I was listening to NPR  the other day and heard this story  about students downloading their textbooks from the Internet. It's not legal — similar to downloading music from unauthorized places — you can't just take copyrighted material without paying for it.

Downloading books is something that never occurred to my 37-year-old self, but I can understand the temptation. I've written before about the expense of college textbooks. And again this semester, my stepdaughter spent about $540 on her books.

Making textbooks available electronically makes sense to me. It would save trips to the bookstore, reduce paper waste, and relieve students of having to lug around (and store) heavy books.

Based on the article, it sounds like some publishers are beginning to offer digital versions of their textbooks at discounted prices.

Is this something you would consider instead of purchasing books the traditional way?