

Peter Atkins on writing textbooks - rflrob
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v463/n7281/full/463612a.html

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xel02
_Does the second-hand market reduce sales?

Yes: it undermines income streams. In the second year, purchases fall, and in
the third year there are none at all. If the second-hand market could be
eliminated, books would last longer than 3 years and could be cheaper. There
is a way: to produce electronic books [e-books] and kill them after a year._

That answer bothers me, a lot. Especially when in the beginning he says a
textbook should be a lifelong companion.

Frankly a good textbook shouldn't HAVE a substantial secondhand market. As a
student I do a lot of research into which textbooks to buy, occasionally I
forego the 'required' textbook and get something that is more recognized by
the industry or other academics.

I've found that if I ever buy a textbook I intend to keep it.

~~~
ghshephard
Throughout four years of university, I made it a habit to always visit the
first class of any course I had taken the previous semester (even to the
detriment of missing one of my courses) and pawning off my textbook at around
80% of List (Commons book store was around 65-70%). about 10-15% of the time I
would get stuck with a book when the course required a new revision. I'd say
about 30% of the time the new revision was just a scam to drive new revenue,
50% of the time it was minor touchups of some substance, and maybe 20% (at
most) it was significant new material.

The reality, is that with very, very few exceptions, the textbooks that were
recommended weren't that books that I wanted to hold onto for life.

(Exception like Radia Perlman's Interconnections, Stewart's Calculus Series,
did find a permanent home with me - maybe a dozen books- but they were
exceptions. Most of the great books for life I purchased as a result of my own
searches.)

What I would love to do, in hindsight, is go back and talk to my professors
and ask, _why_ on earth had they recommended books that were basically begging
to be sold off to the next party as quickly as possible?

In a few cases the answer was obvious (textbook written by the professor. :-)
- but in most cases it was like they chose the book at random because it was
basically, acceptable, if not excellent.

Of course, with things like khanacademy, wikipedia, and other reference
materials, Textbooks are slowly starting to lose their premiere place in the
world. It will be interesting to see if that is another market place that will
eventually yield to an "information wants to be free" meme.

------
jdale27
_What is the purpose of a textbook?_

 _To inspire a mode of thought. Ideally, a book then becomes a companion for
life._

Wow. What a brilliant distillation. Also a perfect description of my
experience with the first computer science book I ever read, SICP
(<http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book.html>).

