<p>One of the biggest issues with e-books is DRM and format change. That e-book doesn’t really belong to you at all. If the publisher or the e-reader manager says that you’ve got an illegal copy, or that they didn’t have the right to sell you the book, they can yank back your purchase. Or, if the e-reader manufacturer decides that they’re going out of production, you could be left with a e-reader with no files. Or the format simply ages. What if your textbooks were distributed as 3.5" floppies last decade? Expect the same deal with any content currently distributed on CDs or DVDs. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, my college calculus textbook, purchased used 3 decades back, got passed on to D1 this year. She told me it was really useful for the examples, which sometimes were clearer than those in her current calculus text.</p>