Amazon announced today that students are now able to rent Kindle textbooks. These e-textbooks can be rented for from 90 days to a full year at a cost scaled to the chosen duration, with the 90-day rate saving you as much as 80% off the retail price. You also have an option to extend the rental or even purchase the e-book should you desire.

By renting (or buying) any e-textbook, you gain the “read anywhere” capability as with any other Kindle book, having access to it on your Kindle e-reader, Kindle for PC, and any other device running the Kindle app. Additionally, Amazon has stated that your notes and highlights will be retained on Amazon’s “cloud” after the rental period is over, so even if you no longer have the e-textbook, you’ll still have your “e-notes”. (You also can use my little clippings-to-CSV converter to save them in a spreadsheet.) Look for the “Rent this book” widget on Amazon textbook product pages:

Sounds like an idea worth considering, both for the potential savings and the convenience of the ability to save notes and highlights.