital texts.

Christian Classics Ethereal Library

Find full texts of classic Christian writings such as St. Augustine’s Confessions and Dante’s Divine Comedy at www.ccel.org.

Project Gutenberg

Project Gutenberg (www.gutenberg.org) provides free access to content with expired copyrights. Download books such as Virgil’s Aeneid (required for “Western Civ I”) and Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein (required for “Western Civ II”) and save a tree and some money.

Stanza

Download the Stanza application to your iPod Touch or iPhone through the iTunes App Store or to your computer at www.lexcycle.com to access more than 100,000 books. Many of the books are free, and most are less expensive than their print versions.

Also check out the Read Green Initiative at www.goreadgreen.com, where you can get a free one-year digital subscription of your favorite magazine.

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