College wasn’t very long ago for me, and the feeling of handing over a credit card to the campus bookstore still sends shivers down my spine. Luckily, I wasn’t an accounting or nursing major; just one of those books could cost well over a hundred dollars.

But now, Amazon’s Kindle is offering “tens of thousands” of textbooks for students to rent, and rental price is based on the amount of time you rent for. Pretty smart!

I’ve generally resisted e-readers, but if I were still in college and dropping hundreds of dollars per semester on books, I wouldn’t hesitate to buy a Kindle, or download a Kindle app on a device.

I think it’s safe to assume that I have the same reasoning as any other college student, especially those who don’t have unlimited funds, or have stood in line amidst other students and their frantic parents in the beginning of the semester. The article (from TechCrunch) says Amazon offers an 80 percent discount, with 60-day to 360-day rentals and the option to extend rental if necessary.

While I have a small twinge of sympathy for publishers who are already losing out to e-readers and tablets, it’s their own fault for releasing a “new edition” every three months. They jack up prices when they’ve added or taken away a few pages, and college bookstores buy right into it. Maybe Amazon’s move will encourage them to stop this practice of emptying students’ pockets, or maybe they won’t get the hint, and other tablets will follow Amazon’s lead.

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