Academic e-books: will they ever take off? I wouldn't consider buying those books, unless I enjoyed them, and would certainly not be prepared to wait weeks, whilst the deadline clock is ticking, so the library can order them in. For most arts students at Sussex, whether you have a Kindle or not, you still have to make the same dash to the library after the lecture that everyone else does. Although people do utilise our university's access to electronic books, it is mainly to find the core reading, and not necessarily a preference for the digital format. Most people I know a) still print off the reading b) skim read the PDF, to see if it's worth getting the physical book, c) use the PDF when late to a seminar without having done the reading. Students still come to seminars with printouts, not Kindles, despite the wealth of PDFs online. Essentially, people like to print things off to make reading easier on the eyes. The question was also raised of whether students would purchase e-textbooks that featured interactive content. Personally, I can't ever imagine buying a textbook digitally for the benefit of a few extra quizzes or a video or two. Primarily, I use textbooks as revision guides during exam period, and I would prefer to be able to hold them physically whilst in stress mode - and also because a technical error deleting my textbook would send me into super panic mode! However, a Biomedical science student on the panel, who has to take a lot more tests than I do, said she found them really useful but not interactive enough, so it depends on the discipline. One bookseller suggested renting textbooks which I think is a good idea, or a Spotify style system allowing you to use textbooks digitally for a small monthly fee. Overall, I don't really believe that books are going anywhere quickly. The invention of this technology doesn't mean that people don't want physical books. They just want digital copies as well. Roberta Wiafe is a History and Politics student at Sussex University. She was participating in the Booksellers Association's Academic, Professional and Specialist Bookselling Group conference.