02 March 2010

I'm a Student Again

Yesterday the missing mail pouches arrived with my textbooks, just a few hours after the syllabi were made available for the two courses I’m starting this week. I’m starting a master’s program in political science. Like, right now this minute. I have a lot of reading to do. And it’s been a long time since I’ve had to write papers.

One other thing that was in that missing mail delivery was a little birthday present I’d purchased for myself – a Kindle. Unfortunately most of my textbooks are not available on Kindle, but many of the additional class materials are in PDF format, which can be read on the Kindle. I don’t have to print out dozens of environmentally unfriendly pages or sit with a hot laptop on my lap while attaining maximum reading comfort. (These days I’m not too comfortable sitting behind a desk or at a table for long periods of time. Couch reading is ideal.) The battery also lasts much longer than a laptop battery – up to two weeks since I don’t have the wireless function turned on. I can download books and PDFs to my laptop and USB them to the Kindle.

Despite my attempt at doing this program paperless, I still printed out a few items. I feel like I need a Trapper Keeper.

3 comments:

Shannon said...

I am looking forward to seeing how well you can download books to the kindle. We are heading to Malawi and I am thinking of getting one since waiting for the mail fairy to get my new book fix seems a bit like torture.

Shannon said...

Oh and congratulations on starting your masters.

Anonymous said...

Way to go, you!! My BS is (I should say was... it was a thousand years ago!) in poly sci. LOVE that stuff. Jealous of you! That's so great!

Interesting about the Kindle - didn't know it did more than just books from Amazon and stuff. Sounds like a nifty little device. I second Shannon in being interested to know more about how it ends up working for you there and what you can do with it.

Left you a comment on your food blog, too - sorry about your lack of food choices there!