As a student, I don't really like textbooks at all, printed or electronic. I consider them --and the supplemental materials like lecture slides provided by the

As a student, I don't really like textbooks at all, printed or electronic. I consider them --and the supplemental materials like lecture slides provided by the publisher-- to largely be a crutch used by professors who either can't or won't tailor their instruction to the class and necessities at hand. That's not to say textbooks can't be useful when you're on your own learning a subject, but I've had far better experiences in-class with either online articles and tutorial work (think LON-CAPA) or good old fashioned blackboard work-through. On a more fundamental level, there is absolutely no reason for textbooks to be priced as they are. This goes double for e-book versions, that are typically crippled DRM rentware wrapped in an interface that makes you want to tear your eyes out. I used to be frustrated that professors hadn't banded together and developed a creative commons style curricula online, or at least not required the latest versions of texts (older versions are typically far more readily available at an appropriate price). What on earth is stopping a motivated group of academics from putting together textbooks for all of the basic courses one encounters at a university? Hell, such projects already exist: Paul's Online Notes did more for me regarding Calculus than any textbook. But then I realized that the professors don't get to make those calls. They're made by people above them, which is ridiculous.