Free Downloadable Textbooks for College Students

Tired of spending hundreds on textbooks for your online classes? Commercial ebook publishing may offer a solution. Freeload Press (off-site link) is now offering no-cost textbook downloads for dozens of college texts for students who register and fill out a survey. Their new campaign, “Download a Dozen,” will offer twelve downloadable textbooks usable in English composition courses. A press release (off-site link) explains:

The first publications in the campaign, which are available now, include a handbook on grammar, a guide to writing exploratory essays and a multimedia flash-card program that helps students remember rules of grammar. Additional titles will be published over the balance of the year, and include Introductory Composition; Analysis and Critical Thinking; Composition for Non-native Speakers of English; Argument and Critical Thinking; Professional and Technical Writing; Writing Research Papers that Matter; Making Oral Presentations; and Writing about Literature.

The good news: Downloadable textbooks can save students thousands over the course of their education. As more professors decide to publish their textbooks for free, students will get to choose between the electronic and the paper version of the required texts. Hopefully, traditional publishers will see the increased interest in free books and will lower their prices to be competitive.

The bad news: Online students are already bombarded with advertisements flashing from their computer screens – now their studies will be interrupted by advertisements inside of their textbooks. Few things are more annoying than trying to memorize a list of logical fallacies, and having your thoughts interrupted by a Gap ad. It’s the ultimate distraction for procrastinators.

See also: How to Get Your Textbooks for Cheap or Free