<p>For a history class I’m taking some of the books we will read can be downloaded online (Communist Manifesto, Frankenstein among others). Does anyone have any experience if you should buy small books like that or if it’s fine to download them?</p>
<p>if there’s a good chance you’ll need them for class, just buy them since they’re probably cheap. If not, those should be fairly easy books to read on a computer.</p>
<p>Get a kindle for small books, if you’re getting textbooks get a tablet. It saves a lot lot lot of money in the long run</p>
<p>If you won’t need specific page numbers for anything, just download them off of Project Gutenberg. If you do, then just buy them as cheaply as you can. </p>
<p>And no, ebook editions aren’t necessarily cheaper than the real thing but in cases like Communist Manifesto and Frankenstein when the books are out of copyright, print editions are paying for mostly the costs associated with maintaining the material (translations, forwards, notations, research, etc.) and the actual costs of the book so they are very cheap compared to more modern books (regardless of format).</p>
<p>Just get them at the library. That’s what I do for all of the ancillary books I am assigned.</p>